17 Jul 2023

The establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) in 2015, with the vision of achieving regional economic integration, set out objectives including harmonization of standards, technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures, as well as ensuring the successful implementation of such harmonization.

AOAC fits in the picture with its internationally recognized AOAC Official Methods^SM for the ASEAN community to align to and harmonize with. The Southeast Asia Section of AOAC International (AOAC SEA), through its annual conferences and the 5 Working Groups on capacity building, training of young scientists, microbiology, emerging issues and harmonization of methods, create a great platform for the public and private sectors to come together and realize the integration vision pertaining to analytical methods.

In this 2023 AOAC SEA 2nd Annual Conference, the Institute of Drug Quality Control in Ho Chi Minh City (IDQC-HCM) is honored to partner up with AOAC SEA to co-organize the 2023 AOAC SEA conference. Individuals and organizations will have the chance to learn and find collaborations to enhance competency in laboratory testing and support regional and international trade. Being in this environment, they will be exposed to the ins and outs of the analytical testing system, including testing, calibration, inspection, certification, accreditation, and market surveillance. The process and progress of harmonization of standards and technical regulations in Vietnam will also be revealed.

Not only the mainstream food community will benefit from this conference, stakeholders in medicines and dietary supplements will enjoy as well! We look forward to seeing you at the conference!

Functional foods (dietary / health supplements), food for special medical purposes, and food for special dietary uses are defined in the decree guiding Vietnam's Law on Food Safety and under the jurisdiction of the Vietnam Food Administration (VFA) of the Ministry of Health (MoH).

Vietnam's health supplement market, according to a report of BritCham Vietnam in 2021, has a total market value of ~US$562.9 billion and a growth rate of 13%. Herbal / traditional health supplements account for more than 70% of the market and are anticipated to have the highest growth. The health supplement market is dominated by local manufacturers, supplying nearly 80% of the demand. Among 4,000 local factories, only 300 meet GMP requirements. One of the major safety concerns is the adulteration of herbal/traditional health supplements with synthetic medicines or banned substances that lead to unwanted effects and even death.

The Institute of Drug Quality Control in Ho Chi Minh City (IDQC-HCMC) is one of the two national-level leading units of MoH performing pre/post market surveillance of drugs, cosmetics, foods, and therapeutic goods, covering from Da Nang to Ca Mau. IDQC-HCMC, together with the National Institute of Drug Quality Control (NIDQC), the National Institute for Food Control (NIFC), and the Institute of Public Health in Ho Chi Minh City (IPH), are tasked by MoH to sample and test goods in the group of pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, functional foods, herbal and traditional medicine in the fight against smuggling, commercial fraud, counterfeit goods.

In the talk titled 'Rapid Detection, Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of Banned Substances in Dietary Supplements,' Mr. Phan Nguyen Truong Thang, Head of the R&D Department of IDQC-HCMC, will reveal to the audience shocking cases where innocent people were hospitalized and even lost their lives due to fraud and counterfeited dietary supplements, using analytical techniques such as TLC, HPLC-PDA, LC-MS/MS, or NMR to find out the reasons. Developing analytical procedures to quickly and accurately detect and/or quantify illegal mixing of banned substances in health foods and traditional medicines will help food safety management control and protect consumers and people's health.

The Institute of Public Health in Ho Chi Minh City (IPH) is assigned to carry out activities including state inspection of imported food quality and safety, testing food samples in poisoning cases, and general food safety and quality testing. The Institute also contributes to the drafted National Technical Regulation (QCVN) for maximum level of contaminants in health supplements that include regulations on heavy metals and microbial contamination.

In the talk titled 'Heavy Metal Testing and Regulation in Vietnam,' Ms. Phan Bich Ha, Vice Director of the Southern Regional Testing Center for Food Safety, IPH, will share with the audience the full landscape of heavy metal testing regulation in Vietnam, including the Food Safety Law, National Technical Regulations (QCVNs), and National Standards (TCVNs) for foods, food contact materials and packaging, and potable/bottled water. She will also talk about accreditation certifications, governmental approvals, experienced technician teams, and analytical technique choices for different test purposes including ICP-OES, ICP-MS, LC-ICP-MS, GF-AAS, F-AAS, CV-AAS, or HG-AS.

Benefited the most from the talk would be businesses that want to set up laboratories for heavy metal testing or to obtain better quality data with minimal trials and errors by learning best practices from the experienced.

Mr. Toru Miura is a Principle Scientist of Functional Materials Research Laboratories within FUJIFILM Wako Pure Chemical Corporation. For many decades, the company has been contributing to the development of documentary standards in the environmental, food and pharmaceutical fields.

Mr. Toru Miura is a Working Group member of the Japanese Pharmacopeia herbal medicine and chemical pharmaceutical related to qNMR methodology, a Japanese expert of ISO/TC34 (Food products) and ISO/TC334 (Reference Materials). Since 2020, he serves as a member of the United States Pharmacopeia Expert Panel for qNMR to develop revisions of USP NMR General Chapters <761> and <1761>. Prior to joining FUJIFILM Wako, he worked as a researcher of the National Metrology Institute of Japan (NMIJ), mainly focusing on development of Certified Reference Materials using mass balance, freezing point depression method and quantitative NMR (qNMR).

At the 2023 AOAC SEA 2nd Annual Conference, the audience will learn about standard setting activities for food safety and quality from the rich experience of Mr. Miura.

To accommodate stakeholders in medicines and dietary supplements, as well as more of the mainstream food community, we have opened up 100 tickets more for registration. The extended deadline is 23 Jul 2023.

Please scan the QR code or click the button below to register for the conference.

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