Detox cure, slimming solution, immunity booster or anti-stress: one in four French people regularly consumes food supplements. Often perceived as natural and without danger, they can however cause serious side effects, recalls ANSES.
While 37 % of French people wrongly think that food supplements “compensate for a poor diet” according to the Critical spirit 2025 barometerthe National Agency for Health Safety animates this Tuesday, March 25, a round table at the Cité des Sciences, in Paris, to “deconstruct the received ideas on these products”.
What are we talking about?
Present in force in pharmacies, advertisements or on the Internet, food supplements are on the border between diet and medication. Vitamins B, C, D or trace elements, the French love it. Since 2019, sales of food supplements have jumped 56 %, according to a barometer of the lobby of health products without a prescription, Nères.
However, in general and in the absence of pathology, “covering nutritional needs is possible by a varied and balanced diet in the context of a physically active daily life”, recalls ANSES. “The consumption of food supplements is then not necessary,” said the agency.
Some exceptions, however, for populations at risk of deficiencies: pregnant women, elderly, or vegan, “who excluding all animal commodities have no contribution in vitamin B12”, illustrates Aymeric Dopter, head of the risk assessment unit linked to handles.
What supervision?
Unlike drugs, food supplements are not subject to a marketing authorization. No effectiveness or safety study is required before marketing. They cannot therefore claim therapeutic effects.
If they promise results against overwork, nervousness, sleep problems or extra pounds, nutritional allegations and health that they can display on their packaging are framed by the European Union. For example, zinc can claim “contribute to the normal functioning of the immune system”.
However, many food supplements – sold mainly on the Internet – will be further and mirrors miracles against various pathologies. Some thus ensure care of cancers, fight against fertility problems, or cure endometriosis. “On the internet, we discover the dark side of food supplements: we sell absolutely anything and anything,” observes Aymeric Dopter.
According to the Directorate General for Competition, Consumption and the Repression of Frauds (DGCCRF), on 95 websites marketing food supplements in 2017 (last figures available), 76 % were not compliant.
What risks?
“The consumption of food supplements is wrongly trivialized, this is the problem,” alerts Irène Margaritis, assistant to the director of risk assessment.
Since 2009, ANSES has established a nutrivigilance system to monitor the undesirable effects linked in particular to the consumption of food supplements. In 2024 alone, the agency – which has no health police powers – received more than 500 reports. After analysis, it issues on average seventeen alerts each year on dangerous products from the public authorities.
Far from being trivial, the consumption of food supplements can present nutritional risks, misuse or drug interactions, which consumers are often not aware.
Zinc can create for example copper deficiencies, aloe vera is contraindicated in the event of intestinal occlusion, or echinacea in the event of pathology of the immune system. As for vitamin D, ANSES had alerted in 2023 on overdose in infants linked to taking food supplements.
Recently, the health agency also pulled the alarm from the “appetite suppressant” based on the Garcinia Cambogia plant, after several cases of liver damage, including a mortal. For these reasons, ANSES recommends that any food supplement be discussed beforehand with a health professional. “Whether for fatigue or a lack of tone, you should not try to solve the problem alone by throwing yourself on food supplements,” pleads Aymeric Dopter. “Behind, there can always be something more serious and therefore a delay in care.”