India's food safety regulator working on stricter rules for health supplements
Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is working on making regulations for nutraceuticals and health supplements more stringent after it found many non-compliant products in the market, said officials.
Nutraceuticals are products derived from food sources that are believed to provide extra health benefits, besides the basic nutritional value found in foods, and can be available in the form of pills, syrups, capsules, powders, gummies and chewables.
«The popularity of these products has increased manifold as consumers have become more health conscious,» said a senior FSSAI official, who did not wish to be identified. «We want to make the standards more stringent for the safety of consumers.»
The authority had received several complaints about many non-compliant health supplements being sold in the market, according to the official, after which it conducted a drive across the country to check nutraceuticals and health supplements for quality and safety throughout their manufacturing and sale process.
The issue was discussed by the scientific panel of the food authority recently, the official said, adding that due to the availability of health supplements over the counter, there are chances of consuming multiple nutrients whose action might be antagonistic to each other.
He said due to unsupervised usage of supplements, people consume supplements along with drugs which might interact with each other and may cause adverse effects.
In September 2023, nutraceuticals accounted for 31% of all billings at
