Herbal Supplement Making & Selling

Redzer4

Hi All,

Wondering if anyone can point me in the right direction......because I can't find much out there.

I am hoping to create a herbal supplement in capsule form and sell online, and perhaps a mixed herbal supplement also. I am not looking to become a supplement manufacturer. I have a diploma in a Holistic Healthcare Practitioners course and know how to make extracts, capsules, tinctures etc.

What hoops would one have to jump through to make this happen? Would I require chemists, labs etc. or could this be done on a more small start out basis?

Any info or links would be awesome,
Thank you!!

CantGetNoSleep

In theory you need market authorisation (I think from FSAI). In practice I don't know if all supplements you see on sale have this or not. This requires an analysis of the product from a lab.

You also need to be aware of Health Claims legislation - essentially you cannot make any unauthorised claim about benefits of your product. Enforcement of this will become even stricter in the coming months / years I would imagine.

Redzer4

Hi Can't get no sleep,

Thank you for responding. So would it be safe to say that I could import my powdered herb and go ahead encapsulate it, have a lab do a report on it, package and label then?
Or would encapsulating this powder mean I would have to have a manufacturing facility?
I contacted FSAI but really got no further in regards to information from them.....I really feel so lost.....
There seems to be so much red tape to setting up yet so little info help or support for people who are trying....if you know of somewhere else I should be looking I'd really appreciate the links/info

Thanks a mille

CantGetNoSleep

Look at the bottom of this page (second last and third last):

http://www.fsai.ie/legislation/food_legislation/food_supplement.html

Tbh I'm not sure on the manufacturing facility aspect - I haven't got much experience of that exact area. Check the ingredients allowed in food supplements under the EU Directive and check that your powdered herb is one of them - you don't want your supplement being classified as a medicinal product.

The link I gave doesn't go into the claims area enough, but this is something you need to think of. Is it a product which is already widely available and may have an EFSA approved health claim? Otherwise how will you convince people they need it?

Redzer4

Thank you, so here lies my issue and sense of confusion...... because the list of supplements mentioned in the eu directive are all mostly vitamins and minerals whereas mine is a herb.....perhaps submitting a dossier to fsai on the product, it's components and potential benefits would suffice or maybe this just falls under food. It would be a kin to selling echinacea in a capsule form but buying in the dried echinacea powder extract.

Thanks for the help..... Greatly appreciated!!