Health foods in China will not be allowed to carry wording that exaggerates their effects or implies they have curative effects for special diseases, according to a newly issued set of regulations.

The words like "highly effective", "quick effect" and "latest generation", which are commonly seen in health food advertisements, should no longer appear, according to the regulations issued by the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) on Thursday.

It also says health foods should not use vulgar and superstitious words as their names, and can not be named after human organs.

Foreign letters and Chinese "pinyin" can not be used in health food names, the regulations said.

The SFDA and the State Industry and Commerce Administration in April published a blacklist of eight local television stations which broadcast advertisements for health foods that claimed to be medicines but had not received permission from the authorities.

The SFDA ordered its local branches to carry out more inspections of local drug and health food producers.

(Xinhua News Agency June 16, 2007)