The food you should know

As the times and environment change, the shape of food advertising has also changed a lot. In Taipei City, which has the largest number of cases filed by food companies in Taiwan, from the illegal cases of food advertising from 2019 to 2021, the top three are respectively "enhancing immunity, reducing weight and slimming, and caring for the eyes."

In 2022, when information is easy to obtain, more than a thousand new products will be launched every year. If a brand wants to achieve consumer youth, it must communicate through advertising. However, in order to get into the hearts of the people, there are often signs of violations in advertising, that is, it is said that it is effective and therefore misleading consumers.

In order to avoid the public being misled by food advertising terms, local health bureaus across Taiwan have established monitoring systems to supervise food operators in the area of supervision and supervision. The audit basis will be investigated based on the registration of the food company.

According to the "Must Registration" platform of the Food and Drug Administration of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the number of registered food companies in Taipei is as high as 37,992, making it the county with the largest number in Taiwan. In addition to regular inspections of management practitioners, Taipei City also publicly and transparently discloses monthly food and healthy food violations on the website of the Health Bureau of the Taipei Municipal Government, and conducts annual case analysis every six months and one year. From the number of food advertisements from 2019 to 2021, there are 485 items, 381 items, and 336 items respectively. Although the number of food advertisements is trending down year by year, it is also difficult to curious about which food advertisements are prone to advertising violations?

The ban on food advertising that ranked among the top three in recent years: enhancing immunity, reducing weight and slimming, and caring for the eyes

The core value of food advertising is: it has no effect. Therefore, it cannot be declared in advertising terms, or uses words that are prone to misunderstandings. Looking at food advertising violation cases, the amount of the total amount of the 2019, 2020 and 2021 is 25.43 million, 21.47 million and 18.47 million yuan respectively. Looking at the total amount of the 2019 "Food, Drugs and Chemicals Anti-Prevention Advertising", the proportion of the 3-year food payment is about 40%.

According to the case statistics data of Taipei City ruling, "improving resistance", "reducing weight and slimming" and "visual eyes" ranked in the top three in the number of illegal cases between 2019 and 2021. The Food and Drug Administration Department of Taipei Health Bureau investigated Dong Ruojie to analyze the reasons. The outbreak of the new crown epidemic in 2019 has led to the second place in 2019 (68 items) and the first place in 2020 (87 items) and 2021 (64 items). "Guiding Eyes" is related to the extensive use of 3C products by modern people. As for weight loss and weight loss, it has been a topic of concern for a long time. In general, these advertisements are closely related to consumer market demand.

Kombucha can cure the new crown, is Ye Huangsu a magic weapon for eye protection?

Ads are not really good at all.

Take common discussions as a guide, with the COVID-19 pandemic that everyone cares about, there are indeed many discussions about magical foods, such as drinking kombucha and eating kimchi can cure it. Or can you take the "168 weight reduction method" that brings attention to your beauty and body shape? Can you be so beautiful when you take "collectogen"? Or if you are chasing a heavy show, office workers need to protect their eyes and support Ye Huangsu's function as if they are protecting their eyes. If the bones are loose, should you blame coffee? And what you are most afraid of eating will cause "organ disease changes". For example, if you want to relieve constipation and eat leaf, your kidneys will become dark?

These words that make people confused and afraid are also shown to consumers that they must have the ability to discern independently.

General food does not have any effect! Only "healthy food" has utility

As for why food advertising is prone to irregularities? The reason is not difficult to imagine. From the perspective of healthy diet, there are many discussions, such as "fiber can help digestion." It is a fact, but it is not true if the words become "fiber can help digestion and prevent cancer of the brain." Although dietary intake will have some impact on health, it will not directly cause efficacy or efficacy. Consumers must clearly understand: "Food is pure food, and general food is pure food", and cannot be as effective as medicine.

The only food that can talk about and be effective requires a strict "healthy food" certification, that is, the small green tag that is often seen on packaging. But this does not mean that you can promote it after obtaining certification, but it must be based on the scope of words that the manufacturer originally obtained certification in 13 contents and meets the scope of its certification. Foods except for obtaining healthy food certification are called general foods and cannot be claimed to be effective.

There are currently announced in total 13 health-care effects, namely:

(1) bone health care, (2) blood lipid regulation, (3) difficulty in forming body fat, (4) liver protection, (5) immune regulation, (6) prolonged aging, (7) improvement of gastrointestinal function, (8) blood sugar regulation, (9) anti- Fatigue, (10) assist in regulating blood pressure, (11) assist in adjusting allergic quality, (12) dental health care, (13) promote iron availability, food market will not undergo pre-examination of advertising. Employers must be responsible for the direct harm of drugs, medical equipment, etc. to humans. The harm level of food itself is not so high, so there is no mechanism for pre-examination of advertisements before it is launched. also. The pre-advertising inspection mechanism may also limit the speed of the industry's development. For example, when a new product is launched with a pre-advertising, the advertising needs to be reviewed in advance, and it will be officially opened after 2017, but this also shows that the owner's independent management and awareness needs to follow. "The ability of entrepreneurs to review themselves is very important, and the words and sentences that open the content of the rules are also hoped to be followed." Dong Ruojie said that the correctness of advertising words basically falls on the operators.

Dong Ruojie explained that even if there are regulations in the "Food and Related Products Tags and Promotion Ads that involve unrealistic Zhang Yisheng's misunderstanding or medical performance recognition standards" series, the space and flexibility of the text is actually quite large. In addition to regular internal education and training, the Taipei Health Bureau hopes that through the disclosure of information after the inspection, it will allow operators and the public to understand the boundaries of food advertising terms more in a different direction.

Consumers can identify food stamps and operators need to follow the legal regulations update

In addition to the supervisory supervision, consumers actually need to have certain knowledge, and food is not so magical. Although advertising terms will indeed change continuously with the changes of the times, the most important core will not change: "Food does not have temporary effects." If it really has health benefits, it is only reliable to ask for scientific certification of healthy food. It does not mean that a few words in advertising can represent that food has special functions. Food is ultimately just food, in order to meet the most basic survival needs of human beings. The scope of advertising terms in the legal scope is quite clear, and food operators should also take responsibility for following the legal information, and do not touch the law and mistake consumers.