Health products are closely related to people's health. Governments all over the world attach great importance to the supervision of health products publicity. Globally, the EU regulates health products more strictly. Let's see how the EU manages health promotion.
In the European Union, the official name for health products is dietary supplements. "Dietary supplements are regulated as food," the European Food Safety Agency said. Health products are food, not medicine, so they must not be called "cure" effect. This is a "iron law" that both China and the West must abide by in the propaganda of health products.
The European Union stipulates that food publicity is divided into two parts: a nutrition statement and a health statement. How to use them has clear "rules", very rigorous.
Nutrition declaration refers to the statement that food contains certain nutrient, such as "low fat" or "high fiber". Health statements refer to statements about the relationship between food and health, such as "Calcium supplementation helps children's bone growth and development".
"Nutrition" propaganda can not involve "health" effect, the purpose is to prevent illegal manufacturers from playing word games and misleading consumers. For example, "Food A is rich in calcium and helps children's bone growth and development." Such a simple slogan does not meet the EU food labeling requirements. It can be said that "food A is rich in calcium" and "calcium supplement helps children's bone growth and development", but it is against the rules to say directly that "food A helps children's bone growth and development".
In the European Union, any health statement like "Calcium supplementation helps children's bone growth and development" must be approved by the European Commission through special procedures before it can be used. One of the key links is to pass the scientific assessment of the European Food Safety Agency.
For example, the European Food Safety Agency has written a 23-page scientific opinion article on the effect of fibre on human health, referring to 41 academic papers, and concluded that it is impossible to prove that fibre can help reduce fat absorption in human body, and that fibre can help defecate.
It is worth mentioning that on the official website of the European Commission, there is a special list of approved nutrition statements and health statements, as well as the use of rejected statements. Whether approved or rejected, the official website attaches a link to the scientific opinions of the European Food Safety Agency for public inquiry. Therefore, openness and transparency is a major feature of EU health products promotion.
The EU prohibits the use of too vague propaganda on nutritional or health effects. In press releases, the European Commission has pointed out that countless products, ranging from yogurt to chocolate, from beverages to fresh cheese, claims of having functions such as "purifying the body", "retaining youth" and "delaying aging". These propaganda are "vague, meaningless and untested". "On the important topic of health, it's very important to avoid using the statement of incorrectly guiding consumers."
