Are nutritional dietary supplements health products

Judging from my country's current food supervision rules, compliant nutritional dietary supplements with blue hat labels do belong to the category of health products (i.e. health foods). However, a large number of similar products without blue hats on the market are only ordinary foods and are not considered regular health products recognized by regulations.

When I usually help my friends with nutrition consultations, eight out of ten of them can’t tell the difference between the two. The last time I helped my mother sort out the health products she stocked up for each season, I found seven or eight kinds of things with the name of "nutritional dietary supplements": two bottles of multivitamins bought at the drugstore counter, with a clear blue hat logo printed on the bottle, and also labeled in the product description. The words "health food" are marked, and they are serious health products; the rest are either Coenzyme Q10 brought back from the United States by relatives, or the acerola vitamin C tablets she snatched in the short video live broadcast room. They don't even have a blue hat logo, and are produced according to the production standards of ordinary tablet candy. This kind of food can only be regarded as ordinary food, and it is completely different from the health products we talk about.

Speaking of this, some people may think that they are all nutritional supplements, but are they divided into such details? As for the truth, a fan complained to me before, saying that I spent more than 200 yuan to buy a "zinc and selenium dietary supplement that can enhance immunity". After buying it, I found that it didn't even have a blue hat. After checking the product registration, it was essentially ordinary food and could not promote health benefits at all. It was equivalent to paying ten times the price and paying the IQ tax.

There are actually different opinions on this classification in the industry. Many practitioners who deal with imported dietary supplements mentioned that the US FDA lists dietary supplements as a separate category and distinguishes them from ordinary foods and drugs. There is no need to go through our domestic blue hat declaration process. As long as they meet the imported food standards, they can enter the domestic market. The content of active ingredients in many products is actually higher than similar products with blue hats. There is no need to regard blue hat as the only criterion for measuring product value. This statement does have some truth. The blue hat declaration cycle in our country is long and the cost is high. Many small factories or imported brands will not go out of their way to make relevant declarations. As long as they are ordinary dietary supplements purchased through formal channels and with clearly labeled ingredients, they can also meet daily nutritional supplement needs.

But everyone should be clear when buying. Nutritional dietary supplements with blue hats are subject to the health care product supervision system. Their efficacy has been officially verified, their safety is more guaranteed, and they are suitable for people with clear health care needs. If you just want to take supplements on a daily basis, there is no problem in choosing ordinary dietary supplements from regular manufacturers. Don’t be fooled by merchants into buying ordinary food at the price of health care products.