Beware of Mistaking Collagen as Regular Food or Health Functional Food

Korea Consumer Agency, Survey Results of 20 General Collagen Food Products

Online Display and Advertising Cases.

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chun-han] It has been found that some collagen products, although classified as general foods, are being advertised by manufacturers in a way that may cause consumers to mistakenly believe they are health functional foods, requiring caution.

On the 13th, the Korea Consumer Agency conducted an investigation into the safety and labeling/advertising practices of 20 collagen general food products (10 powder sticks and 10 jelly sticks) currently distributed in the market. The results showed that, except for one product, 19 products were being advertised online in a manner that could be mistaken for health functional foods despite being general foods.

Eight products displayed "Not applicable" in the product description section of online advertisements where the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety’s recognized main functional items should have been indicated, but instead were labeled with terms like "skin elasticity." Additionally, 15 products indicated collagen’s functionality or effects on body tissues, which could mislead consumers into thinking they are health functional foods. Eight products included efficacy or effects of ingredients other than collagen or contained false or exaggerated advertisements. Furthermore, two products were involved in comparative advertising with collagen products from other companies by the respective manufacturers.

Among the sellers of these products, 15 accepted the Consumer Agency’s recommendations and voluntarily improved the problematic parts. One company partially accepted the recommendations and improved its labeling and advertising, while three companies did not respond but independently changed their online mall labeling/advertising or stopped selling the products.

All investigated products posed no safety issues. However, some products contained sugar levels amounting to 40?50% of the total volume, requiring caution during consumption. Powder stick products had an average sugar content of 10% relative to total volume, while jelly stick products averaged 32%. Notably, two jelly stick products contained sugar levels at about 50% of the total volume (20?22g), meaning that consuming just one stick would provide over 20% of the recommended daily sugar intake (50g) from processed foods. Twelve products showed discrepancies between labeled sugar content and actual content or had issues with product information such as ingredient names, leading to recommendations for improvement.

The Consumer Agency urged consumers to verify the food type indicated on products to avoid mistaking general foods for health functional foods and to be cautious not to be misled by collagen functionality advertisements for general foods.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.