The Czech Agriculture and Food Inspection Authority pays a constant attention to inspections of food supplements. Within a targeted inspection, 102 food supplements which in certain regard did not comply with requirements of legislation were revealed in the previous year. This way, already 52 non-complying supplements were detected this year. The most frequent deficiency is a wrong labelling of products – the packaging for example fails to specify information on dosage, best before date or whether the product in question is a food supplement. The Inspection Authority also bans products of which labelling contains a claim attributing medical effects or preventive effects to the given product. As food supplements are not medicaments, their labelling mustn’t indicate such claims. In exceptional cases, laboratory analysis confirms presence of a dangerous substance such as pharmacologically effective substance with health side effects.

By means of laboratory tests, the Inspection Authority also verifies whether the examined supplements really contain substances specified in the composition or whether these substances are contained in the amount given on the labelling. The latest inspection activity of the Inspection Authority was focused on food supplements containing coenzyme Q10. Inspectors took 30 samples of various products at shops or directly at importers and the real content of coenzyme Q10 was compared with the information given on the labelling. All products were assessed as satisfactory except for one. It was product titled Kapsle pro vitální pleť (Capsules for Vital Skin) distributed by DM drugstore network. This product was supposed to contain 5 milligrams of coenzyme Q10, however, the real content was only 0,65 milligrams. The product in question was withdrawn from the retail network from the reason of misleading the consumers and the producer decided to destroy it on his own expenses.

The Czech Agriculture and Food Inspection Authority will naturally continue in inspections of food supplements including those that contain coenzyme Q10.