Department of Communication Sciences and Sociology, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Camino del Molino, 5, 28942 Fuenlabrada (Madrid), Spain.
Public Health Nutr. 2021 Oct;24(15):5156-5165. doi: 10.1017/S1368980021002007. Epub 2021 May 11.
The excessive growth of the food supplements' industry highlights the need to focus attention on all aspects involved in their proper consumption; one that takes centre stage is advertising. The aim of this research is to analyse the presence of false and misleading claims in food supplements advertising. To this end, a relationship is established between the different types of health-related claims and the substances on which they are based, whether authorised or not by European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).
This empirical work conducts a content analysis of all radio mentions broadcast throughout 2017 on news/talk radio stations.
Spain.
All radio mentions broadcast on news/talk commercial radio stations in Spain with the highest audience levels. The corpus is composed of 437 advertisements.
Results indicate that 80·3 % of function claims included in the analysed advertisements are not authorised by EFSA, while 20·4 % of disease claims are not allowed by EU regulation. Likewise, almost half of the substances referred to (43·7 %) are illicit: 54·1 % in function claims, 57·3 % in disease claims and 73·7 % in the case of reduction of disease risk claims.
This work reveals consistent failures to comply with European regulation on food supplements advertising. The widespread use of unauthorised health claims and substances is aggravated by the indirect recourse of illness as a persuasive argument, descriptions of alleged benefits as product attributes and the omission of essential information. This leads to dangerous misinformation and can pose serious health risks. Stronger legal mechanisms are needed for effective consumer protection.
保健品行业的过度发展凸显出需要关注其正确消费的各个方面，而广告则成为关注焦点。本研究旨在分析保健品广告中虚假和误导性声称的存在。为此，建立了不同类型的与健康相关的声称与基于这些声称的物质之间的关系，无论这些物质是否得到欧洲食品安全局（EFSA）的授权。
这项实证工作对 2017 年在新闻/谈话广播电台播出的所有广播广告进行了内容分析。
西班牙。
所有在西班牙收听率最高的新闻/谈话商业广播电台播出的广播广告。该语料库由 437 个广告组成。
结果表明，在所分析的广告中，80.3%的功能声称未经 EFSA 授权，而 20.4%的疾病声称未经欧盟法规允许。同样，所提到的物质中有近一半（43.7%）是非法的：功能声称中占 54.1%，疾病声称中占 57.3%，疾病风险降低声称中占 73.7%。
这项工作揭示了在保健品广告方面，欧洲法规一直未能得到遵守。未经授权的健康声称和物质的广泛使用，因间接诉诸疾病作为有说服力的论点、将所谓的益处描述为产品属性以及省略重要信息而变得更加严重。这导致了危险的错误信息，并可能带来严重的健康风险。需要更强大的法律机制来有效保护消费者。
