Can food be sold in a capsule, pill or tablet format? Strategic pathways for assessing a product against Australia’s food-medicine interface

The convenience of capsule, pill and tablet formats may prevail over more traditional food formats such as powders and liquids, particularly for consumption and dosage purposes. Capsule, pill and tablet formats are commonly used in medicines, but can these formats ever be used when selling food in Australia? This article also explores the different aspects of the food-medicine interface, the key questions to consider when ascertaining whether a product is a food or therapeutic good (such as a complementary medicine), and whether and when a product that might qualify as a New Zealand supplemented food might be treated differently, and other issues to consider for a food which is sold in a unique format.