[Safety of health foods and importance of their origin].

The safety guideline for voluntary inspections on the ingredients used for capsulated or pellet food, announced by the director of the department of food safety of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare on February 1, 2008 states that "how to guarantee the origin" is the top priority to ensure safety. However, in the course of our continuous investigation of the origin of natural products, the ingredients of some health food products such as chondroitin sulfate, white kwao keur (Pueraria candollei var. mirifica) and black cohosh did not originate from the labeled material. The usage of the correct origin is the fist step for the quality assurance of "health food". Therefore, we believe that regulatory requirements for accurately indicating the origin of "health foods" and effective enforcement of these requirements are needed.