What determines whether an herbal product is registered as food, a cosmetic or for medicinal purposes?
My client Greer Deal, Director of Global Regulatory Services (GRS), a UK based consultancy to the life science industry, will highlight the complex regulations involved with this when she speaks  at the Vitafoods Europe Conference in Geneva on Thursday, 24 May 2012.
The main flavour of her presentation will be about regulations which can be applicable to herbal products to determine whether they are foods, cosmetics or medical. She will outline the theory and use case studies to demonstrate the reality of compliance and enforcement.
For example, Twinings Pure Camomile Tea is marketed as “a moment of calm†and “a delicately aromatic infusion with relaxing properties†which ensures it is a food. If, however, the Company was to state that their Camomile Tea is “a natural sedative which, when taken at night, will help you sleep through the night†this will make the product a medicine. This is for three reasons:
- “sedative†is a medicinal term,
- “taken at night†is telling the consumer when they have to take the product and therefore, implying dosage, and
- “sleep through the night†implies insomnia which is a medical term.
Greer said: “I was delighted to be invited to speak at this conference as it is vital that companies are aware of the strict regulations which may be of relevance to their products. Too often I’ve seen companies who have no idea about the regulations they have to comply with until they are contacted by authorities, and this can have a severe impact on their business. â€
Hm that’s interesting. The whole post but especially the camomile tea – I suffer from insomnia. Understandable when living under stress so any natural product that gets me away from caffeine must be good 🙂