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What are natural health products?
Natural health products (NHPs) are health and wellbeing products used in traditional and complementary medicines. They include nutritional supplements and products used in practices such as rongoā Māori, western traditional herbal medicines, traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurveda, naturopathy and homeopathy.
NHPs are mostly derived from natural ingredients, although some contain synthetic equivalents (eg, folic acid as a substitute for the B vitamin, folate). They come in various edible and inedible forms - such as tablets, powders, creams and inhalants.
Examples include:
- vitamin and mineral supplements
- sports supplements
- herbal products (eg, echinacea tablets, St John’s Wort capsules, kawakawa balm)
- animal products (eg, deer velvet, fish oil capsules).
While NHPs are generally lower risk than medicines, they are not risk-free.
How are natural health products regulated?
New Zealand does not have specific legislation for NHPs. Instead, they are regulated under a range of laws and standards - shown in the table below.
Legislation / Regulation | Administering Agency |
|---|---|
Dietary Supplements Regulations 1985 and other legislation under the Food Act 2014 | Medsafe, Ministry for Primary Industries, local councils |
Medicines Act 1981 and Medicines Regulations 1984 | Medsafe |
Cosmetic Products Group Standard 2020 (under the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996) | Environmental Protection Authority |
Animal Products Act 1999 | Ministry for Primary Industries |
Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 and Fair Trading Act 1986 | Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment |
Current work
In September 2024, the Government agreed:
- to develop a Medical Products Bill to regulate medicines and medical devices
- that NHPs would be regulated under separate legislation.
Currently the priority is to develop the Medical Products Bill. The Government is also committed to improving how dietary supplements are regulated under the Food Act 2014, with a focus on products intended for export. The Ministry of Health is supporting this work.
Key documents
Food export exemptions, including dietary supplements
Released 3 September 2025
Changes are underway on how New Zealand handles export exemptions for composition and labelling requirements for some foods (including dietary supplements). These changes aim to make it easier to meet importing country requirements.
See more about the export exemptions taking effect from 25 September 2025 on the MPI website.
Future regulation of natural health products
Released 11 October 2024
The Government’s policy on the future of natural health products was agreed on 25 September 2024.
Cabinet material: Modernising the Regulation of Medicines and Medical Devices
Commissioned reports
Before the repeal of the Therapeutic Products Act 2023, the Ministry commissioned Sapere to compare how NHPs are regulated in Australia, Canada, the EU, UK, USA and China. The resulting report also covers regulation of homeopathy in Germany and Ayurveda in India.
See the publication: International Approaches to Natural Health Products Regulation (released 21 June 2024)
To support Parliament’s consideration of the Therapeutic Products Bill, the Ministry commissioned a rapid literature review in 2023 on the evidence of harm in relation to NHPs.
The review found that the safety of NHPs is not always guaranteed. The reviewed studies identified adverse events associated with NHP use, with some finding that herbal products are associated with liver injury. Although rates of serious adverse events were generally low, it is unclear whether this low incidence reflects a strong safety profile or is due to underreporting and limited investigations.
Download the Literature Review – Evidence of harm from NHPs (pdf) - released as Appendix Six to the Ministry of Health’s Departmental Report to the Health Committee on the Therapeutic Products Bill.
Documents related to the Therapeutic Products Act (2023)
For more documents relating to the regulation of NHPs under the now-repealed Therapeutic Products Act 2023, visit Documents on the Medical Products Bill.
