Are dietary supplements food or health products

According to the current domestic regulatory rules, dietary supplements may be classified as ordinary foods or health foods (also commonly referred to as health products). The core judgment criteria are whether the product has been approved for blue hat qualification and whether it has clear health claims.

It’s no wonder that everyone is confused. China has not set “dietary supplements” as a separate regulatory category. This term was first introduced from overseas. For example, the US FDA classified this kind of products that are between ordinary foods and drugs and are used to supplement nutrients into a separate category. After they are imported into the country, there is no corresponding classification, and they are naturally classified into the existing two categories of food and health products.

I often encountered this problem when selecting products in the cross-border e-commerce supply chain in the past two years. Once a batch of imported zinc and selenium tablets were to be warehoused, and the overseas label only said "supplement zinc and selenium" without any efficacy claims. In the end, they were registered as ordinary food dietary supplements. Another product with the same ingredients, because the overseas version is labeled "helps improve immunity", you have to apply for a blue hat qualification before entering domestic offline channels. After approval, it falls into the category of health care products.

The industry has actually been arguing about this classification for a long time. Many mass supplement manufacturers feel that there is no need to squeeze into the blue hat channel. After all, blue hat approval takes two or three years, and the cost can easily reach hundreds of thousands. In the end, it is all passed on to consumers. Vitamins that can be bought for a few yuan can be sold for dozens of yuan with a blue hat. Necessary; but some friends who do regulatory research say that opening a separate category will easily lead to loopholes. Nowadays, there are many cases of ordinary food supplements boasting their efficacy. Ordinary collagen gummies are said to be anti-aging, and lutein gummies are said to be able to cure myopia. If it is looser, consumers will not be able to tell the difference.

In fact, we ordinary people don’t have to worry about classification when buying. We can just glance at the packaging. Products with a little blue hat are health products, and they are allowed to claim the corresponding health effects. If not, no matter how fancy the merchants say, they are essentially ordinary food. Don’t believe in the claims of treating diseases and conditioning. When I buy vitamin C effervescent tablets, I usually choose the one without blue cap. I can drink it for half a month for ten yuan a tube. Compared with the blue cap model sold in pharmacies, the vitamin C content is not much different, and the price/performance ratio is much higher.