China's food and drug administration departments at provincial level will be responsible for approving health food ads as of July 1, according to the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA).
   
Interim Rules for Health Food Advertisement Reviewing, issued by SFDA, will go into effect on July 1 this year.
   
The rules said that health food ads must be approved by provincial food and drug administrations before they are published, they are not allowed to be disguised as news reports, and advise that "this product cannot substitute any medicine" must be marked clearly in printed ads and should be kept always on screen in TV commercials.
   
SFDA will also look into such aspects as whether the ad carries expressions that might cause confusion with drugs, whether it overstates curative effects, and whether it has made use of the name or image of medical institutions, doctors, experts or consumers to testify to specific efficacy, the government order said.
   
SFDA will publicize the list of health food ads that pass the examination on its official webpage after July 1 this year.
   
Food and drug administration departments at the provincial level will monthly publicize the notification of illegal health food commercials and ads, as the SFDA requires.
   
The problem of health food production enterprises using illegal ads to publicize themselves has become highly prominent in China, misleading consumers and harming their legal interests.

(Xinhua News Agency June 13, 2005)