The Federal Control Service for the Protection of Consumer Rights and Human Wellbeing (known by the Russian acronym Rospotrebnadzor) points out in a press release that despite concerted efforts to curb the production and distribution of poor-quality or counterfeit supplements, the Federal Drugs Control Office, the Interior Ministry's Economic and Tax Crime Department, and the Patent Agency have not yet been able to eradicate such practices altogether.
Discrepancy between data presented on the product's label and in its registration certificate is the most prevalent type of abuse, accounting for as much as 20.5 percent of all violations in this area. Also, food supplements are often offered for sale without producing any safety and quality certificates or registration papers. Some producers and distributors try to present their food supplements as medications, providing false information as to their composition and medicinal properties, the press release says.
According to Rospotrebnadzor, the number of registered food supplements is now on the increase in Russia. Authorized is the production of 4,950 dietary supplements, as of October 1, 2004.
Some 77,907 fines, totaling over 95 million roubles (the dollar currently buys 28.68 roubles), were imposed in the year's first half, to punish detected violations of sanitary legislation in producing and selling food products, including dietary supplements.
Dietary supplements, produced on the basis of natural or identical ingredients, can be consumed on their own or together with food. They are meant to enrich people's diet with biologically active elements. Food supplements come in various pharmaceutical forms, such as powders, pills, capsules, syrups, extracts, infusions, and concentrates produced on the basis of vegetable, animal or mineral raw material or using chemical and biotechnological methods.
