Regulations on date of manufacture, expiry date of goods in Vietnam

Regulations on date of manufacture, expiry date of goods in Vietnam (Internet image)

Regarding this issue, LawNet would like to answer as follows:

1. What is date of manufacture and expiry date of the goods?

- Date of manufacture means the point of time by which the final phase of goods or batch is completed;

- “Expiry date” means the date which signifies the end of the estimated period, after which the goods or the batch of goods probably will not have the quality attributes normally expected.

The expiry date shall be expressed by a period beginning from the date of manufacture to the expiry date or expressed by day, month, and year of expiry. If the expiry date is expressed by month and year, the expiry date shall end at the last date of the expiry month;

(Clauses 10, 11 of Article 3 of Decree 43/2017/ND-CP)

2. Regulations on date of manufacture, expiry date of goods in Vietnam

Specifically, Article 14 of Decree 43/2017/ND-CP stipulates the date of manufacture, expiry date of goods as follows:

(1) Date of manufacture, expiry date shall be written in the "dd-mm-yy(yy)" format (according to solar calendar). If it is presented in another order, such date must be noted in Vietnamese.

Each number indicating the date, month, and year shall be written in two digits, the number indicating the year may particularly be written in four digits. The number indicating date, month, and year of a point of time shall be presented in the same line.

Month of manufacture, if required, shall be written in the “mm-yy(yy)” format (according to solar calendar).

Year of manufacture, if required, shall be written in the “yyyy” format (according to solar calendar).

“date of manufacture", “expiry date” shall be fully presented or abbreviated in capital letters as follows: ”NSX", “HSD” or “HD" (“MFG” or “EXP”).

(2)  If the date of manufacture and expiry date must be presented as prescribed in Appendix I of this Decree while the date of manufacture has been printed on the label as prescribed in Clause 1 of Article 14 of Decree 43/2017/ND-CP, the permitted expiry date is the period of time beginning from the date of manufacture and otherwise the expiry date has been printed on the label, the permitted date of manufacture is the period of time before the expiry date.

(3)  If the goods has been portioned, extracted, refilled, or repacked, the respective date must be presented and the expiry date shall begin from the date of manufacture and be shown on the original label.

(4) The presentation of date of manufacture and expiry date shall be specified in Section 1 Appendix III of Decree 43/2017/ND-CP.

The goods that are presented in the manners other than those prescribed in Clause 1 of this Article shall be consistent with Section 2 Appendix III of Decree 43/2017/ND-CP.

3. Principles for product and goods quality control in Vietnam

Principles for product and goods quality control specified in Article 5 of the Law on Product and Goods Quality 2007 are as follows:

- Product and goods quality shall be controlled on the basis of announced applicable standards and relevant technical regulations. Depending on their capability of causing unsafe, products and goods are controlled as follows:

+ The quality of group-1 products and goods shall be controlled on the basis of applicable standards announced by producers;

+ The quality of group-2 products and goods shall be controlled on the basis of relevant technical regulations promulgated by competent state management agencies and applicable standards announced by producers.

The Government shall specify the promulgation of a list of group-2 products and goods.

- Product and goods quality control is the responsibility of producers and traders, aimed to ensure safety for humans, animals, plants, assets and the environment and raise the productivity, quality and competitiveness of Vietnams products and goods.

- State control of product and goods quality is the responsibility of competent state management agency, aimed to enforce legal provisions on product and goods quality.

Activities of state control of product and goods quality must ensure transparency, objectivity, no discrimination based on goods origin and organizations and individuals involved in product and goods quality-related activities, conformity with international practice, and protection of lawful rights and interests of production and business organizations and individuals as well as consumers.

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