The consumer protection organisation Testachats has filed a complaint with the Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain (AFSCA) and is warning consumers against purchasing collagen-based food supplements.
Collagen-based food supplements are in Testachats’ sights. The cause is claims such as “beneficial for joints” (which are illegal because they are not validated by Europe) and other misleading claims (without valid scientific study) such as “reduces skin aging“.
Increasingly present on the shelves of pharmacies and drugstores, collagen-based food supplements are gaining popularity on social networks, where some influencers are trying to persuade consumers of the supposed benefits of these “miracle products“They are said to hydrate the skin, fight aging and improve joint health.
Testachats spokesperson Julie Frère explains: “What we see is that in reality, today, there is no scientific study that can convincingly prove the effectiveness of these collagen-based food supplements. These are studies conducted on a very small scale, which are not reliable and are very often contradictory.“.
She also points out that these treatments can often be very expensive, for results that are not always visible.We often spend a lot of money, sometimes up to 200 euros per month for a collagen treatment. And this, for a product whose effectiveness has not been proven.” she adds.
It should be noted that health claims such as “beneficial for joints” And “moisturizer” cannot be used freely. They are strictly regulated by European regulations and must be approved by the European Commission. To date, no such authorisation has been granted for collagen.
Studies showing that collagen actually reduces skin aging have been conducted on a very small scale, in addition to obtaining contradictory results. Testachats therefore considers this type of claim to be misleading.
Collagen health
