Garcinia cambogia & its anticipated formal ban

    In December 2025, the Belgian Advisory Commission for Plant Preparations published an opinion on the use of Garcinia cambogia in Food Supplements.

    The Commission recognised the traditional food and medicinal use of Garcinia cambogia in Asia and confirmed the following:
        • The fruit has a history of significant consumption in the EU prior to 15 May 1997.
        • The gum-resin is mainly used in weight-management supplements due to its high hydroxycitric acid (HCA) content.
        • HCA is currently subject to an ongoing EU procedure under Article 8 of Regulation (EC) No 1925/2006.

    The Commission noted that safety concerns had been raised by several authorities, such as AESAN (Spain, 2019), ANSES (France, 2025) and the Australian TGA (2024). They linked the consumption of Garcinia cambogia to serious, sometimes severe, liver injury, with additional reports of psychiatric, cardiovascular, digestive, muscular and metabolic effects. Recent scientific literature was also quoted as backing a causal link between the plant and severe hepatic damage.

    Based on these findings, the Belgian Commission concluded that the safe use of Garcinia cambogia or its preparations in Food Supplements cannot be guaranteed. As a result, they formally recommended its removal from List 3 of the Belgian Plants Decree.

    The next amendment to the Belgian Royal Decree is expected in the coming months; this new version will effectively ban Garcinia cambogia in Food Supplements in Belgium.

    A two-year transition period will be granted for operators to comply. However, in practice, the Belgian authorities are already acting in the negative opinion and are no longer issuing notification numbers for new Food Supplements containing Garcinia cambogia.