Health Claims and Detox Tea

Teas.com.au Q&A Session

Health claims are tricky, sticky mess.

Truth is a lot of people drink tea, particularly herbals for health benefits. Yet, the world is generally regularly to protect pharmaceutical giants.

So if you want to sell tea for health – you have 2 choices – this is what we will talk about in this video.

We have some “ninja” tricks to share in this video – they remind me of the movie Fight Club. Check it out below.

In the above video: Today, we are going to talk about health claims.

A lot of the health claims conversation started when a customer inquire about detox tea or weight loss tea.

We want to share our point of view regarding the technicalities involve in health claims.

Let me just remind you though that I am no lawyer and this is merely an opinion of mine taking into account my years of experience in the tea business.

If you are uncertain, seek legal advice.

What I am going to share to you are the things that we have learned by working in this industry for 11 years.

The first thing that you need to take note of, AVOID ANY BIG WORDS!

Such as remedy for cancer, cholesterol, heart condition terminology, pregnancy, and all other multisyllabic medical words.

The difficulty is some of the teas, especially herbal products, are often designed for a particular function.

Such as to improve sleep, make you feel better, help with blood pressure problems, and many more.

Generally speaking, if you are to going to promote health claims in your tea, you need to speak to The Therapeutic Good Australia (TGA) to make sure that your product is in compliance with their requirements.

That is not what we do and not what we are after because the training we have in relation to understanding the health claim is quite different.

When we speak of health claim, it refers to a more scientific approach.

More like pills, for example, this is made of a certain formula and must produce a certain result and potency in every single pill.

Another thing is that, there are some intricacies when we speak of natural products, especially herbs, because seasonal and location differences could make a difference.

Of course we are not saying that orange I going to do something that an apple does but what we are saying is there actually some shady areas there and we want to do away from that.

So, the other way to tackle this is to look at it from a well-being angle or from a food perspective because tea suppliers are actually governed by the Food Authority in Australia.

Essentially, we are like a food supplier so as much as possible you want to avoid any words that your doctor might be saying.

Avoid putting those BIG WORDS on your marketing materials and make sure that you are walking on a safe side of things.

A lot of these inquiries about health claims and TGAs are often coming from an initial inquiry about detox tea.

At present, there are a lot of products out there, referring to detox tea, that is not giving enough information but is focusing more on providing pictures rather than sensationalising the product by providing facts such as how much it can do.

We have watched a lot of infomercials doing pictures and stuff without providing enough information and we end up rolling our eyes like, “uh… there it goes again…:)”

If you want to sell tea because you want to make some quick bucks out of detox tea, then we wish you good luck.

It is not something that we neither encourage nor support and we are not geared up to provide that.

We want to help you build a business that can create an endless loop of customers that are coming back again and again by giving them value.

Our perception of drinking tea is more of continuous and habitual thing which will help you maintain good health.

Again, we can’t stress this enough, be very careful with the words that you use in your marketing materials.

You really need to be cautious.

What we have learned is it is more effective to approach it in a more historical and cultural sense, something like during the Ancient China, this herb is used to help relieve joint pains or something like that.

I know that those wordings are a bit woozy, but that’s more realistic. That’s how the world is right now when we speak of legalities, proper terminology, or legal requirements.

So, we are what we eat and at the same time, when it comes to selling the health angle you really need to be careful with the words you use.

Again, let me remind you that I am neither a lawyer nor a health professional so if you need help in these aspects, please seek professional help. I am sharing this information to you as a tea seller and tea manufacturer for 11 years in Australia.

We certainly have seen a lot of detox tea and a lot of health angle tea and some of it fell apart because they are not marketing it right.

So be careful not to fall into one of these traps and just sell tea profitably in your style.

I hope this information is useful to you! 🙂

Shout out to Laurence for asking this question, your tea goodie bag is heading your way!

Feel free to send your questions by CLICKING HERE, or by sending us an email at sales@teas.com.au or by using our contact us for at Teas.com.au.