HÀ NỘI — The Ministry of Health has called upon scientists and enterprises to announce scientific research on health supplements sold on the market.

Based on that, authorised agencies would be able to better manage the advertisement of such products. This would help avoid situations in which advertising misleads the public on the actual use of the products, posing dangers to peoples’ health and wasting customers’ money.

Dr Trương Quốc Cường, vice minister of health, spoke at a conference on supplements yesterday. The conference was jointly organised by the Food Safety Department and Việt Nam Supplemental Food Association.

Cường said the ministry had issued legal documents on management and inspection of the production and trading of supplements. This had demonstrated the ministry’s commitment to ensure a stable market for supplements.

The ministry has created favourable conditions for supplement enterprises to develop their products via simplified procedures and a legal framework.

Recently, supplements have become more popular in Việt Nam. However, many violations, mostly in advertising activities, have occurred.

According to PhD Nguyễn Thanh Phong, head of the ministry’s Department of Food Safety, supplements began to be researched and developed in Japan in the 1980s.

In Việt Nam, a lot of businesses, in co-operation with research institutes and scientists, have invested in producing a number of high-quality supplements.

Currently, there are nearly 2,000 kinds of supplements on sale in the country. Of that, more than 70 per cent have been produced domestically.

He said the department would enhance inspections on advertising activities of these products. Violations would be announced on mass media. — VNS