New health food lobby vows tough stand on rogues
The health products industry will report members to the Consumer Council if they breach its planned guidelines, it said yesterday.
The commitment came as the newly-formed Hong Kong Health Food Association denied it was trying to evade planned legal amendments that it has described as confusing and inappropriate.
'We are still compiling our rules concerning the safety and quality of health foods,' association president Angela Lau Ming-yan said. 'Our association will report to the Consumer Council if we find any industry player has been in breach of our guidelines after being warned by our group.'
She said there was a pressing need to issue guidelines to bring discipline to the industry.
'Membership in our association can be a quality reference for the public, who are now bombarded with different varieties of health foods. We will also hold seminars to educate the public about the newly developed products,' she said.
But the association denied the issue of guidelines was an attempt to seek the relaxation of proposed amendments in the Undesirable Medical Advertisement Ordinance, which the group believes will create confusion among consumers.
Under the proposals, a ban on advertising health benefits attributed to food products will be extended to such claims as regulating blood pressure and female hormones, and boosting the immune system.
It will also cover claims about their weight-reduction and detoxification properties.
The proposals were based on recommendations by a committee of consumers, western and traditional Chinese medicine doctors, pharmacists and nutritionists. Amendments were floated in 2001.
'All advertisements will carry similar content to promote products with similar claims, as the government will drastically limit our choice of wording and claims in advertising,' Miss Lau said.
'The amendments will make it easier for poor-quality products to mix with the good ones, as consumers will be given little information about each product.
'If we cannot inform the public more about our products, how will they know if they are suitable for them? If the law is put in force, it will give buyers a false sense of security. They [will] think they are protected by the new law, but in fact they [will be] kept in the dark about what they are buying,' she said.
Group members were in favour of legislation to regulate discipline in the industry, she said.
'We realise there is a need to draw up related laws to govern the industry and protect public health, but the proposed amendments will make the problem worse.'
