Consumers waste £350 a year on rip-off food supplements

Food supplement manufacturers are making false claims about the health benefits of their products.

Producers of some food supplements are making misleading claims about the health benefits of these products, the consumer group Which? has claimed.

Consumers could be wasting up to £354 per year buying supplements which often don’t live up to the exaggerated and sometimes unauthorised health claims printed on the packaging.

Manufacturers, such as Boots and Seven Seas, are also using complicated language and large font sizes to exaggerate the health benefits of their products.

Million-pound industry

This UK food supplement industry is worth £385 million a year and a third of us take supplements on a regular basis.

It’s illegal to include health claims on the packaging of a product if it hasn’t been approved by the EU's European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). The exception to this rule is supplements which contain certain probiotic strains and glucosamine but even these supplements must comply with the rules by January 2014.

In the past five years more than 44,000 health claims have been submitted to EFSA for approval but only 248 have been authorised.

Some of the most popular supplements claim to help joint health or to support a healthy digestive and immune system. However, all health claims for these kinds of supplements have been formally rejected by the EU.

Customers could be wasting around £354 every year buying these products. Buying a glucosamine supplement, for example, which has no proven health benefit, can cost up to £1 a day. In comparison a multivitamin with vitamin C, D, manganese and zinc is far cheaper at 3p a day.

Unproven health claims

Three products - Bioglan Probiotic capsules, Bimuno Prebiotic powder and Seven Seas Cardiomax - were highlighted by Which?. They were found to be making unproven health claims such as “helps maintain digestive balance” and “for a healthy heart” on both their websites and packaging.

Six other products were also found to be confusing to customers because of exaggerated and ambiguous claims. These were: Boots Digestion Support Plus, Bioglan Glucosamine Plus Chondroitin and MSM, Seven Seas Jointcare Active, Boots Joint Health Glucosamine Sulphate & Chrondroitin, Vitabiotics Jointace Original and Optima ActivJuice for Joints.

Which? approached the named manufacturers for a response. Bioglan and Seven Seas both said they were redesigning the packaging on certain products and Optima ActivJuice and Seven Seas JointCare Active said their claims refer only to the specific ingredients that they are authorised for.

Bimuno said its claims are substantiated and will resubmit them to EFSA. Boots and Vitabiotics did not respond.

Do you take food supplements? Do you think they are good value for money or a complete rip-off? Let me know in the comment box below.

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