Functional foods are used to support the human body's functions, create a state of comfort, increase resistance, and scale back the risk of disease, including supplement food supervision, health supplements, medical nutrition foods, and foods for special dietary uses. In terms of advertising functional foods, individuals and organizations shall have licenses for functional foods advertising.

1. Conditions

Concerning functional foods, apart from the general conditions specified in Article 20 and not in the hands of  prohibited acts in Article 8 of the Law on Advertising 2012, it is necessary for the subject who wants to advertise to satisfy the following particular requirements:

• Health supplements are obliged to register content before advertising
• Products registered for advertising content must have a receipt for product announcement registration according to current stipulations.
• Advertising content must be appropriate to the uses and effects of the product announced in the product announcement or the Receipt of the announcement of regulation conformity/Certificate of publication of conformity with food safety regulations still validated. Do not use images, equipment, costumes, names, letters from medical units, facilities, doctors, pharmacists, medical staff, thank-you letters from patients, doctor's articles, pharmacists, or medical staff with the purpose of advertising these supplements.
• The caution "This product is not a drug and it is not an effective substitute for drug treatment" is mandatory; the script must be clear along with a color that contrasts the background.
• Advertisements in audio and video must transparently read the caution "This product is not a drug and it is not an effective substitute for drug treatment ";
• Advertising in audio and video with a modest duration of fewer than 15 seconds is not required to read "This product is not a drug and it is not an effective substitute for drug treatment", but has to show a warning in the advertisement.

2. Records, documents

To register for a license with the aim of advertising functional foods, manufacturing facilities, and business establishments, it is required to put in readiness all the documents in Article 13 of Circular 09/2015/TT-BYT, specifically:

• A written request for certification of advertising content (a form in Appendix 01 of Circular 09/2015/TT-BYT is available);
• The certificate of Business Registration of the enterprise or the establishment license of representative of the foreign trader;
• A copy of the registration receipt of the Product Disclosure and the Product Self-declaration verified by the Competent Authority;

• Sample labels of these products or those approved by competent healthcare authorities, applicable to the case in which the law stipulates that product labels must be approved by competent healthcare authorities.;
• A copy of the advertisement script;
• For advertisements in audio and video, it must have a scheduled script and content that need to be advertised in a video or audio disc; for advertising on other means, the maquette (content sample) to be advertised (certified by the organization or individual, enclose with the name and address of the establishment, 2 copies) is much-needed.
• The Product quality standard Declaration;
• Materials used for reference, demonstration and verification of information provided in the advertisement content.
• Documents in the application for certification of advertising content must be reworded into Vietnamese; in case there is any foreign document, it is obliged to be translated into Vietnamese and notarized.

3. Procedures

Pursuant to Article 20 of Circular 09/2015/TT-BYT, the order to be granted a Certificate of advertising for functional foods includes the following steps:

Step 1: Submit your application

• After completing all required documents and dossiers, the application for a functional food advertising license can be submitted directly to the Food Safety Department of the Ministry of Public Health or submitted online through the information portal via the following link: http://xacnhanquangcao.vfa.gov.vn/web/guest/

Step 2: Receive and process documents

• In case the application is invalid, within 05 working days from the date of receipt of the application, according to the receipt stamp of the incoming official correspondence to the receiving agency, the receiving agency has a missive request for amendments and supplements.

• The maximum time limit for amendments and supplements is 90 days.
• Within 10 working days from receipt of all necessary documents based on the date stamp affixed to incoming documents, the competent authority shall issue the Certificate of approval for advertisement content by completing the form recommended in the Appendix 03 enclosed herewith. In case of refusing to issue the Certificate of approval for advertisement contents, the competent authority shall respond to the applicant to clearly state the reasons for such refusal.

Step 3: Get results

• Individuals and organizations receive the Certificate of advertising for functional foods at the headquarters of the Food Safety Authority.

• The Food Safety Authority is undertaking publishing on its online portal the product category, goods, and services in the ownership of its jurisdiction that has been granted a certificate of advertisement content.