This week’s top headlines included Health Canada calling for warnings on turmeric/curcumin supplement labels, Australia’s TGA approving NMN, Zoe’s ‘breakthrough’ gut bug ranking research.
Health Canada calls for warnings on turmeric/curcumin supplement labels
Turmeric- or curcumin-containing natural health products (NHPs) in Canada must update their labels to warn about the risk of hepatotoxicity, following a review by Health Canada of the available information.
In a recent post, Health Canada stated that the evidence of hepatotoxicity associated with turmeric- or curcuminoid-containing NHPs appears to be idiosyncratic, but the products could, in rare cases, lead to serious outcomes for liver health.
The agency noted it was updating its monographs accordingly.
“Health Canada expects license holders to update the risk information on product labels for all licensed turmeric- or curcuminoid-containing NHPs to: include information about the warning signs and symptoms of hepatotoxicity, including yellowing of the eyes or skin, dark urine, nausea, vomiting and stomach pain; advise consumers to stop using these products and consult a healthcare professional if symptoms occur; and advise consumers to consult a healthcare professional before use if they have a liver disorder or are taking medications,” the agency stated.
In response, Sonia Parmar, vice president of regulatory affairs and government relations for the Canadian Health Food Association, told NutraIngredients that Health Canada’s turmeric safety posting underscores a deepening transparency problem.
“Health Canada’s recent posting of the Summary Safety Review on turmeric and curcuminoids, released in late 2025 but based on signals and case reports dating back years, highlights a serious and growing concern for Canada’s natural health product (NHP) sector,” she said. “At no point during this review, nor prior to its publication, did the department engage with affected stakeholders. Yet the posting introduces mandatory labeling requirements. Requirements applied unevenly to NHP, but not food manufacturers for products containing identical concentrations of turmeric.”
Australia’s TGA approves NMN ingredient for supplement use
Australia’s regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has approved nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) for use in dietary supplements for the first time.
The ingredient, often associated with anti-aging and longevity, was added to the TGA’s Therapeutic Goods (Permissible Ingredients) Determination (No. 4) 2025 on Dec. 10.
With this approval, dietary supplement manufacturers in Australia can now formulate NMN into their products for sale within Australia.
The NMN ingredient approved by the TGA was sourced from Australian biotechnology company Longevity Life Sciences Pty Ltd and manufactured by Shanghai-based SyncoZymes.
Commercially available as CellVive NMN, the ingredient will initially be sold in Australia.
Longevity Life Sciences has also developed a finished product containing the ingredient, which is slated for launch in Australia, Singapore, and Hong Kong via e-commerce next March, CEO Sally Panton told NutraIngredients.
The product, named Elevate Cellvive NMN Advance, is also listed on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG) database as of Dec. 11.
This is a single-ingredient product, with each capsule containing 250 mg of NMN. Based on information listed on the ARTG, the product is permitted to make indications such as “reduce free radicals formed in the body”, “maintain/support energy production”, and “maintain/support general health and well-being.”
Zoe’s ‘breakthrough’ gut bug ranking research hailed a ‘health revolution’
New research from personalized nutrition platform Zoe claims to “advance the gut health field dramatically” by ranking more than 100 species of gut bacteria to help scientists track gut health “better than ever before.”
Published in the journal Nature, researchers from Zoe, the University of Trento, Italy and Kings College London analyzed more than 34,000 microbiomes (Zoe platform users from the UK and US) to create a measure of gut microbiome health they have named the ZOE Microbiome Health Ranking 2025.
The ranking has been made available for research scientists across the world as “a reliable and repeatable measure of microbiome health.”
“It is a huge breakthrough discovery moment for us and a true milestone in microbiome science,” Dr. Federica Amati, Zoe’s head nutritionist and study co-author, told NutraIngredients. “We can now map the beneficial side of the microbiome with greater clarity than ever before, and it’s already evolving how we think about gut health.”
She explained the ranking has been validated against multiple independent global datasets, and it appears to hold up across different populations and environments.
“By making the ranking publicly available, we’re giving scientists a common standard that they can use to benchmark microbiome health in any cohort,” Dr. Amati said. “That means better reproducibility, better comparison across studies and a much clearer understanding of how the microbiome relates to metabolic health.
“That said, continued validation in even more diverse global groups is essential and we’re very committed to that,” she added.
While the rhetoric has always been that we do not know what a healthy microbiome looks like, the Zoe team believes this research provides that long awaited answer.
“I think that this study gives us a scientifically robust answer for the first time,” Dr. Amati said.
“We now have a clear, evidence-based microbial signature that defines what a healthier microbiome looks like. It’s not the final word. The microbiome is complex and ever-evolving, but this takes us to a deeper level of understanding and measurement—which will in turn give us the knowledge to improve gut health at a global scale.”
