NVWA publishes Handbook Food Supplements

The Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) has published a Handbook on Food Supplements, Fortified Foods and Herbal Preparations. Supplements are intended to supplement the daily diet and must be safe. The Handbook is intended to help businesses ensure they comply with Dutch and European laws and regulations.

The new Handbook is mainly about legal requirements that apply to ingredients or substances that may be present in products. Various stakeholders such as trade associations have provided input for the Handbook.

Tips for manufacturers

The handbook contains all sorts of tips and explanations of rules. For example, the maximum daily dose of vitamin B6 that may be present in food supplements. Or the recent legal regulation of the maximum amount of monacolins (natural cholesterol inhibitors) in food supplements. The NVWA also advises manufacturers to check carefully whether their product is a food supplement or herbal preparation. If there is already a registered medicine with a similar composition, then there is a chance that such a product falls under the definition of a medicinal product. And then the product may not be sold.

Enforcement by NVWA

The manual discusses enforcement by the NVWA and the applicable intervention policy. It also describes and explains the general Dutch and European rules for food supplements, herbal preparations and fortified foods (products to which vitamins or minerals have been added).

Nvwa.nl