Food Supplements at a Glance: Advertising

In our blog of May 18, 2022, we have touched on the regulatory framework of Food Supplements, and now it is time to talk about their Advertising.

The advertising of Food Supplements is an extremely important issue, since today many properties are attributed to them that can be misleading and cause damage to the health of the population, for this reason, our Health Authority maintains strictly controlled advertising and asks to have with advertising permission to be able to advertise our food supplements.

To obtain advertising permission, it is necessary for us to know in detail the legends and statements that can be included and what cannot be included in the advertisements.

Below, we leave you in detail what is indicated in the Regulation of the General Health Law in Matters of Advertising where a guide is given to prepare our advertising in such a way that it is guiding and educational regarding the Food Supplement in question.

• It must be consistent with its authorized characteristics or specifications.
• The characteristics, properties and jobs must be real or recognized by the Secretary
• They must be in Spanish, in clear and easily understandable terms for the target audience.
• Provide health information on consumption, which must correspond, where appropriate, to the purposes indicated in the respective authorization.
• Point out the necessary precautions when consumption may cause risk or harm to people's health.
• Contain information on the specifications for proper use, as well as the damage that could be caused to health and incorporate a graphic image of the product to avoid consumer error.
• Be printed in contrasting colors and in the sizes indicated in the Regulations.
• Be written in positive literary forms when it comes to giving instructions for consumption.
• Be written in negative literary forms when it comes to warning the consumer about the risks it may represent.

On the other hand, the advertising of Food Supplements is not allowed to indicate the following, since they may represent a risk to the health of the population:

• Distort or contravene the provisions on nutritional, hygienic and health education established by the Secretary of Health.
• Indicate or lead to believe explicitly or implicitly that the product has the ingredients or properties that it lacks.
• Establish comparisons between products whose ingredients are different, when this may generate risks or damage to health.
• Present as stimulants or modifiers of the physical or mental state of people, except those cases that have been recognized by the Secretariat of Health.
• Induce or promote eating habits that are harmful to health.
• Affirm that the product fulfills by itself the nutritional requirements of the human being.
• Attribute to industrialized foods a higher or different nutritional value than they have.
• Make comparisons to the detriment of the properties of natural foods.
• Express or suggest, through real or fictional characters, that the ingestion of these products provides people with extraordinary characteristics or abilities.
• Declare properties that cannot be verified, or that the products are useful to prevent, alleviate, treat or cure a disease, disorder or physiological state.
• Do not associate with alcoholic beverages and tobacco.
• Those that are held as means to reduce the consumption of nutrients may not be mentioned as dietary and precautionary messages will be established regarding the possible effects that their consumption could cause.
• Names, figures and statements related to diseases, symptoms, syndromes, anatomical data, physiological phenomena should not be used.

Finally, when food supplements are advertised, the legend that the Ministry of Health determines in the advertising authorization based on the health risks that the product represents must be included.

As we could see, the Sanitary Control of the Advertising of Food Supplements is well defined and it is our duty to comply with it to avoid risks to the health of the population that depends a lot on what is sent to them through advertisements.

If you have any questions about this topic or about requesting any procedure before COFEPRIS, contact us at number 55 6167 7092, we can help you with your project.

Give us your opinion on this topic addressed in our blog and share with us if you have any topic in Health Regulation that you want us to review in the next issue.