Vietnam is one of the larger destination markets for Korean supplements, and in 2026 it became a considerably harder one. The framework that governed imports for eight years was replaced, suspended, and then reinstated inside four months. Anyone working from guidance written before 2026 is working from the wrong rules.
Two things dominate the schedule: pre-market registration and document authentication. Neither is the manufacturing lead time, which is what first-time importers usually plan around.
This page sets out what the process requires. It is general regulatory information, not legal advice.
The sequence matters, because paperwork issued during the gap may cite superseded rules:
governed food safety implementation since 2018.
border-clearance problems, temporarily reinstating Decree 15 and its guidance.
Further legislative reform is in motion: amendments to the Law on Food Safety itself are expected to be taken up by the National Assembly in late 2026, with new implementing decrees to follow. Treat any timeline here as provisional and re-check before you file.
A Korean 건강기능식품 will normally be handled in Vietnam as thực phẩm bảo vệ sức khỏe (health protection food, TPBVSK). Under Decree 46/2026 this category sits squarely in the registration of product declaration (đăng ký bản công bố sản phẩm) route — full pre-market registration with the Vietnam Food Administration (VFA) under the Ministry of Health. Self-declaration is not available.
The 2026 reform also narrowed the self-declaration perimeter generally: several product groups that previously self-declared, including supplemented foods, were moved into the registration route. If you looked at this market a few years ago and concluded your product could self-declare, check that conclusion again.
Do not assume your product is an ordinary food because it is sold as a food in Korea. The Korean and Vietnamese category boundaries are drawn differently, and misclassifying at the start is the most expensive error to unwind.
Under Decree 46/2026, health supplement production facilities must operate a documented GMP system. This is new as a statutory requirement, and it works in your favour: Korean health functional food is already required by Korean law to be made in a GMP-certified facility, so a compliant Korean manufacturer clears this on day one.
What you need is the GMP certificate naming the actual manufacturing site, not the brand owner. In Korea the brand company and the factory are frequently separate legal entities — normal, and not a warning sign — but the Vietnamese dossier wants the site.
Related expectations: the person responsible for technical matters at the facility should hold a relevant university-level qualification, and production personnel must be trained in GMP and food safety. Your manufacturer should be able to evidence both.
This is the change that caught importers out in early 2026, and the reason Decree 46 was briefly suspended.
Under the old framework, a product holding a valid registration certificate was largely exempt from state food safety inspection at the border. Under Decree 46, health supplements face risk-based inspection at import even with a valid registration. Registration gets you the right to place the product on the market; it no longer gets you a clear run through customs.
Budget time and cost for border inspection on every shipment, not just the first.
The registration is filed by a Vietnamese legal entity. A Korean exporter cannot register directly. In practice:
This has a commercial consequence worth deciding early: whoever holds the registration holds leverage. If your distributor registers in their name and the relationship ends, the registration does not simply move with you. Decide deliberately, and put it in the distribution agreement.
| Document | Notes |
|---|---|
| Certificate of Free Sale (자유판매증명서) | Issued in Korea, proving legal sale there. Must be authenticated (see below). Validity is limited — check remaining validity before filing. |
| GMP certificate of the manufacturing site | Must name the actual factory. Now a substantive requirement, not just supporting paper. |
| Certificate of Analysis | From an ISO/IEC 17025 accredited laboratory, typically issued within 12 months of submission. |
| Quantitative composition | Full formula including excipients. |
| Scientific evidence for the claimed function | Decree 46 tightened dossier expectations. Korean MFDS approval documentation is useful supporting material but is not automatically accepted as sufficient. |
| Label artwork | Korean original plus the proposed Vietnamese label. |
Historically, Korean documents needed the full consular chain — notarisation, authentication by the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, legalisation at the Vietnamese Embassy in Korea, then certified Vietnamese translation. Several weeks, and it blocks filing.
Vietnam acceded to the Hague Apostille Convention on 31 December 2025, and the Convention enters into force for Vietnam on 11 September 2026. Korea is a long-standing party. From that date, a single apostille issued in Korea should replace multi-step consular legalisation for documents within the Convention's scope.
Two cautions before you plan around this:
operations**. Whether a Certificate of Free Sale or a site GMP certificate falls inside or outside that exclusion is exactly the kind of question answered differently by different officials in the first months of a new regime. Confirm with the VFA or your consultant before assuming the apostille route covers your specific documents.
authentication, not translation.
If you are starting now, the practical read is: begin assembling documents immediately, and confirm the authentication route at the point you are ready to file rather than committing to consular legalisation in advance. A month of patience may save several weeks of process.
The Vietnamese label follows the goods-labelling decree (Decree 43/2017/ND-CP as amended by Decree 111/2021/ND-CP). All mandatory information must be in Vietnamese; a supplementary label on imported goods is acceptable. At minimum:
And the mandatory disclaimer, in substance: this product is not a medicine and does not have the effect of replacing medicine in treating disease. It must appear on the label and in advertising.
Reproduce the prescribed Vietnamese wording exactly as it appears in the current regulation. Do not translate it yourself from English or Korean — the phrasing is fixed, and an approximation is a labelling defect.
Claims: only the function accepted in your registration may be stated. Korean MFDS-approved wording carries no legal weight in Vietnam. Anything resembling a treatment or cure claim will be rejected at registration, and more expensively at advertising review.
Registering the product does not entitle you to advertise it. Advertising content for health protection food requires pre-approval, and the approved content is what you must actually run — including on e-commerce listings and social media, where enforcement attention has concentrated.
Plan this as a second regulatory cycle after registration, not as a marketing task.
| Stage | Typical duration |
|---|---|
| Assembling Korean documents | 1–3 weeks |
| Authentication (consular chain, or apostille from 11 Sep 2026) and certified translation | 1–6 weeks depending on route |
| Dossier preparation and Vietnamese label | 1–2 weeks |
| VFA review | Statutory period is short, but clarification requests are routine |
| Overall registration, in practice | approximately 2–4 months, varying with dossier complexity and regulatory queries |
| Advertising approval, if needed before launch | Additional cycle |
A first import of a single SKU realistically runs four to eight months from first enquiry to shelf once advertising approval and shipping are included. Repeat SKUs from the same manufacturer move faster because site documents are already authenticated.
Vietnam and Korea have a bilateral FTA (VKFTA) and are both covered by the ASEAN–Korea FTA. Preferential rates and origin rules can differ between them, and one is often better than the other for a given HS code.
Check both for your specific code, then have your supplier issue the matching Certificate of Origin form — the wrong form means you pay the standard rate. On a supplement with thin per-unit margin this single item frequently decides viability.
This page is general information, not legal advice. Vietnamese food-safety procedure changed repeatedly during 2026 and further amendments are expected — confirm current requirements with the Vietnam Food Administration or a licensed registration consultant before acting. Supported by GNMLIFE, Inc.*
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