Daybreak - Your health supplement could lead to your next health disaster

Episode Date: May 5, 2023

India’s nutraceutical market is estimated  to be worth $4-5 billion and the government expects it to be worth almost five times more in the next two years. As important as it is to monitor the rapidly growing market, regulations have not really kept up.And in a post-Covid world where preventive healthcare has become all the rage, a dangerous situation is being created. Health supplement makers are flouting RDA guidelines and consumers have been paying little attention.Tune in to find out why you need to read the fine print before you buy your next dose of multivitamin gummies.Recommended reading: How healthy are health supplements? India’s food regulator wants to find outDaybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India's first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, analytical business stories.  

Hi, this is Rohan Dharma Kumar. If you've heard any of the Ken's podcasts, you've probably heard me, my interruptions, my analogies, and my contrarian takes on most topics. And you might rightly be wondering why am I interrupting this episode too. It's for a special announcement. For the last few months, I and Sita Ramon Ganeshan, my colleague and the Ken's deputy editor, have been working on an ambitious new podcast. It's called Intermission.

We want to tell the secret sauce stories of India's greatest companies. Stories of how they were born, how they fought to survive, how they build their organizations and culture, how they manage to innovate and thrive over decades, and most importantly, how they're poised today. To do that, Sita and I have been reading books, poring over reports, going through financial statements, digging up archives, and talking to dozens of people. And if that wasn't enough, we also decided to throw in video into the mix. Yes, you heard that right. Intermission has also had to find its footing in the world of multi-camera shoots in professional studios, laborious editing, and extensive post-production.

Sita and I are still reeling from the intensity of our first studio recording. Intermission launches on March 23rd. To get alert, as soon as we release our first video. episode, please follow intermission on Spotify and Apple Podcast or subscribe to the Ken's YouTube channel. You can find all of the links at the ken.com slash I am. With that, back to your episode. Do you take any health supplements, maybe iron tablets or calcium or those cute looking multivitamin gummies? If you do, then when and why did you start?

I'm asking, because lately, and you must have noticed this too, Almost everyone I know around me takes some supplement or the other. So it comes as no surprise that India's nutraceutical market is estimated to be worth $4 to $5 billion. And the Ministry of Food Processing Industries expects it to be worth almost five times more in the next two years. If you're wondering what nutraceuticals are, they are basically products with specific health benefits. For example, Garcinia Combogea, which is a popular weight loss supplement. Both nutraceuticals and dietary supplements are non-pharmaceutical products. Nutraceuticals are supposed to provide health benefits beyond the basic nutritional value

and help prevent and treat diseases. We see them both all the time in the forms of tablets, capsules, gums, powders, health drinks and energy bars. But tell me one thing. how many of us actually consult a doctor before taking these supplements? It is rare, right? For example, a lot of women, once they cross 30, casually start popping vitamin B12, D, calcium and iron supplements. But why?

Because that's what popular science dictates. But did you know there is something called vitamin poisoning? It can actually cause intestinal bleeding, liver damage and a bunch of other very dangerous problems. But with a market that's growing so fast, it is very difficult for the government to monitor each and every product. So last month, after receiving a host of different complaints, the food regulator told the food commissioners of all the states and union territories in India to carry out a special drive. They have been asked to check nutraceuticals and health supplements for quality and safety throughout their manufacturing and sale process. But while it wants to keep a check on the industry, the government still wants it to grow. In fact, it wants nutraceuticals to turn into a hundred billion dollar market.

But right now, the industry is a bit all over the place. Quite like the wild, while west, to be very honest. Welcome to Daybreak, a business podcast from the Kent. I'm your host, Nickda Sharma, and I don't chase the news cycle. Instead, thrice a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, I will come to you with one business story that is worth understanding and worth your time. Today is Friday, the 6th of May. You know, late last year, the New York Times ran a very interesting survey.

They asked a simple question, how useful are supplements? And the answer, according to the American Food and Drug Administration or the FDA, was not very. Because of the boom in the category, even the FDA has had a hard time trying to keep an eye on all the health supplements available in the market. It actually had to carry out a bunch of awareness programs to deal with all the misinformation out there about health supplements. And one important thing that they pointed out was that dietary supplements fall under the category of food, not medication.

And they said that any substance claiming to treat, diagnose, prevent, mitigate, or cure a disease is a drug. It is not a supplement. In India, too, it is not like the government is waking up to health supplements right now. It had first introduced norms through the Food Safety and Standards Regulation of 2016. But the industry has been growing very fast and the regulations have not been able to keep up. Two years ago, the ACP or the Association of Consumer Protection ran a survey. They looked at more than 50 nutraceutical and health supplement products,

which were being sold online. The results were scary. For example, vitamin D supplements contained 5,000 international units or IUs. This, dear listener, is more than eight times the prescribed limit. The maximum is supposed to be 600 IU per day for men and women. The ACP sent the report to the Union Health Ministry and the regulator to draw their attention to the issue. You know, before the pandemic hit us, India's nutritional market was mostly dominated by special dietary foods or protein powders. But COVID changed everything.

People began taking preventive healthcare very seriously. And along with it, the nutraceutical market expanded quite dramatically in the country. People are now ready to pay a good amount of their money for these products. A February 2020 report by the consulting firm EY said that more than 80% of Indians saw healthy as a more important buying factor after the pandemic. And a little less than half of the respondents said that they would pay a premium for products promoting health and wellness. But how many of them actually checked the label for the ingredients? How many know what is the prescribed limit? and most importantly, our health supplement makers following the standard prescription dosage

in the products that they offer. Stay tuned to find out more. The Food Safety and Standards Act of 2006 prescribes ingredients, which is a list of plant extracts, molecules and so on for the production of nutraceuticals. We spoke to Pridip Chakrabarti, a former director at the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. He told us that a company has to use ingredients from this prescribed lists and also according to the recommended dietary allowance or RDA prescribed by Indian standards. Anything else is a contravention.

But the February 2021 study by the ACP found many cases where companies were not complying with the Act. One example is vitamin D3 supplements by now foods which is a US-based company that sells its products on various e-commerce platforms in India, including 1MG and Flipcott. The label clearly says that each capsule contains 5,000 IUs, and it recommends taking one capsule once every two days. But you won't believe that 5,000 IUs is more than 600% higher than the prescribed limit. Think about that. Then there is the nutraceutical brand and consumer nutrition platform Health Cards Vitamin D3.

The product is available in soft gel form and is recommended for daily use or as prescribed by a physician. But the label on the product does not mention the recommended dietary allowance or RDA. And though it exceeds the allowed RDA limit for vitamin D, it is at least within the tolerable upper limit of 100 MCG per day. The study by ECP has listed many other supplements with an excessive range of RDAs, but healthcare professionals are not too concerned. Now though, there is a growing interest from foreign companies in India's market.

And because of this, something quite unique is happening. Industry players from the country themselves are demanding that regulations be implemented strictly. But that is not the only concern, of course. They say that they're also worried about general public health. For example, Dr. Anish Desai, who is the founder and chief executive of IntelliMed Healthcare Solutions and a member of the expert Nutraceutical Advocacy Council, told us that anything above prescribed limits or out of the schedule list can have counter effects. Industry experts have also been demanding stricter control over the sale of health supplements

and nutraceuticals in the online space, especially because it is also where foreign companies have carved their niche. Dr. Desai told us that e-commerce sites are getting away by saying that they're just the service providers and that the product manufacturers should be held responsible. So while this to and fro continues and until the government comes up with appropriate regulations that are up to date with this rapidly growing industry,

please check the last. label of that multivitamin coming that you were going to order online. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of the Ken, India's first subscriber-focused business news platform. What you're listening to is just a small sample of our subscriber-only

offerings. A full subscription unlocks daily long-form feature stories, newsletters, subscriber-only apps, and podcast extras. Head to the Ken.com and click on the red subscribe button on the top of the website. I am Snidtha Sharma, your host, and

Today's episode was edited by my colleague Rajiv Sien.