“We’re good at publishing obesity plans, but not funding action”: That’s how the president of the Nutrition Society of Malaysia Dr E-Siong Tee has described his country’s efforts at improving health in a nation where one-in-two adults are overweight or...
Regulators in Asia should not wait for new CODEX regulations for infant formula and act now to cut the amount of protein required in order to help reduce obesity, a leading expert in the region has argued.
According to a senior official at the FSSAI, the food authority has now cast off its reputation as an impregnable fortress whose top-down approach risked alienating food players across India.
Singapore’s minister of state for health has revealed a new business-first approach to encourage healthier food development as part of a three-pronged “war on diabetes”.
In its latest cleanup of its food facility registration database, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has culled an eye-opening 28% of existing registrations. The biggest drops happened in overseas sites.
A large number of Korean infants and young children still develop iron deficiency anaemia despite increased breastfeeding rates, improvements in public health and a rise in iron-fortified food, a recent study discovered.
Pharmacists in South East Asia need to play a pivotal role in guiding pregnant women to take the correct supplements and combat the widespread ‘misinformation’ that is available online.
Indonesian regulators didn’t have the ‘full picture’ when they slashed the permitted daily limit for omega-3 health claims earlier this year, claims the country’s trade association boss.
The New Zealand government is committed to helping natural products and supplements firms meet their export potential by removing barriers to innovation, according to the country’s environment minister.
Trade body Natural Products New Zealand is hoping new industry regulations – which it believes will help boost exports – can finally be passed before the nation’s elections in September.
Misleading health claims are still rife in Indonesia despite tighter functional food rules, claims a new association set up to ‘professionalise the industry’.
China’s Commerce Ministry appears to have halted plans for more stringent cross border e-commerce rules, meaning many goods will still be regarded as personal trade, rather than for commercial distribution.
Complementary medicine firms in Australia have just one week more to respond to a raft of proposed regulatory changes being considered by the Therapeutic Goods Administration.
Vitamins manufacturer Blackmores was fined AUS$65,000 (US$50,000), and publicly named and shamed by authorities in China for breaching strict advertising laws.
There is vast scope to improve glycaemic control among type 2 diabetics in Malaysia by boosting nutrition knowledge and the intake of dairy, a cross-sectional study has found.
China’s ageing population has poorer cognitive and physical function compared with their counterparts from 10 years ago, according to the largest study of its kind, published in The Lancet.
Bangladesh’s considerable nutritional improvements in recent years can be attributed to wider economic and social progress, not specific nutrition-focused policies which have been branded ‘weak’ and ‘sporadic’.
Japan will provide more staff to work at the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to underscore its efforts to help reduce hunger and malnutrition in developing countries.
A number public policy, health and community measures have been identified by researchers in Australia to help reduce rising obesity rates among child immigrants.
More infants in Vietnam received complementary foods thanks to a widespread social franchising, marketing and branding campaign that targeted new mothers, providing 'rigorous evidence' that such strategies can help combat malnutrition.
Gaining a greater understanding of Singaporeans' understanding of supplements – and the types of services and advice they want pharmacists to provide – has become a key focus for Blackmores Institute as it prepares to host its first symposium in...
'Kids throw milk at each other...it's a waste of public money'
Students in Sri Lanka are not eating healthy diets and are shunning school milk programmes due to social and cultural factors, and until these are tackled the country’s double burden of malnutrition will remain, experts say.
Industry and academic experts have been responding to Australia’s decision to establish a legal medicinal cannabis trade – with most welcoming it as a positive first step – while others are eagerly awaiting a judgement in April which will rule if hemp...
More than 20% of Indonesian homes are thought to experience the double burden of malnutrition – both undernutrition and overweight/obesity – with households of a higher socioeconomic status most at risk.
Two job role changes have been announced at Natural Products NZ (NPNZ), the industry body representing the country’s natural products, functional foods, complementary medicines, and nutraceuticals industries.
While the rest of the world celebrated Valentine’s Day with hearts and flowers, the Thai government handed out “very magical” vitamin supplements to encourage prospective mothers to boost the country’s birth rate.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has set up a panel of doctors and research scientists to prepare the final version of its food fortification laws – a move that would facilitate the inclusion of micronutrients to several food staples.
The lack of a coordinated national approach to the Australian obesity epidemic is “unacceptable”, according to the Chair of the Council of Presidents of Medical Colleges, who is calling for more clinical trials to assess solutions and a soft drinks tax...
The overall diet quality of the Australian population is poor and targeted interventions for young-adults, males, the obese and those with lower socio-economic status are sorely needed.
Maternal age and place of residence played key roles in whether children under five years old were given Vitamin A supplements in Pakistan, a new study reveals.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has pledged to ‘close the gap’ in micronutrient malnutrition after releasing a consultation paper on food fortification.
Trade body Complementary Medicines Australia (CMA) has insisted consumers can have full confidence in products purchased in Australia after a new review claimed it was a 'misperception' that herbal medicines are safe.
A quirk of the latest go round in the FDA facility registration process means thousands of foreign firms could find their registrations have lapsed, a leading consultant tells NutraIngredients-USA.
Myanmar has vowed to tackle child stunting and widespread micronutrient deficiencies, and include nutritional wellbeing in its national development planning.
Australian trade body Complementary Medicines Australia (CMA) has given its seal of approval to proposed new regulations that propose a ‘third health claim pathway’ for supplements.
A new study indicates that Korean teenagers who regularly consume energy drinks are at “great risk” of mental health problems, particularly when consumed in combination with junk food, researchers claim.
With more than 100 infant milk powder manufacturers established and thousands of product lines launched in the last 30 years, overcrowding in the segment appears to have hit Chinese businesses hard.
An analysis of more than 100 locally-manufactured premixed infant cereals from low and middle income countries, including Indonesia, China and Nepal, has revealed widespread variation in nutritional content, sparking concerns they could contribute to...
Food and nutrition firms in APAC have to contend with a diverse and at times contradictory regulatory landscape across the region, with rules and laws being amended or introduced all the time. And 2016 was no exception.
LGC has launched its sports nutrition supplements testing programme ‘Informed-Choice’ in Japan with the support of the brand DNS and auditing specialists Biohealth Research.
The food industry is experiencing growth in the demand for natural products, as people become more savvy and selective about what they put into their bodies. Consumers are willing to pay a premium for “pure” products and want to know what is in their...
A study of school children in a Northern Territory Indigenous community has found that around half are iron-deficient, leading researchers to claim it is a major public health problem.
Only two countries out of the 19 being monitored in Asia-Pacific will meet the UN’s second Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of achieving zero hunger by 2030 if prevalence of undernourishment rates (PoU) continue to reduce at 2010-15 rates.
