Surely if a supplement or sports food makes a promise to improve performance it must be true?
Most people believe that government laws would prevent supplement companies from making outrageous or untrue claims about their products. In other words, they believe that if a company makes a claim, particularly in writing, it must be correct. Unfortunately, this is not the case. In Australia, supplements that belong to the pill, potion and powder category fall under the control of the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA). Most fall within the ‘listable’ items category, the most lightly regulated category of the TGA, and are required only to provide proof that they don’t contain ingredients that are banned by our custom laws. The TGA has no requirement that a product must have proof of its benefits to be accepted at this level. Sports foods, including bars and drinks, fall under the control of Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ). FSANZ provides regulations about the ingredients and labeling of sports foods, and permits a limited number of claims to be made on the product pa
