3. Composition of food supplements for cosmetic purposes: how safe are they to use?

The development of dietary supplements and enriched foods is progressing, with the result that the number of vitamin and mineral carriers is multiplying.

The risks associated with adding vitamins, minerals and other constituents in concentrated form to foodstuffs can be of various kinds. There are several (non-exhaustive list):

• Risks associated with changes in bioavailability and the effects of food matrices

  These risks depend not only on the level of intake, but also on the bioavailability of the substance, leading to different absorption kinetics, and therefore potentially different biological effects. In the case of lycopene, for example, bioavailability is higher for synthetic forms in an oil complex than for natural forms in tomato puree extracts