TITLE:
The Need for a Legal Distinction of Nutraceuticals
AUTHORS:
Annemarie Koch, Sonja Brandenburger, Suzanne Türpe, Marc Birringer
KEYWORDS:
Nutraceutical, Botanical, Food Supplement, Definition, Legislation
JOURNAL NAME:
Food and Nutrition Sciences,
Vol.5 No.10,
May
2,
2014
ABSTRACT: The nutraceutical
and botanical terms are often used by the lay press or for marketing purposes
to describe health beneficial food, food supplements or herbs. However, there
is no common definition of nutraceuticals or botanicals and moreover a lack of
regulation that classifies this category. Concerning their health value, it is
unclear if they belong to drugs or food. Currently, they fall into a legal
limbo between both. This regulatory lack can lead to misuse of claims
indicating a health benefit or the misleading of the consumer. This review will
focus on current definitions of nutraceutical, botanical, functional food and
food supplements with special emphasis on the differences between the US and
European legislation. Some special considerations will be given for Germany,
one of the main markets for food supplements in Europe.