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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