Vitamins and food supplements: choosing the container
A box of vitamins looks like a medicine: capsules, a white bottle, a cap. Yet in law it is a food. That double nature guides the choice of its packaging.
By Tecmom editorial team · 2 min read
A food that looks like a medicine
In the European Union, Directive 2002/46/EC defines food supplements as foodstuffs intended to supplement the normal diet, concentrated sources of nutrients, vitamins and minerals, or other substances, marketed in dose form: capsules, tablets, pastilles, powder sachets, drop bottles.
They are foods. Their packaging therefore falls under food contact rules: Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004 and, for plastics, Regulation (EU) No 10/2011. See what migration means.
The same enemies as medicines
Like many active substances, some vitamins and extracts are sensitive to moisture, oxygen or light. Effervescent tablets react to the slightest trace of water. The packaging questions are therefore those of pharmacy:
- the barrier of the wall, against moisture and oxygen;
- closure tightness, opening after opening;
- a desiccant when the product needs one. See silica gel;
- a tint or opacity when it is light-sensitive. See amber bottles.
Three common containers
- The wide-neck bottle, often HDPE: it lets a hand or a scoop in, and suits capsules as well as powders.
- The pill container, often PP, with a screw or hinged lid: handy for small quantities taken daily.
- The rigid tube closed by a cap, often with a desiccant: the classic form for effervescent tablets.
The choice depends on the dosage form, the quantity per pack and the product's sensitivity, more than on habit.
In the Tecmom range
The Tecmom catalogue lists wide-neck HDPE bottles, PP pill containers and rigid tablet tubes whose cap can take a silica gel desiccant. See food packaging.
A food supplement is not a medicine, but its pack faces the same enemies. The right container is the one that keeps the last capsule as intact as the first.
Glossary
- Food supplement
- A food concentrated in nutrients, sold in dose form.
- Wide neck
- A bottle opening large enough to pour or scoop easily.
- Pill container
- A small container for tablets or capsules, with a screw or hinged lid.
- Desiccant
- A material that captures moisture from the air inside a pack.