When selling food supplements you, as a food business operator, must be able to demonstrate that the substances in the product are safe and that they are not classified as a medicinal product, narcotic drug, novel food or "hälsofarlig vara".

Is there a list of permitted substances to be used in food supplements?

In the case of vitamins and minerals, only the forms listed in the Food Supplements Directive are allowed to be used in food supplements. There is no complete list of other substances which are allowed to be used in food supplements and in this forum we are not able to assess nor approve a particular product, however please find further guidance below.

Producing and selling food supplements

If you plan to start a new business selling food supplements, you need to register with the municipality (Kommunen). The municipality is your compentent authority and they are the ones which will will carry out food inspections of your business. A notification of registration must be made to them no later than two weeks before you start your food business. If you intend to handle, manufacture or repackage food supplements consisting of animal ingredients, such as repackaging fish oil capsules, you need to be approved by the Swedish Food Agency.

On our website, Starting a food business, we have gathered general information that you may find useful when starting your business. There are also links to pages with further information which may be of interest. Please also note that more information is available in Swedish in our website: Starta livsmedelsföretag.

Responsibilities and specific labelling requirements

On our website, Food supplements, you can find information about food supplements where you can read about:

•                        the applicable rules

•                        registration and approval

•                        how food supplements are defined

•                        which responsabilities your have as a food business operator

•                        and other information related to selling food supplements.

On the website there are also links to other pages where there is information that may be of interest, for example about e-commerce and how to find out if a food is classified as a Novel Food. In Swedish we have more information, which is accessible from our webpage: Kosttillskott för företagare. 

In addition to the general rules on food information, food supplements have to be labelled with additional information. Guidance is available on our website (in Swedish) - Märkning av kosttillskott - Kontrollwiki.

I hope the information and guidance available on these pages are useful.