UK rules against slimming gum TV ads, despite EFSA approvals

The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled that even though EFSA had approved some claims around metabolism for biotin and other nutrients for raising metabolism, the claims were nonetheless misleading due to confusion over recommended doses.

The authority told UK supplements manufacturer LA Muscle its appetite suppression, fat burning, and metabolism regulation and boosting claims were non-authorised medicinal claims.

It added that: “Because we had not seen evidence that showed that SlimGum could ‘aid weight loss’, was a ‘weight management supplement’ or could ‘boost energy’ we concluded that those claims, and the claim ‘SlimGum’ itself, had not been substantiated and were misleading.”​

However similar claims for the gum were being made on the LA Muscle website today for the gum that contains 400 mg of green coffee bean extract (Svetol), 200 µg (micrograms) of chromium, 165 µg of thiamine, 7.5 µg of biotin, 40mg of green tea extract and 12mg of L-carnitine.

Thiamine and biotin have both won European Union health claim approval for being beneficial to metabolism. But despite SlimGum including those ingredients at the 15% RDA required to make the claim, the ASA said it was not clear in the ad that four sticks of the gum were required to gain that level of the ingredients.

Studies showing the beneficial weight benefits of the other ingredients were also included.