Guidelines on processing appraisal results, issuance of food safety certificates in Vietnam from January 15, 2025

Guidelines on processing appraisal results, issuance of food safety certificates in Vietnam from January 15, 2025

Circular 48/2013/TT-BNNPTNT regulating the handling of appraisal results and issuing food safety certificates is amended as follows:

Upon receiving the Appraisal Report, the competent authority reviews the appraisal report (requesting the appraisal team to explain the evaluation contents if necessary) and proceeds as follows:

- Appraisal results meeting requirements:

+ Notify the appraisal results, issue a code (in case the facility has not been assigned a code) as stipulated in Appendix VII issued with Circular 48/2013/TT-BNNPTNT to the facility; issue a Food Safety Certificate valid for 03 (three) years according to the form in Appendix VI issued with Circular 48/2013/TT-BNNPTNT;

+ In cases where samples are taken for analysis to assess the effectiveness of hygiene condition control during appraisal, the issuance of the Food Safety Certificate for the facility is carried out when the test results meet the requirements.

For test samples with results not meeting the standards, the issuance of the Food Safety Certificate is only carried out after the facility submits a report on the investigation of the causes, implements appropriate corrective measures, and is verified to meet the requirements by the competent authority.

- Appraisal results not meeting requirements:

+ In case the facility cannot correct within the required timeframe: The competent authority sends a notification of the results, detailing the reasons for non-compliance, and revokes any valid Food Safety Certificate (if available) according to Article 18 of Circular 48/2013/TT-BNNPTNT, and also sends it to the local food safety management agency for supervision of the facility's ban on food production and business activities.

+ In case the facility submits a corrective report and is verified by the appraisal team and confirmed to meet the requirements within the period required for certification issuance according to point b, clause 2, Article 36 of the Food Safety Law, the competent authority will issue a Food Safety Certificate according to the above regulation.

Refer to the detailed contents in Circular 17/2024/TT-BNNPTNT effective from January 15, 2025.

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