TOKYO: A Japanese government panel is reviewing the system allowing food products to be labeled as having specific health benefits, in the wake of deaths and hospitalizations of users of Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Co.’s dietary supplements containing “beni koji” red yeast rice.

Aiming to draft measures to overhaul the “foods with function claims” system by the end of May, members of the Consumer Affairs Agency expert panel are focusing on ensuring the safety of functional foods and clarifying standards for reporting health damage.

Under the system, makers can obtain permission to make such claims by only reporting in advance certain scientific evidence regarding safety and functionality to the agency.

The system has been criticized for leaving it entirely up to functional food makers to guarantee the safety of their products.

The agency’s current guidelines call for health damage to be reported swiftly. However, the unprecedented beni koji supplement problem had not been reported for some two months since the company discovered it.

At the first panel meeting on April 19, members discussed the “good manufacturing practice,” or GMP, standards for production and quality management that medicine makers must meet.

One member said GMP should have helped Kobayashi Pharmaceutical detect a substance that must not exist in its products.

There was an opinion pointing to the guidelines’ vagueness about a deadline on problem reporting. Another member suggested that supplements be treated separately from other health foods, due to the risk of possible high concentrations of foreign substances.

Meanwhile, a separate member expressed concern that tighter safety standards would just end up promoting unregulated health foods, noting that makers would “opt to avoid regulations.”

The panel also listened to business and consumer groups.

Business representatives hoped the government will present concrete safety and quality control standards such as GMP while continuing to permit the function claim labeling on an advance reporting basis.

Skeptical about the safety of foods with function claims from the beginning, a consumer group called for a drastic overhaul of the system so the government can supervise those products under law.

The panel is set to meet next on May 8. It is expected to hold more hearings with parties concerned.

JIJI Press