Consumer information
The FSA acknowledges that individuals may wish to supplement their diet with additional nutrients.
While we would prefer consumers to follow manufacturers’ recommended dosages, consumers are free to take products in any amounts they, or their professional advisers, feel might be beneficial to them.
Maximum levels of vitamins and minerals in food supplements
Any maximum level set for vitamins and minerals could, by law, only relate to the amount that a food supplement manufacturer can recommend as a daily dose and, hence, the maximum amount of a vitamin or mineral that may be present in a single tablet, this being the smallest unit of delivery for a daily dose. Legislation will not, in any way, prevent a consumer from exercising personal choice – product labelling will continue to provide detailed information that enables consumers to make informed choices about food supplements in accordance with their personal preferences.
Both the Directive and the national UK regulations define food supplements as foodstuffs that are 'designed to supplement the normal diet'.
Medicinal claims
Consumers should be aware that the national UK Food Labelling Regulations 1996 prohibit the attribution to any food, including food supplements, the property of preventing, treating or curing any human disease, or to make any reference to such properties. This is also explicitly stated in Article 6 (4) of the Food Supplements Directive 2002/46/EC, European legislation that regulates food supplements in the EU. To make any claims of this kind would place the supplement for which such claims were made under medicines law.
Internet and mail-order supplements
Supplements products ordered online, or by mail from abroad (including from the Channel Islands and the USA) may not comply with UK or EU law and therefore consumers need to satisfy themselves that the product has had the necessary checks to ensure the product is safe. Any complaints about supplements products should, in the first instance, be sent to your local authority as they have enforcement powers.