Japan Makes Supplement Health Damage Reports Mandatory

Tokyo, Sept. 1 (Jiji Press)--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.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]