Hydroxycut products ordered out of shelves

THE Bureau of Food and Drugs has ordered the recall of all Hydroxycut products, which are supposed to help people lose weight, for health reasons.

Bureau Director Leticia Barbara Gutierrez ordered General Nutrition Center, the Philippine importer of Hydroxycut 1000 mg products, to pull them out immediately. Those products’ ingredients include hydroxagen, chromium picolinate and L-carnitine.

She said the popular weight- loss products had earlier been ordered recalled from the US market by the US Food and Drug Administration due to reported cases of serious liver problems such as jaundice and elevated liver enzymes.

Manufactured by Iovate Health Sciences Inc. of Oakville, Ontario, in Canada, Hydroxycut contains a variety of ingredients and herbal extracts and is registered here as a food supplement.

Gutierrez asked the public to report to her agency or to the nearest Center for Health Development any establishment, group or individuals selling the banned products.

The center’s branches include those in Rustan’s Shangri-La in Pasig City, Robinsons Galleria and Trinoma in Quezon City, The Power Plant in Makati City, SM City Baguio, SM City Iloilo and SM City Davao.

In an advisory on May 1, the US Food and Drugs Administration said it had received 23 reports over more than seven years about consumers having experienced serious liver-related problems coinciding with the time they were taking Hydroxycut-branded products.

“Although the liver damage appears to be relatively rare, FDA believes consumers should not be exposed to unnecessary risk,” it said.

Iovate Health Sciences Inc., the manufacturer, said in its Web site that while its own analysis was different from the FDA’s findings, it had “initiated a voluntary recall.”

“While this is a small number of reports relative to the many millions of people who have used Hydroxycut products over the years, out of an abundance of caution and because consumer safety is our top priority, we are voluntarily recalling these Hydroxycut-branded products,” it said.