Recently, all kinds of pressed candy have been sold online, some of which implicitly or explicitly are claimed to have such health functions as weight reduction, aid to reduce blood fat, aid to reduce blood sugar and enhance immunity, with illegal advertising to mislead consumers. Industry insiders said that pressed candy is neither health food nor medicine. Contents of disease prevention and treatment involved in the labels, instructions, packages and publicity of pressed candy are suspected of violating the relevant provisions on false publicity of the Law on Protection of the Rights and Interests of Consumers.

Claiming to have multiple effects

On e-commerce platforms, some pressed candy, which used to be solid food, are claimed to have various health functions. In addition to the main ingredients, the others are auxiliary materials. However, some businesses deliberately highlight the efficacy of auxiliary materials to create the illusion of having medical and health benefits for consumers. On e-commerce platforms, it is common for businesses to falsely advertise the various effects of pressed candy, which leads to complaints from consumers.

Just general food

The Food Safety Law divides food into general food and special food, and stipulates that function claim cannot be made for general food.

The main difference between general food and health food is that the health food approval number begins with "NHC Health Food" and there is the sign of "blue hat" on the product package.

According to the Catalogue of Food Production License Category, the category code of pressed candy is 1301 in the candy products, which can implement the National Food Safety Standard Candy (GB 17399-2016) and the Pressed Candy (SB/T 10347-2017). According to the above standards, pressed candy is a solid food made of sugar or syrup (powder) or sweetener as the main raw material, by adding a small amount of food additives, nutrition fortification substances and other auxiliary materials through mixing, granulation or no granulation, pressing and other related processes.

Industry insiders said that pressed candy is just general food which cannot provide nutritional support nor health function, and long-term consumption with high intake of sugar will also cause harm to health.

Clean-up and rectification

From 2020, the State Administration for Market Regulation has cracked down on illegal additions, false publicity and illegal sales of foods in special forms or packages such as solid beverages, pressed candy and herbal tea, and carried out special rectification work.

This year, the market supervision departments make efforts to clean up and rectify the chaos of Internet advertising and to severely crack down on illegal advertising activities in key areas of people's livelihood. The Administrative Measures on Internet Advertising, published by the State Administration for Market Regulation, took effect on May 1. The Measures list the "Prohibits" and "Red lines" for Internet advertising: Advertisements for medical treatment, drugs, medical devices, pesticides, veterinary drugs, health food, food for special medical purpose and other advertisements that should be reviewed according to laws and administrative regulations shall be reviewed by advertising review authorities before publication, and shall not be published without review.

The National Food Safety Standard Standard for the Use of Nutritional Fortification Substances in Foods (GB 14880-2012) stipulates the limit and basis for the use of nutritional fortification substances in various foods. The category of pressed candy is 05.02.02 Other candy except for gum based candy. Food nutritional fortification substances such as vitamin C can be added, and the use limit should conform to the corresponding provisions in the standard. In accordance with the regulations, pressed candy with addition of food nutritional fortification substances is still food. According to Article 38 of the Regulations for the Implementation of the Food Safety Law, food other than health food shall not be claimed to have health function.

Source: China Food News

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