Food Safety & Hygiene
What is the certificate of “qualified facility for food safety”?
Once the company is established, the company will need to obtain the certificate of “qualified facility for food safety” before starting its operations.
The certificate is required for all food and beverage related activities such as food production facilities, restaurants or bars.
The Department of Food Hygiene and Safety defines the requirements and its inspectors ensure their respect by controlling on site. The first inspection occurs at the time of applying for the certificate. Then, subsequent controls will happen throughout the operations of the company to ensure that the hygiene and safety are maintained.
When a facility does not meet the standards, all operations must be suspended until the obtention of the certification. Therefore, it is critical to prepare the certificate application carefully and keep the facility compliant at all time.
Legal services:
- Applying for the certificate of eligibility for food hygiene and safety;
- Adjusting or renewing the certificate of satisfaction of food hygiene and safety conditions.
How to proceed?
- Contact us via phone, email or create a CRM account to define your investment requirements and objectives with our lawyers.
- Whenever possible we will meet in person to define your legal strategy in depth.
- Our legal services will notably include our advisory on the conditions to obtain the certificate of food safety, our assistance to prepare the facility to meet the requirements and join the meeting on site with the inspector.
- We will provide you with the list of required information and documents, as well as the application dossier drafted and translated by us into Vietnamese and English languages.
- At any time, you can access the CRM system to manage and keep a track of your legal services.
Opening a branch is allowed by law for both domestic and foreign companies.
Although domestic companies (even foreign invested) can open a branch without issue, foreign companies usually face obstacles when trying to open their branch in Vietnam.
The products shall be registered or at least the standards that apply to them shall be announced (depending on the type of the product). That step is mandatory before importing and distributing the products into the Vietnamese market. Some products require the company to obtain an additional license for import, the “import license”.
Yes, there are import duties which are applied to goods exported and imported through Vietnam’s borders and border checkpoints; goods exported from the domestic market to free trade zones; goods imported from free trade zones into the domestic market; or goods indirectly exported/imported.
