Red yeast rice should be treated as drug, says Health Council

Food supplements that contain red yeast rice can entail health risks, according to a new report released by Belgium’s Superior Health Council at the request of health minister Maggie De Block. The council has advised allowing the supplements to be sold only as a prescription medication.

Supplements based on red yeast rice are currently sold as natural cholesterol-reducing products. Red yeast rice, long popular in Asia, is rice that has been fermented with a certain type of yeast that contains Monacolin K, which is identical to the cholesterol-reducing drug lovastatin.

The federal agency said that the supplements should be considered drugs because of the presence of lovastatin. “The supplements are in fact medicine with the same risks of side effects as other medications that contain lovastatin,” said the Health Council’s Guy De Backer.

The supplements “should only be taken under the advice of a doctor,” he continued, “so that users are properly informed about how they work and the side effects. In the transition period, the supplements should only be sold at pharmacies.”

The council also recommended an examination of a number of other herbal products that are sold as food supplements.