The Danger of Fake Vitamins Sold Online: atv News Report

This atv Haber report covers fake vitamins and food supplements sold online. Demand for vitamins rises every autumn. However, advice from social media and unregulated sales sites create a serious risk. The video is in Turkish.

What does the report cover?

According to pharmacist Arman Üney, President of the Turkish Pharmacists’ Association, who speaks in the report, the market contains products with too little or no active ingredient, and even products with banned substances. Moreover, most pills sold online as “vitamins” fall under sports nutrition or food supplements, so they need no prescription. Yet these products can interact with blood thinners or antibiotics and pose a life-threatening risk.

The report also draws attention to storage conditions. Some sellers keep products in a car boot for days and ship them from there. In addition, some opportunists market their products as “approved by the Ministry of Health”. In fact, food supplement labels carry the statement “not a medicine”, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, not the Ministry of Health, authorises these products. The report’s advice is clear: determine your vitamin needs through tests requested by your family doctor.

The link between fake vitamins and disposal

For supplement and vitamin producers, the risk is not only fake products entering the market. An expired or returned batch, or one stored in the wrong conditions, can also reappear online as “original” if nobody controls it. As a result, a brand’s own product becomes indistinguishable from fake vitamins in the eyes of the consumer. For this reason, disposal of supplements should also cover the product and its packaging together and keep every step on record.

What should producers do?

To keep your product out of the hands of fake vitamin sellers, four steps make the difference:

• Right after the count, wrap the pallet in stretch film and close it with a dedicated security tape.
• Seal the vehicle with a serial-numbered seal that reveals any tampering.
• Have the disposal done at a licensed facility while you stay on site; include boxes, bottles and labels.
• Keep photos, video and official reports in one place; those records protect you during inspections.

Scrap has carried out these steps in the disposal of food and supplement products for years and gathers all records on its client’s online tracking portal. For details, see our food and beverage waste disposal and pharmaceutical waste disposal pages.

Source: atv Haber, “İnternette sahte vitamin tehlikesi” (The danger of fake vitamins online), 18 September 2025. We embed the video from the publisher’s YouTube channel. All rights belong to atv Haber. Watch the original video on YouTube.