Hungary has launched a new nutrition monitoring website to address the lack of transparency in data on side effects of dietary supplements. The site is now trying to combat the growing market and misleading advertising that poses increased risks to consumers.
Nutrivigilance is a complex system for data collection, analysis, evaluation documentation and information monitoring of adverse effects associated with the use of dietary supplements, functional foods and other dietary supplements. Detection, monitoring, and reporting of adverse events is not well regulated in Hungary.
New initiatives to fill the gap
“For the past 20 years, there has been no systematic data collection on the side effects of dietary supplements,” said Associate Professor Dezush Kuspol of the Department of Clinical Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Szeged.
Csupor compared drug side effects with continuous testing, including after marketing. Following France’s example, some EU countries have introduced their own national dietary supplement adverse reaction reporting systems.
Csupor strongly believes that pharmacists can help promote the website so that more people can report side effects they experience with dietary supplements.
He emphasized the need to introduce nutritional monitoring as a routine practice, citing the increasing intake of dietary supplements and the possible risks to people’s health.
While using supplements, various side effects and adverse events may occur due to sensitivity, quality issues, ingredients, and simultaneous intake of a large number of products, which may require suspension of use. Consumers are primarily forced to rely on sometimes controversial information when making decisions about the safety and potential benefits of products.
Furthermore, despite the widespread use of supplements, public awareness of nutrition remains inadequate as many people are not familiar with the functions of dietary supplements and tend to confuse supplements with medicines. is.
Misleading advertising can also contribute to lack of information. Therefore, activities related to the detection, evaluation, understanding, and prevention of harmful substances in nutritional supplements and medical foods are of great importance.
Information for sales agents
Use of the online interface is completely anonymous. The reports received through the portal are analyzed by experts, the analysis and evaluation helps to identify potential problems, the analysis serves as the basis for targeted quality checks and, if warranted, changes in the composition of the supplement You can also. Ultimately, this process makes the product safer.
Amendments to the law regarding the distribution of nutritional supplements are scheduled to be completed this year.
“It has the potential to completely restructure the market, as beyond a certain active ingredient content it will be stipulated that certain products can only be sold in pharmacies and herbal medicine stores,” said Ferenc, president of the Organic and Medicinal Plant Traders Association.・János Szabo said. bigyox).
On March 14, during the Presidential Meeting of the Chamber of Pharmacy, Csupor announced the launch of a new online website for consumers and healthcare professionals, launched in cooperation with the Hungarian Association of Manufacturers and Distributors of Dietary Supplements (MÉKISZ) and the Institute of Clinical Pharmacy. Announcing the interface. Szeged University (SZTE) and Semmelweis University (SE).
“Today is not a danger day, but an important day for us. The website nutrivigilancia.hu has been launched. This is an important step in the safe use of nutritional supplements,” Csupor said during the presentation. emphasized.
Csupor explained that nutritional supplements fall into multiple categories and may contain concentrated forms of vitamins, trace elements, minerals, and other ingredients with nutritional or physiological effects. The Hungarian market is growing dynamically and is regularly consumed by the majority of the population.
[By Zsolt Kopári, Edited by Vasiliki Angouridi, Brian Maguire | Euractiv’s Advocacy Lab]
