Criteria for products containing vitamins or minerals: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced draft criteria for oral products containing vitamins or minerals. In April, the industry was concerned that the draft criteria might cover products that did not claim to have medical effects, which could potentially give rise to importation and sales problems. The ECCT urged the FDA to issue a clear response to address these concerns and the authority subsequently issued a clarification that the announcement was intended to address medical products, and those that did not claim to have medical effects will still fall under the same regulation the industry has been following.

Application of new standards to existing products: In the ECCT’s 2024 position paper, members recommended a longer grace period before implementing new standards in order to avoid wastage caused by scrapping large volumes of products that failed to meet new standards. At the meeting with the Energy Administration on 26 August, the Director-General urged his teams to communicate better with members of the ECCT when releasing new standards and also revealed that the grace period for new standards usually lasts for 3 years.