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India's apex hospitality association - Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI), has submitted a representation to Tourism Min
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Friday, 18 June, 2021, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Shardul Nautiyal, Mumbai
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An expert has recommended simplification of nutraceuticals regulations currently governed under Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), towards clarity for information on tolerable upper limits (TULs) and recommended dietary allowance (RDA) values.
The Food Safety and Standards (FSS) Act, 2006, and FSS Rules and Regulations, 2011, need a lot of changes and updates and it would be advisable if reconstruction scheduled by FSSAI happens sooner.
Currently, only allowance for permissible nutrition for prescribed vitamins is equivalent to or less than recommended dietary allowance (RDA) values whereas in many ingredients like Vitamin C and Biotin which are required in more than RDA levels and have no toxicity, easy and better allowance limits are required. E.g,, a nutraceutical product with lemon balm extracts cannot be brought into the market as it has not been updated in the nutraceuticals regulations.
“Many ingredients in the market are very useful for people but not available to people. Even if we try to seek approvals for the same then it becomes a tedious process of 1 to 1.5 years for getting the clearance wherein we need to present an application to the apex committee with ingredients based research and clinical trial results. We tried the same for one of our products and the composition is still in the queue to be approved,” revealed Divij Bajaj, CEO, PowerGummies.
PowerGummies is a New Delhi-headquartered dietary supplement brand. Instead of capsules and pills, the company has developed dietary supplements in chewable form which are vegan-based, gelatin-free and gluten-free with zero sugar and zero pesticides and no artificial colour.
With regards to policy interventions required on RDA and TUL values prescribed today, “There is no clarity on when the reforms would come in place but a few policy changes would be highly recommended. Firstly, there need to be more relaxations and quick adaptations on new formulations and updating ingredients concerning RDA and TULs. Initially there were TUL established in the old nutraceutical Act but eventually what they have done is they have nullified all those upper tolerance limit and they have kept just a single role simple if it is equal to or less than RDA it comes under FSSAI and if you cross RDA there is no TUL,” explained Bajaj.
In Biotin, earlier, it was defined that there is no TUL so could add as much of Biotin and it is safe because there are researches available that have been submitted to FSSAI that even 2lc mcg per day biotin there is no toxicity. Globally there is no upper tolerance limit in biotin.
“As a responsible brand, we aim to ensure communicating the science behind every product and right consumer education is in place through our 360-degree touch base with the end consumer. We actively try to explain to our customers what role each ingredient plays, what are the benefits, what is the right way of intake through our product packaging, social media campaigns and more. Once a knowledgeable consumer knows the importance then it is an opportunity to have a retained customer in the long run with not being fallen to mischievous prey of wrongful players in the market,” opines Bajaj.
“Anything that is in the form of a pill is a drug to every person and hence what we are saying is that when you bring alternatives to this ecosystem people are actually up for trying and ready to adapt to them,” he states. In Western countries, the nutraceutical category trends above the pharmaceutical options of pills in the everyday life of their citizens. In the APAC countries, the first barrier is about the difficulty associated with pills and the second is that OTC nutraceutical is still found to be connected with doctor recommendation.
“Likewise, we are doing the same at PowerGummies for enabling nutrition to the millennials and adults. We have identified barriers that are putting off the scope of growth for nutraceutical marketing and hence we developed a brand to capture the same along with developing a nutritional alternative that can be a lifestyle routine for everybody with convenience i.e gummy format,” said Bajaj on a concluding note.
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