For a food business, the premises are not just a commercial location — they are the very object of the licence. The Certificate of food safety eligibility is issued for a facility at a specified address, with a kitchen layout and process appraised at that very premises. The consequence: a wrongly chosen F&B site cannot be cured by a beautiful dossier. This article presents the bond between premises and the food-safety licence, the site’s technical conditions, and one framework note that matters a great deal in 2026.
1. The food-safety licence is location-tied: a new site means a new licence
Under the Law on Food Safety No. 55/2010/QH12, a food-service business facility must hold a Certificate of food safety eligibility (except facilities outside the certification scope, mainly small facilities managed at commune level — a foreign investor’s restaurant almost always falls in the certification scope). The certificate records the facility at a specific address; when the enterprise moves the restaurant to other premises — even within the same district — the new facility must complete certification procedures for the new location; the old location’s certificate is not transferable. Issuing authority rests with the food-safety management body under decentralisation (the Department of Health or the body decentralised by the provincial People’s Committee for provincially managed food-service facilities). The consequence for leasing strategy: the lease’s term and stability are part of licence security — a restaurant whose lease is terminated mid-way loses the certified facility and must restart the entire procedure at the new site.
2. The 2026 framework note: Decree 46/2026 replaces, but is currently suspended
Investors need the exact document status as at October 2026. Decree No. 46/2026/ND-CP is the new food-safety management framework, replacing Decree No. 15/2018/ND-CP with nominal effect from 26 January 2026. However, the application of Decree 46/2026 has been suspended under Resolution No. 09/2026/NQ-CP and subsequently Resolution No. 15/2026/NQ-CP, until the amended Law on Food Safety and a new guiding decree take effect. During the suspension, food-safety condition and certification procedures in practice still follow Decree No. 15/2018/ND-CP. On compliance strategy: design the facility and dossier to the higher condition level of the two frameworks (processing zones, storage, water source, three-step food checking and food-sample retention where applicable) so as not to be caught out when the 46/2026 framework officially operates, but every procedural step and receiving authority at filing time must be checked against the documents actually being applied — asking the local receiving authority directly before filing is an unskippable step in this transition period.
3. Premises conditions that decide the dossier: one-way kitchen flow, grease, exhaust and water
Four technical condition groups of the premises decide whether the facility passes food-safety appraisal. First, one-way processing layout: the flow raw materials — preparation — cooking — serving — dirty-dish return must not cross and cause cross-contamination; a tight site that cannot separate flows is a design defect no paper procedure can fix. Second, drainage and grease separation: a commercial kitchen must have a grease trap before discharging into the common system, and buildings/malls often impose requirements above the minimum standard — check the building’s rules at site diligence. Third, smoke extraction and odour treatment: a restaurant inside an office building/residential block is bound by central exhaust shafts and odour complaints from residents/neighbouring tenants — a site without a feasible flue route cannot host a heavy-odour restaurant however attractive its area. Fourth, drinking-standard water supply and separated washing areas, dry/cold storage: these consume real area in the layout, so a feasible kitchen usually takes a significant share of total premises — signing a lease on sales area first and squeezing the kitchen in later is the reversed sequence behind the most common failures.
4. Accompanying licences and conditions at the same location
Beyond the food-safety certificate, a complete F&B outlet commonly pulls in: fire design appraisal/acceptance for the kitchen zone (gas kitchens and LPG cylinder storage are a separate fire-risk group under the Law on Fire Prevention, Fighting and Rescue No. 55/2024/QH15 and Decree No. 105/2025/ND-CP); an on-premise alcohol retail licence if the restaurant serves alcohol (under the current alcohol business regime); noise and operating-hour conditions under local rules and building regulations; and — if the outlet also retails packaged goods — the boundary with the foreign investor’s retail-establishment regime under Decree 342/2026. In the lease, three licence-protecting clauses are needed: the lessor’s warranty that the premises’ function permits food-service business and is free of disputes/planning impacts; a condition precedent — the lease becomes fully effective only when the facility is certified (or the tenant may exit if refused for premises-condition reasons); and allocation of shared-infrastructure costs (flue, grease trap, water supply) between tenant and building from the start.
Frequently asked questions
A restaurant holds a food-safety certificate at location A — can a branch at location B share it?
No. The Certificate of food safety eligibility issues per facility at a specific address; each food-service location is a facility that must satisfy conditions and be certified separately (except cases outside the certification scope). A restaurant chain must therefore build per-outlet certification into its opening schedule.
Can a tenant taking over premises that were a restaurant inherit the previous operator’s certificate?
The certificate is not inheritable (it attaches to the facility owner and the specific facility), but premises that once passed appraisal are a major design advantage: an existing one-way layout, flue and grease trap make the new certification much faster. The new tenant must still complete certification for its own facility before opening.
Is a small FDI coffee shop in the certification scope?
It depends on scale and management decentralisation: some small food-service facilities fall outside certification scope and are managed at commune level under the decentralisation lists. However, a foreign investor’s branded/chain facility normally sits at provincial management level and requires certification; determine your facility’s management tier with the receiving authority before assuming an exemption.
Why attach a food-safety condition precedent to an F&B lease?
Because certification refusal risk in F&B mainly comes from the premises’ physical conditions (processing flow, flue, grease separation) — factors the tenant does not fully control and which surface only at appraisal. A condition precedent puts this risk in the right place: if the premises cannot qualify, the tenant exits the lease at minimal cost instead of being trapped in premises that cannot lawfully trade.