TOKYO: Japan introduced a system Sunday to oblige businesses to report health damage from supplements and other food products labeled as having specific health benefits and “tokuho” foods with health improvement effects to authorities including the Consumer Affairs Agency.

The measure is aimed at enabling administrative authorities to quickly grasp related information and prevent the spread of health damage, in the wake of health problems caused by Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Co.’s supplements containing its “beni koji” red fermented rice.

According to the agency, businesses were previously asked to report health damage under related guidelines, but there were no clear deadlines.

The government therefore revised the food labeling standards and other regulations to oblige businesses to make reports to the agency and local health offices swiftly once they become aware of information on suspected health damage recognized by doctors even if a causal link between the problems and the intake of supplements or other foods is unclear.

When two or more cases of the same health problem take place again within about 30 days, health damage reports must be made within 15 days. For serious cases, such as death and hospitalization, reporting within 15 days is mandatory even for a single incident.

Businesses are allowed to sell food products with specific health benefits after reporting their safety and scientific evidence to the government, under a system different from that for tokuho products, which require government screening.

In order to improve the credibility of food products with specific health benefits, companies are now obliged to check their products regularly and release the results every year. The first reports will be made in fiscal 2025.

Businesses that violated the regulations will be instructed or ordered not to label the products in question as having specific health benefits.

If companies fail to report health damage to authorities, they would be slapped with administrative penalties such as business suspension.

JIJI Press