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This work was supported by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of de Government of Spain, State Program R&D Oriented Society Challenges, under Grant (CSO2017-82267-R).

Analysis of institutional authors

Muela-Molina, CCorresponding AuthorPerello-Oliver, SAuthorGarcia-Arranz, AAuthor

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September 27, 2022
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False and misleading health-related claims in food supplements on Spanish radio: an analysis from a European Regulatory Framework

Publicated to:Public Health Nutrition. 24 (15): 5156-5165 - 2021-10-01 24(15), DOI: 10.1017/S1368980021002007

Authors: Muela-Molina, Clara; Perello-Oliver, Salvador; Garcia-Arranz, Ana

Affiliations

Univ Rey Juan Carlos, Dept Commun Sci & Sociol, Camino Molino 5, Fuenlabrada 28942, Madrid, Spain - Author

Abstract

Objective: The excessive growth of the food supplements' industry highlights the need to focus attention on all aspects involved in their proper consumption; one that takes centre stage is advertising. The aim of this research is to analyse the presence of false and misleading claims in food supplements advertising. To this end, a relationship is established between the different types of health-related claims and the substances on which they are based, whether authorised or not by European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Design: This empirical work conducts a content analysis of all radio mentions broadcast throughout 2017 on news/talk radio stations. Setting: Spain. Participants: All radio mentions broadcast on news/talk commercial radio stations in Spain with the highest audience levels. The corpus is composed of 437 advertisements. Results: Results indicate that 80 center dot 3 % of function claims included in the analysed advertisements are not authorised by EFSA, while 20 center dot 4 % of disease claims are not allowed by EU regulation. Likewise, almost half of the substances referred to (43 center dot 7 %) are illicit: 54 center dot 1 % in function claims, 57 center dot 3 % in disease claims and 73 center dot 7 % in the case of reduction of disease risk claims. Conclusions: This work reveals consistent failures to comply with European regulation on food supplements advertising. The widespread use of unauthorised health claims and substances is aggravated by the indirect recourse of illness as a persuasive argument, descriptions of alleged benefits as product attributes and the omission of essential information. This leads to dangerous misinformation and can pose serious health risks. Stronger legal mechanisms are needed for effective consumer protection.

Keywords

AdvertisementsAdvertisingDietary supplementDietary supplementsDietary-supplementsEu regulationEuropean food safety authorityFood labelingFood packagingFood safetyFood supplementsHealth claimsHumanHumansInformationLawLegislation, foodMagazinesMisleading advertisingNutritionPublic-healthUs

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Public Health Nutrition due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency Scopus (SJR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2021, it was in position , thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health.

Independientemente del impacto esperado determinado por el canal de difusión, es importante destacar el impacto real observado de la propia aportación.

Según las diferentes agencias de indexación, el número de citas acumuladas por esta publicación hasta la fecha 2025-07-16:

  • WoS: 12
  • Scopus: 12
  • Europe PMC: 8

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-07-16:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 55.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 66 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 1.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 1 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (Muela Molina, Clara) and Last Author (García Arranz, Ana María).

the author responsible for correspondence tasks has been Muela Molina, Clara.