FDA, ASC to consumers: Stay vigilant

By Leilanie G. Adriano

Staff reporter

Laoag City—The Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) and the Ad Standards Council (ASC) urge all Ilocanos here to stay vigilant when buying consumer products and avoid being fooled by unacceptable claims and misleading advertisement.

In a forum attended by local manufacturers, distributors and different media outlets here, Maya Estrada, ASC operations manager, said consumer vigilance is needed as there is a proliferation of unlicensed imports in the country.

According to Ms. Estrada, Ilocos Norte has been identified as one of the provinces having these unregistered products which may threaten food safety and consumer welfare.

In view of this, the ASC and FDA issued several tips to protect consumers from consumers from misleading health and medical claims.

The FDA also called on food manufacturers to become responsible enough and guarantee the safety of their products by avoiding false dietary supplement ads and deceptive promotional activities.

On February 2015, the FDA issued Memorandum Circular 2015-003 to inform all food and dietary supplement producers, mass and social media advertisers, the ASC, television and mobile networks on the change of the ad message bearing the phrase “No Approved Therapeutic Claim".

Also, the ASC released Circular 2015-006 dated May 8, 2015, mandating the change in the use of the "No Approved Therapeutic Claim" phrase to "MAHALAGANG PAALALA: ANG (NAME OF PRODUCT) AY HINDI GAMOT AT HINDI DAPAT GAMITING PANGGAMOT SA ANUMANG URI NG SAKIT" not later than May 31, 2015.

"All materials with 'No Approved Therapeutic Claim' that will be implemented starting May 31, 2015," ASC said in the issuance, "will be deemed violative and will be penalized accordingly."

Meanwhile, Cynthia Diza, who heads the ethical market communications unit of FDA, said all claims by product manufacturers and advertisers must be substantiated by scientific or laboratory test of the product and buy only from legitimate sources.

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