Amending the Food Safety Law: Shifting towards Chain-based Management and Digital Data Transformation

At the press briefing conference held on July 7, 2026, Deputy Minister of Health Do Xuan Tuyen presented a report on the draft Law on Food Safety (amended). After over 15 years of implementation, the 2010 Food Safety Law has established an essential legal foundation; however, given the rapid expansion of e-commerce and global supply chains, many existing regulations have revealed inadequacies that must be addressed to match contemporary realities.

The Ministry of Health emphasizes that food safety is a strategic issue for national sustainable development. This perspective was echoed by General Secretary To Lam at the meeting on November 25, 2025, who affirmed: 'Without proper food safety, building more hospitals or training more doctors cannot fully resolve the burden of disease.' Ensuring food safety contributes to disease prevention, physical health improvement, and strengthening consumer confidence.

The review process identified significant legal loopholes, such as the mandatory requirement for all pre-packaged processed foods to register for declaration of conformity, which no longer aligns with international standards like Codex. Additionally, the lack of mandatory requirements for applying international quality systems—such as GMP, HACCP, ISO 22000, IFS, BRC, or FSSC 22000—for high-risk food groups remains a major challenge for quality management.

To address these issues, the Ministry of Health has proposed four major policy groups: First, managing food safety based on risk control throughout the entire supply chain. Second, reforming inspection methods for food circulating in the market. Third, building a centralized national food safety database to facilitate traceability through barcode and QR code technologies. Fourth, enhancing management of street food and collective catering services to minimize the risk of food poisoning.