Every winter, vitamin C is touted as a way to stay in shape. But is it really its effectiveness that justifies its place on pharmacy shelves?
In France, the food supplement sector has never been doing so well. It reached 2.6 billion euros in turnover last year. Among these supplements, the famous vitamin C, one of the star products of pharmacies, whose merits have been praised for 50 years.
Many brands are positioning themselves in the niche; the most sold is UPSA. Its factories are located in Agen, in the southwest of France. Here, 8 million boxes of vitamin C are manufactured each year.
We ask the Director of Market Access what the cost of producing this box of vitamin C is. She can’t answer us.
These are confidential elements, obviously to survive a business must be profitable, so the equation and the economic conditions I would say must be viable.
Laure Lechertier, Director of Market Access at UPSAat the Eye of 8 p.m.
We won’t know more. So to know the ins and outs of vitamin C, you must first take an interest in its raw material. It is ascorbic acid, a powder obtained by the fermentation of cereals. In this factory, it comes from Scotland and China.
A Chinese production
China is today by far the leading source of supply for the European market.
So to try to estimate the profitability of vitamin C, we pretend to be buyers from Chinese manufacturers. From the outset, they want to reassure us about the quality of their product: “We have customers in Europe. Our company has been selling this product for 10 years.”
These Chinese manufacturers offer us 2 tonnes of ascorbic acid at an unbeatable price: 2 euros 40 per kilo.
If we add transport and customs costs, this comes to 5 euros per kilo for a buyer in the pharmaceutical industry. This vitamin C will then be sold to the consumer for around 250 euros per kilo, 50 times more expensive.
Even if processing, packaging and even transport costs must be taken into account, this remains very profitable for manufacturers and pharmacies.
Aggressive marketing
A lucrative business, with aggressive marketing from the laboratories. We witness a scene during which a salesperson delivers language elements to a pharmacist, to better sell his products.
“Here are the types of questions we can ask you: “I have trouble managing in the morning, I have big days… I think this affects everyone. It’s from 10 years, it’s orange flavored so it’s very good”, assures the salesman.
Arguments that customers find directly on the shelves. We did the test in several pharmacies. We are promised that vitamin C will make us have a healthier winter.
It will strengthen your immune system and it will allow you to provide vitamin C… and this way for the winter you will not be able to get sick if you practice prevention!
A pharmacy salesmanat the Eye of 8 p.m.
No effectiveness on colds
Avoid getting sick thanks to vitamin C… is this scientifically proven?
To find out, we looked at several studies on the subject. And the science is clear: vitamin C has no impact on colds. “Consumption of vitamin C has no effect on the incidence of colds”, can we read in a Chilean study from 2018. In 2013, a French meta-study concluded: “Routine use of vitamin C supplementation is not justified”.
So what is vitamin C really for? Present in many fruits and vegetables, it is essential for our health because a serious deficiency can lead to scurvy.
But this ancient disease, which causes tooth loss, has almost disappeared today, according to ANSES, the national health security agency.
Nowadays the French have everything they need in terms of food to be able to obtain vitamin C.
Aymeric DopterHead of the nutrition risk assessment unit at ANSES
In fact, the recommended doses of vitamin C are relatively low, and easy to achieve through a balanced diet. It is 110 mg of vitamin C per day: the equivalent, for example, of a portion of pepper, or of a kiwi.
According to ANSES, it is not useful to take more, because vitamin C cannot be stored by the body. Taking 500 mg or 1g of vitamin C makes no difference: it will be eliminated by the body.
Unions defend the use of vitamin C
How can we explain the gap between this discourse and that of pharmacies? We went to ask the question to the pharmacists’ union, which defends the profession.
“For us, vitamin C will be an accompanying product, we will explain that we need to sleep well, we will give advice and vitamin C will be a plus. I don’t like to talk about a placebo effect, but at worst if it doesn’t hurt… it will do good.”
Yorick BergerSecretary general of the Paris pharmacists union
Contacted, Synadiet, the national union of food supplements, which represents a large part of the vitamin C brands, defends the use of this vitamin. The synadiet writes to us:
“Consumption of fruit and vegetables is not uniform across the French population. […] It is not absurd, or even reasonable, to consider supplementing with vitamin C”.
We contacted many manufacturers who did not respond to us. One of the only brands to have done so, UPSA, claims that our lifestyles expose us to vitamin C deficiency, to justify the purchase of these tablets.
Among our sources:
The Chilean study on vitamin C and the common cold
The French study on vitamin C and the common cold
Nutritional references for vitamin C from ANSES
ANSES declaration on food supplements
Synadiet, national union of food supplements