Nutricosmetics: Key European food legislation

There remains a lot of intrigue, some scepticism and a degree of nervous excitement about how this particular sector will develop. When it comes to nutricosmetics, a key issue is legislation. The exact classification of nutricosmetics remains a bit of a grey area and one of growing scrutiny, as theoretically they simply fall under the category and remit of foods and not cosmetics or medicines. This has a major impact in terms of what can and cannot be used ingredient-wise and probably most importantly what can and cannot be claimed. Unlike the cosmetic industry, where a good in vivo or even in vitro study demonstrating a benefit is often sufficient to make various (and at times exaggerated) claims, foods and food supplements are subject to tighter controls and regulations on claims. By the definition of the EU Council, if a product can “restore, correct or modify physiological functions by exerting a pharmacological, immunological or metabolic action”, it is no longer a food and would be seen as a medicine.1 Many claims that are deemed acceptable for topical cosmetic products, would not be allowed for use against foods and food supplements. The aim of this article is to discuss the key pieces of legislation that regulate the European food supplements market, and in turn directly impact future nutricosmetics products. This is, of course, taking the view that nutricosmetics fall under the category and scope of food supplements, which remains a topic for debate.

Overview of the nutricosmetics market

According to Datamonitor, the market value of nutricosmetics has grown throughout the last decade. In Europe, growth rates remain relatively consistent, with big differences in per capita spend across different countries. In a Datamonitor report, the nutricosmetics per capita spend for Germany, Italy and UK was similar at approximately US$ 3.40 to US$ 3.60. Netherlands and Sweden were a little lower at approximately US$ 2.75. France and Spain boasted the largest European per capita markets for nutricosmetics, each within excess of US$ 5.75, with the remainder of Europe currently with small markets of below US$ 1.00. Outside of EU, the US and Australian markets showed an average spend of US$ 3.40 to US$ 3.60. Datamonitor did specifically report that scepticism among US consumers regarding the viable benefits of nutricosmetics remains higher than most other regions. Asia was clearly the largest region for per capita spend, with South Korea and Hong Kong showing approximately US$ 7.00 and Japan way ahead of the rest with almost US$ 19.00.2 Consumer scepticism poses one of the biggest challenges for nutricosmetics, with many finding it difficult to relate to claims made for traditional marketed products. One of the factors of this, as identified by Datamonitor,2 could be that cosmetic consumers favour trusted and familiar products, whereas the nutricosmetics sector has traditionally been dominated with smaller niche brands and certainly not supported by the high profile and recognised conventional cosmetic companies by and large. The messages of “inner beauty” and “you are what you eat” are however simple to convey to consumers and easy for individuals to understand, so getting nutricosmetics right undoubtedly offers great opportunities.