THE CHINA FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION recently issued a draft regulation, which stipulates that health food products cannot be named after their claimed health benefits and the advertising for such products should make clear they are dietary supplements. Beijing Youth Daily commented on Wednesday:

Heath foods are natural foods without artificial ingredients. In the West, such products face stricter supervision than normal foods do because of the health benefits promoted by the producers.

It is basically the same in China, where the industry boomed in the early 1980s, contributing greatly to the national revenues. However, the market has been rocked by scandals in recent years, and nowadays many Chinese citizens consider health foods to be a scam.