If according to the regulations of the Ministry of Health, the seller of the onion, garlic, some dry food will have to have a nurse qualification? – Photo: QUANG DINH
Over the past month, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Minh, director of an import-export and logistics company in District 7 (Ho Chi Minh City), has to run back and forth to contact many places to find ways to get food orders that have arrived at the port but new regulations of the Ministry of Health.
The Ministry of Health makes it difficult for food businesses
Products such as walnuts, ginkgo biloba, black beans, nutmeg, soybeans, green beans; nutritious food: jujube, goji berries, cat apple, willow, lotus seeds, longan, lingzhi, cardamom … were detained at the port from late October 2020.
Recently, the customs has flexibly resolved for some items, others are still on the waiting list or wait until the Ministry of Health revises the new regulation to clear customs clearance.
Mr. Minh said that in the past, the company still imported these foods normally and the goods to the ports were checked by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and then brought to the warehouse. But recently the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development did not inspect any more because according to the new regulations, the above items are under the inspection of the Ministry of Health.
“I really don’t understand why the above conventional food products, which have been imported for many years, are put under management like medicine. If the management is like medicine, the companies importing and exporting food products will take a break due to ineligibility.
If we make food, we build factories and warehouses according to the food safety standards of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, now the products are transferred to the Ministry of Health for management, everything must change with the conditions of the factory and warehouse. pharmacy. That is too wasteful, ”Mr. Minh said.
The representative of a business (DN) in Binh Dinh was also frustrated because the import of some raw materials for processing detergent and making export incense was also classified into the group of medicinal herbs, so the work was delayed.
In the past, this company often imported dried bodhi fruit, dried cinnamon bark, dried basil root, purple basil flavor … from India, Nepal in aviation production related to food or medicine. In which, the linden fruit, purplish flavor used to make natural non-chemical detergent are favored by domestic consumers.
“As soon as we received information from the import-export agency about the regulations of the Ministry of Health, we had to switch to buying domestic materials at a much higher price. Some materials in the country are not available or not enough, so we had to cancel some export orders at the end of the year, ”said a representative of this company.
According to research, there are hundreds of enterprises that import food and raw materials are entangled by the provisions of the Health Ministry’s Circular No. 48/2018 dated December 28, 2018. This Circular promulgates the list of medicinal materials, medicinal extracts, and medicinal essential oils; traditional medicines, imported and exported medicinal herbs …
Many items that people still use every day turn into medicine. Meanwhile, according to Circular 03/2016 of the Ministry of Health, an import and export establishment of medicinal herbs must meet the conditions “to have been granted a certificate of eligibility for drug trading with the scope of wholesale pharmaceuticals”. meeting the principles of “good storage practices” for medicinal herbs as prescribed in this Circular, inspected by the Ministry of Health …
General Department of Customs: in need of repair!
In order to avoid the fact that a product with two management policies and avoid the stagnant goods situation at the port for many months, the General Department of Customs has repeatedly sent a letter requesting the Ministry of Health to soon give its answer to solve problems. towels for businesses, to avoid congestion of goods at border gates.
In which, on October 28, 2020, the General Department of Customs sent an official dispatch to the Ministry of Health on problems related to the import policy of plant origin products and suggested early comments. However, the Ministry of Health has not responded.
Pending for unanimous opinion, the General Department of Customs proposed to temporarily handle it flexibly according to the provisions of both the Food Safety Law and the Pharmaceutical Law. Specifically, if the enterprise declares the import of goods used as food, it shall comply with the provisions of the Law on Food Safety and the decree guiding this law.
If the enterprise declares to import goods used as medicinal herbs, they shall comply with the provisions of the Law on Pharmacy and the decree guiding the Law on Pharmacy. In case of declaring the import of other goods (not for use as food, not for use as medicine), the enterprise shall temporarily choose one of the two options above.
The General Department of Customs said that while waiting for comments from ministries, for imported products, enterprises declared mainly for food such as green beans, black beans, soybeans, jujube, cat apples, white beans. fruit, ginger, garlic, lemongrass, the General Department of Customs directs local customs units to settle import procedures for enterprises according to the Government’s Decree 15/2018 detailing a number of articles of the Law on Food Safety .
In the long term, according to the General Department of Customs, it is necessary to urgently review and amend Circular No. 48/2018 in the direction of only including in the list of medicinal herbs products intended for medicinal use …
According to the Plant Protection Department (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), over the past time, this unit has received a lot of complaints about the difficulties of food importers due to problems with Circular No. 48 of the Ministry of Health. The core reason remains that the drafting agency is that the Ministry of Health does not clearly define which products are under the management of the Ministry of Health, and which products are under the management of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Previously, Decree 15/2018 detailed the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Food Safety signed by the Ministry of Health, there were 3 ministries responsible for food safety, namely the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Ministry of Industry. love. But then there was Circular 48 drafted by the Ministry of Health, the goods were gathered for the Ministry of Health to do!
Therefore, if you want to completely resolve the difficulties for businesses, you must wait for the Ministry of Health to amend the circular.
A series of items suddenly turned into pharmaceuticals
What is surprising to businesses is that in the list of the Ministry of Health, there are hundreds of very popular foods used in daily life that are included in the list of medicinal herbs: beans (white beans, nuts pumpkin, walnuts, ginkgo biloba, black beans, cardamom, soybeans, green beans …); herbs (mint, lemon basil, basil, mugwort, marjoram, guise leaves, fish lettuce, lettuce…); spices (galangal, ginger, turmeric, pepper, cinnamon, lemongrass, gac, garlic …); cool drinks (artichoke, dandelion, licorice, cassava, white tea, coriander, cheeks, corn stubble, chamomile …); nutritious foods (jujube, goji berries, cat apple, willow, lotus seeds, longan, Ganoderma lucidum, cardamom …) and ingredients such as grass roots, areca nuts, star fruit, mango leaves, bodhi .
With the new regulations of the Ministry of Health, the above types are medicinal herbs and must be managed according to the regulations on production and trading of medicinal herbs. This will push all the import-export and food businesses related to the above-mentioned products into business.
New instructions will be available next week
Talking with Tuoi Tre about these problems, the representative of the Traditional Medicine and Pharmacy Administration, the Ministry of Health said that the Department has now received documents from the General Department of Customs – Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and is working with 2 ministries. This removes the problem.
“Previously, the import of these products was implemented in accordance with Circular 15 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, no problems arise. Recently, these products are on the list of medicinal herbs according to Circular 48 and Decree 54, from which problems arise ”- confirmed the representative of the department.
According to this taste, among the products that are having trouble, there are “interfering” products, which are both food and medicinal, while the import of medicinal herbs has problems that need to be rectified.
“Like ginger is both food and medicine, a lot of ginger cannot be grown domestically, but the import of ginger is still a lot” – The Traditional Medicine Administration said.
The Traditional Medicine and Pharmacy Administration has planned a meeting with the General Department of Customs and the functional unit of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development next week to separate this list in the direction that more food-oriented products will behave like food. If the product is medicinal, it will be returned to the medicinal plant.
“Right after the meeting of 3 ministries next week, regulations will be issued to resolve current problems” – said the department’s leader.
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Selling garlic onions in the market must have a pharmacist qualification?
If the Ministry of Health put everyday foods on the list of medicinal herbs, the fact that a retailer in the market of all kinds of onions, garlic, ginger, cinnamon, anise, jujube, goji berries, incense … must also meet the requirement. regulations on pharmaceutical business activities.
Meanwhile, Article 7 of Circular 03 / BYT stipulates the conditions for a pharmacy retailer to have a fixed location, an area suitable for the business scale, at least 25m2. individual; located in a dry, cool, safe place, far away from sources of pollution, ensuring fire and explosion prevention and fighting; There must be an area for displaying and storing medicinal herbs.
Personnel must have enough qualified staff suitable for the assigned job, including at least one person with a qualification from a nurse or higher. All employees must be regularly trained, professionally trained, updated with the new regulations of the State on medicinal preservation and management.
According to Tuoitre.vn
