Deputy Director of the Ministry of Health’s Food Safety Department Trần Việt Nga. — Photo daidoanket.vn

Fraudulent online advertising of dietary supplements and health products is rampant with increasingly sophisticated tricks, adversely affecting consumers’ health. Deputy Director of the Ministry of Health’s Food Safety Department Trần Việt Nga spoke with Quân đội nhân dân (People’s Army) online newspaper about measures to handle violations in advertising products and to inform consumers on the benefits and risks of the supplements they chose to take.

Việt Nam is still seeing a surge in the volume of dietary supplements and health products being advertised online, in which their quality and safety cannot be guaranteed. What is your opinion about this issue?

The Ministry of Health and other relevant ministries have strengthened the management of dietary supplement advertising and sale on social networks and e-commerce platforms to protect the health and interest of consumers. However, violations of food safety and false advertising are still common, causing frustration in public opinion.

Common violations include false advertising, uncertified advertising products, and advertising health products as medicine or high-quality drugs with the endorsement of celebrities or medical specialists to increase the credibility of their ads.

The Vietnam Food Safety Authority continuously publishes notices about food products with false advertising on its website.

What measures have the Food Safety Department taken to deter and detect false advertising violations?

Many businesses fraudulently advertise their dietary supplements on social networks such as Zalo, Facebook and YouTube. Some even take advantage of the image of medical professionals to build trust and sell sub-standard products to the market. The quality and effects of such products have remained doubtful.

Facing the increasing trend of violations, the Food Safety Department has worked with relevant agencies of the Ministry of Information and Communications, such as the inspection team, press office, Department of Radio, Television and Electronic Information, Facebook's representative in the Asia-Pacific region to find out the best-coordinated measures to prevent these behaviours.

The Ministry of Health has also established a quick response team with members who are representatives of the Inspectorate of the Ministry of Information and Communications, the Department of Radio, Television and Electronic Information, and related agencies to assign responsibility for handling violations. The Ministry of Health handles violations of establishments that have falsely advertised their food products, the Ministry of Information and Communications handles violating advertising media, and the Ministry of Industry and Trade handles violating e-commerce websites.

A dietary supplement that violates advertising regulations. Photo courtesy of the Food Safety Department

In 2020 and 2021, the Food Safety Department imposed an administrative fine of about VNĐ4 billion and false food advertisements were forced to remove advertising.

In 2022, the department sent 17 documents to the Department of Radio, Television and Electronic Information and 13 documents to the Department of E-commerce and Digital Economy to handle violations.

Could you tell us about the difficulties in handling these violations?

Fighting against violations of false food advertising on the internet faces many challenges because the wide spectrum of the internet and advertising means are diversified. The use of smartphones, social networks, and websites for consultation has no limitation in space and time, and registration to open a website is straightforward.

In addition, the crackdown on cross-border advertising of dietary supplements still faces difficulties because foreign companies are headquartered in foreign countries and operate under the host country's laws.

Some advertising agencies have not strictly followed the regulations on advertising food supplements. Some e-commerce trading floors have not yet had technical measures to manage advertising content and selling food products.

The Food Safety Department has issued many warnings about food safety violations on https://vfa.gov.vn, including cases of re-violations and fines applying additional sanctions.

However, it should also be stated that not all cases are handled because in many cases sellers are trying to hide their personal information or register incomplete information to avoid being fined. While websites with overseas servers are difficult to control, it is very difficult to manage advertising content on some websites with foreign domains, thus, violating advertisers cannot be identified, and there is no basis for handling violations.

Currently, the dietary supplement market is confusing due to increased demand for dietary supplements, so consumers should not use items of unknown origin and must consult a doctor before using any dietary supplements for a long time. — VNS