Supplements face tight regulation in Canada, expert says



Peter Jones, a leading expert on supplements, explains how to make sure the supplements you choose are safe. The natural health products industry is anywhere from highly regulated to loosely controlled, depending on the country. In Canada supplements face tight regulation. Each week’s Empowered Health episode will be accompanied by a page in The Sun full of stories and tips designed to put you in control of your health.


The good news is that Canada, the United States and Europe are world leaders in supplement regulation because national governments have stepped in to ensure reasonable claims are made and only safe products make it to market, says Peter Jones, director of the Richardson Centre for Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals at the University of Manitoba,

This regulation is critical for an industry that Jones says is “rife with examples of supplements that either don’t have what they’re supposed to have in them or they don’t do what the label says they’re supposed to do.”

Canada has one of the more stringent regulatory systems, led by the Natural Health Product Directorate (NHPD), an organization within Health Canada that tries to ensure Canadians have access to products that are “safe, effective and of high quality while respecting freedom of choice.”

The NHPD performs several critical functions that don’t exist in other countries.

Companies seeking to get a new product into the natural health product market must provide the NHPD with a detailed dossier outlining all elements of the product’s ingredients, source materials and research history.

That dossier is evaluated in a variety of ways.

Does the product contain what it claims to? Are there any toxic or potentially harmful ingredients? And finally, is there clinical proof that the product does what it claims to?

Jones says the NHPD “is extremely important in putting up boundaries and limitations about what companies can say in terms of claims around supplements.”

Dossiers must be specific about how the product will be described, and the NHPD must be able to confirm the product performs as promised. Companies must provide evidence of objective studies and thorough research.

If a product is up to snuff, it will be given a Natural Product Number, or NPN.

The NPN certifies that a product is safe for public consumption and, as Jones puts it, is the product’s badge of credibility.

The regulatory process is not just a rubber stamp. Jones says “there are more submissions where the NPN is not provided for whatever reason, than where it is.”

Compared with countries like Japan, where companies can submit trials they themselves conducted as evidence a product is reliable, Canada is a leader in the regulation of natural health products.

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