Dietary Supplements: Advertising

(asked on 29th April 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to regulate the advertisement of vitamins and diet supplements on (a) social media and (b) other media platforms.


Answered by
Jo Churchill Portrait
Jo Churchill
Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 13th May 2020

The advertising of vitamins and dietary supplements is governed by Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 on nutrition and health claims, Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 on the provision of food information to consumers, and the Food Safety Act 1990.

This legislation is incorporated into the United Kingdom Codes on Broadcast Advertising and Non-broadcast Advertising and Direct and Promotional Marketing. These Codes provide the rules for advertising and marketing across social media and other media platforms. The Advertising Standards Authority is the UK’s independent advertising regulator, responsible for administering and assessing compliance with its codes, ensuring that the self-regulatory system works in the public interest. If advertisers and broadcasters persistently break the Advertising Codes they may be referred to other bodies for further action, such as Trading Standards or Ofcom.

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