Vietnam: Measures for disposing of recalled products

One of the notable contents of Circular No. 23/2018/TT-BYT of the Ministry of Health of Vietnam is the regulation on measures for disposing of recalled products, specifically as follows:

- Products recalled shall be disposed of as follows:

+ Correction of label error: the product label is yet to be compliant with regulations on labeling or is unconformable with the label description included in the self-declaration documents or the application for registration of the declaration of product;

+ Repurposing: the disqualified product may threaten consumer health, is not conformable with foods purposes but may be used to serve other purposes;

+ Re-exporting: the imported products have quality or safety indicators unconformable with the self-declaration documents of the application for registration of the declaration of products or threaten the consumer health;

+ Destruction: the products have quality or safety indicators unconformable with the self-declaration documents of the application for registration of the declaration of products, threaten the consumer health, and cannot be repurposed or re-exported as regulated in Point b or Point c Clause 1 Article 7 of this Circular and in other necessary cases as prescribed in Article 6 of this Circular.

- If products are recalled in accordance with provisions in Article 4 hereof, the product owner shall himself/herself select an appropriate measure for disposing of recalled products in accordance with regulations in Clause 1 hereof.

- If products are recalled in accordance with provisions in Article 5 hereof, within 03 working days from the receipt of the report on the recall of disqualified products, the competent authority issuing the recall decision must give a written approval for the measure for disposing of recalled products proposed by the product owner. If the competent authority disagrees with the measures for disposing of recalled products proposed by the product owner, it must give a written response indicating reasons thereof and an appropriate measure for disposing of recalled products to the product owner.

View details at Circular No. 23/2018/TT-BYT of the Ministry of Health of Vietnam, effective from November 01, 2018.

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