Intensify the supervision of advertising and new ideas to solve the old problems in the health food market

Business Club News, January 19.

In supermarkets, shopping malls, and online shopping, health food products are everywhere. According to statistics, there are 10,277 health foods with the current approval number, and there are more than 3,000 health-boosting functions. The number of health foods is dazzling.

Confronted with the recent spate of negative reports, from the flaws in fish oil, the misinterpretation of special dietary foods for nattokinase, and the recently exposed incidents of propolis products with added gums, the immaturity of the health food consumer market has been exposed. .

In early January, the China Consumers Association and the China Health Association jointly issued the “Guidelines for Consumption of Health Food” (hereinafter referred to as “Guidelines”). The “Guidelines” address the current status and problems of the health food market, and call for “social construction” new ideas and new ways to solve the old problems of consumer rights protection for health food products.

Coordinating the sale and purchase of two industry organizations

Qin Xiaoming, executive counselor of the State Council and executive vice president of the China Health Association, believes that the health industry must develop healthily. China's health foods are defined by strict laws. They refer to foods that have specific health care functions, that is, foods that are suitable for use by specific groups of people, have the function of regulating the body, and do not treat diseases.

Health foods as dietary supplements or nutritional supplements should be functional foods with higher scientific and technological content. However, some health food enterprises have “flicker” consumers. They want to scramble concepts or expand publicity, contrary to the laws of the market and consumers. Willingness, advocacy of corporate self-discipline and orderly and fair competition, and scientific consumption guidelines have become a top priority for the healthy development of the health food industry.

To this end, the China Consumers Association, in conjunction with the China Health Association, has launched the "Guidelines" series with the technical support of relevant industry experts. Yang Hongcan, vice president and secretary-general of the China Consumers Association, said that the “Guideline” advocates corporate social responsibility in terms of business integrity, healthy development of the industry, and health food safety to provide consumers with scientific, safe, and useful health foods. Supplemented by scientific consumption guidance.

Liu Junhai, a professor at Renmin University of China and deputy chairman of the China Consumers Association, believes that a considerable portion of the power exercised by government departments in the past will be increasingly transferred to social groups, including consumer organizations and industry associations. As two associations of buyers and sellers, one is a consumer association and the other is a health association. Stabilizing relationships through social negotiation and social dialogue and signing social partnership agreements is a boon to consumers.

Self-discipline for enterprises to "three preemptive"

As an emerging industry, health food products, apart from the need to be regulated by law, are important for corporate self-discipline.

Qin Xiaoming believes that the introduction of the "Food Safety Law" has further confirmed the legal status of health foods, and China's health food access system is relatively complete. However, there are still illegally sold health foods and false propaganda. Ren Xingzhou, director of the Institute of Market Economy at the State Council Development Research Center, believes that health foods have excavated our cultural treasures for thousands of years and are still useful for specific groups of people. However, many people now resent health products because the market lacks norms.

Faced with this situation, on the one hand, companies need active self-discipline. Liu Junhai believes that in order to take the initiative, it is necessary to achieve "three preemptions." One is to preempt legislation, the other is to preempt the government's law enforcement, and the third is to preempt the consumer complaints. If a health food company can introduce a higher level of social responsibility commitment than the legal requirements through the self-pressurizing method before the supporting regulations of the “Food Safety Law”, including more detailed policies and regulations on health foods, the company will establish In an invincible position; if you preempt the government's law enforcement, through bilateral social consultations, social dialogue, social partnership agreements, including social commitment agreements, you can avoid passive passively to comply with the law; preemptive consumer complaints, consumers The rights protectionist attitude is the most resolute, most thorough, and least likely to compromise. If we can take care of the rights of consumers in advance through our commitment to social responsibility, consumer complaints will gradually decrease.

On the other hand, consumers also need to do some necessary "homework". The "Guidelines" clearly classify health care products, which are health care products, health care products, and hypoglycemic agents. The dissemination of content is beneficial to consumers’ rights protection and businesses’ efforts to reduce costs and improve efficiency.

Increase supervision in the advertising field

While the “Guide” reminded consumers to pay attention to consumption information and preserve consumer evidence when purchasing health products, the supervision of health food advertisements has also received more attention from relevant departments.

Due to the interest-driven, the phenomenon of illegal advertising of health foods currently appearing in the market has occurred from time to time.

According to Shi Xingzhang, deputy director of the Department of Advertising Supervision and Administration of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, there are indeed cases in the market where health food advertisements are issued without approval. Although some have passed the examination and approval, the advertisements made have seriously tampered with the contents of the examination and approval, exaggerated functions, or the appearance of experts and patients in the contents of advertisements, and guarantee the efficacy in the name of experts and patients. What is more, advertisements are disguised in the form of news reports; the emergence of medical terms in health food advertisements has led consumers to misunderstand that health food products have similar efficacy to medicines.

Shi Xingzhang said that over the years, the advertising supervision department has been focusing on the field of health food advertising as the key regulatory object, and the key regulatory areas have continuously increased the crackdown on illegal health food advertising through various measures. In addition, the reporter also learned that the relevant departments are considering the introduction of a special review method for health food advertising.