Page 91 - Malaysian Dietary Supplement Industry Status and Outlook Report 2019-2020 Preview

Dietary supplements have always assumed a supplementary
role with regard to nutritional health, and for certain people
and certain communities, this can become an essential part
of their lives toward maintaining personal wellbeing. For
example, people living with medically diagnosed nutritional
deficiencies, including iron, calcium, essential vitamins, etc.
caused by diseases or genetic predisposition are one such
group.

Additionally, a range of other factors could also come into
play. For example, modern lifestyle factors, such as sleep
deprivation, late nights, and the “always-on” working culture
that have become prevalent among urbanites do not always
make balanced nutritional intake easily available nor
practical to do so on a consistent day-to-day basis.
Geographical factors in certain communities may also mean
that balanced nutritional sources may not be made available
to them, and cultural factors may inherently promote sub-
optimal nutritional intake. In all the above cases, dietary
supplements have a critical role to play and become a “must-
have”.

The spirit of this discussion revolves around the right for
people to choose what’s best for their individual wellbeing.
Dietary supplements are effective and practicable solutions
for a large majority of the population when it comes to
nutritional supplementation. Enhancing the perception of
the dietary supplements industry will increase awareness
serve to bring more choices to more people.

Mediating pressure to over-regulate between industry
stakeholders and parties with vested interests.

One area of frequent contention faced by dietary
supplement industries involve the tendency for over-
regulation of the industry. In particular, dietary supplement
industries are often likened to medicine/pharmaceutical
industries and subsequently, standards are often compared.

The comparison is understandable, given the similarity in
product appearances, sector application (i.e. health), and
where the products are sold (which largely coincide).

However, dietary supplement products are distinctly
different in purpose compared to pharmaceutical products.
Dietary supplements are typically consumed for general
health maintenance and disease prevention purposes,
whereas the latter are consumed for medication and curing
purposes.

Within regulatory frameworks (such as Malaysia’s), dietary
supplements are commonly treated as a category on its own,
sandwiched between food category (lowest regulatory
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