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.
Certificate of Food Hygiene and Safety is a compulsory certificate for enterprises when doing business in relates to food, including: Restaurant; business, food services; food preparing facility; cratering services; supermarket….
Enterprise must meet these following requirements : Industrial activity, facility area, location, region, equipment, waste treatment system, materials for food processing aid, materials for wrapping and packaging food, and other specific conditions which apply for each enterprise industry.
An enterprise working in the food sector without a Certificate of Food Hygiene and Safety shall be fined under regulations depending on their violations, even revoke all related Certificates, request to close a business or take a criminal prosecution. In case of causing any damage, an enterprise have to pay compensation and remedy consequences under the laws
A validity of a Certificate of Food Hygiene and Safety is within 03 years. Prior 06 months of expiration date of the Certificate, an enterprise should submit a dossier of application for re-grant of the Certificate of Food Hygiene and Safety.
8. In which circumstance that an enterprise does not need a Certificate of Food Hygiene and Safety ?
These following enterprises are not required to obtain the Certificate of Food Hygiene and Safety:
- Small scale primary producers;
- Production and trading of food without a fixed address;
- Small scale primary processors;
- Small scale food traders;
- Traders of pre-packaged food;
- Production and trading of food utensils, food packaging materials and food containers;
- Restaurant in a hotel;
- Communal kitchens without registration for the business line being food;
- Street food vendors;
- Any food business that has one of these following certificates, such as: Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP), Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points ISO 22000, International Food Standard Certificate (IFS) and etc.
