The ingenuity of business folks to come up with propositions that can spin money with least accountability is mind boggling. Look at the so called nutraceutical industry which is rolling in money without any need for answering many questions regarding their safety and real utility to the consumers. While the food industry is tightly regulated in most countries, the pharmaceutical industry faces tough evaluation regimes before launching new products. In contrast the nutraceutical industry is answerable neither to the food regulators or drug overseeing agencies. Most of the products are based on information available from many sources including old historical scripts and rarely are these products tested in a laboratory or evaluated in human beings. Unrealistic and unproven claims, unjustifiable extrapolation of data, extravagant assurances and limited safety information are some of the hall marks of these products for luring unsuspecting consumer. Here is a commentary on this industry which is shocking at the least!
"Public scepticism over contemporary therapeutic medicine has been a contributing factor to the evolution of a billion dollar health quakery industry. Proponents of the health food culture support what they refer to as a "natural" approach to health and vitality through the use various pills, powders, and potions. Among these products are everything from megadoses of vitamins and minerals to nostrums such as bee pollen, ginseng root, dired algae, and a range of homeopathic products. These medicinal potions are promoted as having generalized curative or restorative powers for everything from the common cold, chronic fatigue, and sexual disfunction to cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and other assorted chronic diseases. Beyond the question of efficacy, the consumption of such products may indeed preclude the use of scientifically substantiated medical protocol. Promoted with the cooperation of newspapers, magazines, book publishers, multilevel marketing schemes and franchised retail outlets, these concoctions are unregulated and readily dispensed without provisions for gender, individual physiology, or guidance concerning contraindications or toxicity. Product promotions are based on a distorted logic that attempts to extrapolate a correlation between an outside piece of scientific data, and a health food product. Independent third party testing of some supplements suggest an absence of a viable quality control program as witnessed through product inconsistencies, impurities, degradation, and bacterial contamination".
Why the world has not woken up to this big hoax defies logic and probably lack of attention by the governments in many countries to the dangers posed by these products has encouraged the innumerable manufacturers of such products to continue with their activities unobstructed. It is time that a consensus is evolved amongst nations to curb such unethical activities through sustained efforts to regulate them through appropriate laws. As these products are mostly positioned as food supplements, it will be more appropriate if they are brought under proprietary food category and prevalent rules are made applicable to them also. Probably an international body like Codex Alimentarius Commission can take up the task of setting guidelines for health products to meet various contingencies and bring some sanity into this area.
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment