BEIJING, June 15 (Xinhua) -- Health foods in China
will not be allowed to carry wording that exaggerates their effects or implies
they have curative effects for special diseases, according to a newly issued set
of regulations.
The words like "highly effective", "quick effect" and
"latest generation", which are commonly seen in health food advertisements,
should no longer appear, according to the regulations issued by the State Food
and Drug Administration (SFDA) on Thursday.
It also says health foods should not use vulgar and
superstitious words as their names, and can not be named after human organs.
Foreign letters and Chinese "pinyin" can not be used
in health food names, the regulations said.
The SFDA and the State Industry and Commerce
Administration in April published a blacklist of eight local television stations
which broadcast advertisements for health foods that claimed to be medicines but
had not received permission from the authorities.
The SFDA ordered its local branches to carry out more
inspections of local drug and health food producers.