Skin-whitening war: BFAD recalls certain batches

The Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD) has ordered the recall of “certain batches” of three brands of dietary supplements for containing insufficient amounts of glutathione, which has become very popular in the Philippines purportedly for skin whitening.

In an advisory, BFAD director Prof. Leticia Gutierrez has identified these products as Glutalife, Lucida-DS and Vaniderm, which were found to contain “less than the amount of glutathione they claim to possess.”

“In the interest of public welfare and public protection from deceptive sales and practices, the Department of Health-BFAD warns and advises all concerned that it has directed the importers and distributors to immediately recall from the Philippine market the specified batch/lot of (these) products,” she said.

Gutierrez said that concerned importers and distributors must “immediately establish or present evidence to the bureau that the other batches of the products in question contain sufficient amount of glutathione that they purport to possess.”

Covered by the recall are products with batch number 20078019 for Glutalife, lot number 168015L for Lucida-DS, and lot number 168015V for Vaniderm.

“Accordingly, all concerned parties are hereby enjoined to refrain from distributing or selling (these) identified batches of (glutathione) products,” Gutierrez said.