Collagen promises prove misleading: what's the deal?

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Collagen is often praised as a miracle cure, but that turns out to be a disappointment. The Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) investigated its sales and discovered that many claims about collagen's effectiveness are false. What do we actually know about collagen when we delve deeper?

On the NVWA website, you'll find claims about collagen that are inaccurate. These include: "For strong bones and against stiffness," "Helps improve joint health," or "Helps you produce your own collagen." These are all unproven claims.

You've probably heard the term collagen before; but what exactly is it? The NVWA ( Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority) writes : "Collagen is a protein that the body produces from food and is an important component of connective tissue. It's found in skin, bones, tendons, teeth, and cartilage, among other things."

In recent years, dietary supplements containing collagen have become increasingly popular. These are available in various forms, such as powders, tablets, capsules, and drinks. However, the effectiveness of collagen as a supplement has not been scientifically proven, so such health claims are not permitted. According to the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) , claims such as "beneficial effect on intestinal complaints, wound healing, diabetes, inflammation, and joint damage" cannot be taken seriously.

Among the fined vendors is the Kruidvat retail chain, BNR reports. The website described collagen as "a kind of glue that provides strength and elasticity." It also stated that the body produces virtually no collagen after the age of fifty, causing "wrinkles to become visible and joints to lose their flexibility."

Kruidvat's parent company, AS Watson, was also involved. According to the company, it involved "a blog post that was mistakenly posted online." Following a report from the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA), the post was removed and replaced with a revised version. According to the NVWA, this constitutes a prohibited health claim because the claim about the product has not been scientifically proven.

About 25 of the 30 websites examined made unlawful claims about collagen. Roughly half of these misleading claims were medical claims, the other half health claims. Well-known drugstore chains, including Kruidvat, were also guilty of this.

The webshops that used prohibited claims were fined and required to immediately change their text. The Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) will monitor whether this has actually been done in the coming months and may take stricter measures if necessary until the violations are fully resolved.

The fines were imposed for medical claims. Medical claims are always prohibited for dietary supplements because they are intended to prevent or cure diseases. A health claim may only be used if its effect has been proven and approved by the European Union. Such permitted health claims do not exist for collagen.

Whether collagen has any beneficial effects on the skin, for example, was recently investigated by Pointer . The answer was clear: "Taking collagen has no demonstrable effect on improving the skin," says Chiel Ebbelaar, a clinical researcher and dermatologist in training at the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC). Many meta-analyses that claim the opposite contain methodological flaws, he says.

For example, according to the expert, participants are often not allowed to use creams before the study, which causes their skin to dry out. During the study, they do apply them, which leads to better hydration and seemingly improved elasticity, but this says nothing about the actual production of collagen in the skin itself.

"These are often poorly conducted studies," Ebbelaar emphasizes. "Many articles appear in low-quality journals without proper peer review. Moreover, subjects are often given not only collagen but also other substances, such as vitamin C. If an effect is observed, it's unclear whether it's due to the collagen, but the studies do conclude that it is."

Moreover, the results are sometimes statistically significant, but not practically relevant. "If someone with acne goes from 70 to 63 pimples, that's statistically significant, but you still see a lot of pimples. So, clinically speaking, that makes little difference."

But is collagen actually bad? Probably not, says Ebbelaar. "You're essentially just getting extra amino acids." Still, he says there are risks to consider. For example, collagen powders are almost always derived from animal sources, such as cartilage, cow skin and bones, or fish scales. "There are some concerns about the amount of heavy metals they might contain," he says.

"This is closely monitored in the Netherlands, but not all powders from abroad are subject to the same level of care." In addition, many products contain added vitamins, such as B6. "You can consume too much of this. This can cause nerve damage, for example."