Consumers' vigilance urged in buying food supplements

CEBU, Philippines - Senator Pia Cayetano is encouraging the public not to be lured by food supplements that advertise “tempting health benefits” but actually have no approved therapeutic effects.

“Gullible kasi tayo. Madali tayong mapaniwala lalo na pag sikat yung endorsers ng produkto,” Cayetano said in a press conference yesterday.

Food supplements labeled “No approved therapeutic claim”, according to Cayetano, would mean that there are no studies yet conducted whether such product is effective or not.

She emphasized that even if such product is registered at the Food and Drugs Administration (formerly Bureau of Food and Drugs Administration), it does not mean that it has passed through intensive study on the effects.

“What FDA is checking is just the content of the products and not whether the product is effective or not,” Cayetano explained.

Meanwhile, as part of her advocacy to empower the country’s grassroots health workers, she graced the Pinay in Action Health and Wellness Summit for some 400 barangay health workers in the cities of Cebu, Mandaue, Talisay and Lapu-Lapu.

Jointly organized by Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia, the one-day summit also supports the event “Samahan laban sa pekeng gamot”, a multisectoral coalition which seeks to raise public awareness on the proliferation and danger of counterfeit medicines.

One of the event’s main thrusts is to educate BHWs on the dangers of counterfeit medicines and how to identify and report possible fake drugs.

“This is our way of educating and enhancing the skills of our BHWs who are considered the frontliners in the delivery of basic health services to the community,” said Cayetano, who is one of the authors of the landmark Cheaper Medicines Act and the FDA Act of 2009.

The lady senator added that the said counterfeit drug contains incorrect ingredients or insufficient amounts of active ingredients resulting in the reduction of its safety, efficacy or purity. It may also refer to a medicinal product which is deliberately and fraudulently mislabeled with respect to its identity and source. — Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon/MEEV (FREEMAN NEWS)