Selling Food Supplements in France: How the DGCCRF Télédéclaration Process Actually Works

France is the second-largest food supplement market in the European Union — worth an estimated €2.2 billion annually and growing at roughly 7% year on year. Yet it’s also one of the most technically demanding markets for foreign brands to enter, and the reason isn’t the EU Directive you’ve probably already read. It’s what France adds on top.

EU Directive 2002/46/EC harmonizes certain aspects of food supplements across member states — but that harmonization covers vitamins and minerals only. Everything else — botanical extracts, amino acids, probiotics, plant-derived actives — sits in national legal territory. And in France, that territory comes with specific positive lists, a mandatory pre-market notification process, and an enforcement agency that actively inspects. If you’re planning to sell food supplements in France, whether as a French company, an EU brand entering a new market, or a non-EU importer, the DGCCRF télédéclaration is the procedural gate you cannot afford to mismanage.

The French Legal Framework: More Than Just Directive 2002/46/EC

The primary piece of French legislation governing food supplements is Décret n° 2006-352 du 20 mars 2006 relatif aux compléments alimentaires. This decree transposed Directive 2002/46/EC into French law but went considerably further — it mandates pre-market notification to the DGCCRF (Direction Générale de la Concurrence, de la Consommation et de la Répression des Fraudes) for any food supplement placed on the French market, regardless of where it was produced or previously approved.

Several ministerial arrêtés establish the substance of what’s actually permitted:

• Arrêté du 9 mai 2006 defines the vitamins, minerals, and their authorized chemical forms. This closely mirrors Annex II of Directive 2002/46/EC but with a handful of French-specific restrictions on certain chemical forms that are otherwise permitted in other EU member states.
• Positive lists for botanical ingredients — France maintains authorized plant lists managed through specific arrêtés, updated periodically. If a botanical ingredient isn’t on the appropriate list, the path forward requires a dossier justification, a novel food review, or — in some cases — a reclassification as a traditional herbal medicinal product.
• ANSM jurisdiction at the medicinal product boundary — The ANSM (Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire du médicament et des produits de santé) governs the line between food supplement and traditional herbal medicinal product. Some plants sit in a genuine grey zone. Misclassifying a borderline product as a food supplement when French law treats it as a medicinal product is one of the most serious compliance errors a brand can make, and enforcement consequences are substantial.

DGCCRF inspectors conduct annual market surveillance. In their 2023 published enforcement summary, food supplement labeling and notification failures ranked among the top three most-cited violation categories across all consumer goods sectors. That’s a signal worth taking seriously.

The Télédéclaration: What It Requires and When It Must Be Filed

The notification must be submitted before the product is placed on the French market. This isn’t an authorization process — the DGCCRF doesn’t issue a certificate of approval, and there’s no waiting period during which a green light is issued. What you receive is an acknowledgment of filing. Legal responsibility for the product’s compliance remains entirely with the business operator from the moment it hits the French market.

The télédéclaration is submitted electronically through the DGCCRF’s online portal. A complete submission dossier includes the following:

1. Company identification — Legal name, registration number, French or EU address, and contact details of the responsible operator. Non-EU brands must designate an EU-based responsible representative before filing.
2. Product name and category — As it will appear commercially in France. If the product name is not in French, a French translation or equivalent must be provided.
3. Full ingredient list with quantities — All active ingredients and excipients, with their chemical forms, botanical species identified by Latin nomenclature where applicable, the plant part(s) used, extraction ratio or standardization parameters if relevant, and the quantity per recommended daily dose.
4. Target population — General adult population, or specific groups such as athletes, seniors, or pregnant women. Products targeted at children or pregnant women automatically attract closer ANSES review.
5. Recommended daily dose and conditions of use — Exactly as they will appear on the label, in French.
6. Complete draft label in French — Including all mandatory warnings required under French law and EC Regulation 1924/2006 claims compliance. Submitting a draft label that doesn’t yet meet French labeling requirements is one of the most common reasons notifications generate follow-up queries from the DGCCRF.
7. Prior notifications in other EU member states — If the product has been notified in Germany, Spain, or elsewhere in the EU, including that reference can streamline the process, particularly for mutual recognition situations.

One procedural detail that trips up a surprising number of foreign brands: the responsible operator of record for the télédéclaration must be established within the EU. Non-EU companies cannot self-file. If your EU-based distributor is taking on the responsible operator role, they carry the full legal exposure for the product’s compliance — something that needs to be negotiated explicitly in any distribution or importation agreement, not assumed.

Where Foreign Brands Consistently Stumble

Across the brands we’ve supported in entering the French market — from North American supplement companies to UK brands navigating post-Brexit EU re-entry — the same five issues recur.

Botanical ingredient status uncertainty. A brand arrives with a product containing a botanical that’s been on the US market for decades and appears in USP or AHPA monographs. In France, if that plant isn’t on the French authorized botanical list and isn’t clearly identifiable under an approved synonym, the notification path isn’t straightforward. We’ve seen brands spend 6–8 months resolving ingredient classification questions that a 2-hour pre-launch regulatory review would have surfaced. That lost time has a real commercial cost.

Missing mandatory French warnings. French law requires specific warning statements on products containing vitamins above certain dose thresholds, on products with stimulant botanicals, and on products not appropriate for particular population groups. These aren’t optional additions to consider — they’re legally required, and their absence is one of the primary triggers for DGCCRF field inspection actions.

EC 1924/2006 health claims compliance. Only claims on the EU Register of authorized nutrition and health claims can appear on labels and marketing materials. France’s DGCCRF has specifically targeted cognitive function, immunity, and metabolic health claims in recent enforcement cycles. The authorized claim wording must be used verbatim — paraphrasing a permitted claim, even slightly, has resulted in formal enforcement notices.

Unexpected Novel Food exposure. Under EU Regulation 2015/2283, ingredients not consumed in the EU as a food before 15 May 1997 in significant quantities require EFSA authorization before they can be placed on the market. France applies this boundary strictly. Specific probiotic strains, certain algal extracts, and a number of botanicals originating from non-European food traditions hit this threshold more often than brands anticipate.

Over-relying on mutual recognition. Products lawfully marketed in another EU member state do benefit from mutual recognition principles under Article 36 TFEU — in theory. France has formal procedures for invoking mutual recognition for food supplements, and the notification obligation still applies regardless. Shipping a product that’s fully compliant in Italy or Sweden does not mean France is automatically covered. The télédéclaration must still be filed.

Working With ANSES Opinions: The Unofficial Enforcement Layer

The ANSES (Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l’alimentation, de l’environnement et du travail) issues scientific opinions on the safety of food supplements and their constituent ingredients. These opinions carry no direct regulatory force on their own — but DGCCRF inspectors reference them in enforcement decisions, and French courts have cited ANSES opinions in proceedings involving supplement companies.

ANSES has issued recommendations covering caffeine dose limits, fat-soluble vitamin upper levels, iron supplementation in at-risk populations, and a growing catalogue of botanical ingredients flagged for potential drug interactions or population-specific risks. For any brand selling into France, monitoring ANSES publications is part of ongoing compliance management, not just a one-time launch exercise.

ANSES also operates a nutrivigilance scheme, collecting and analyzing adverse event reports linked to food supplements. Since the scheme launched in 2010, nutrivigilance data has directly shaped DGCCRF enforcement priorities. Products that generate adverse event reports — even products that were correctly notified — face elevated scrutiny in subsequent inspection cycles. Proactive post-market monitoring of your product’s nutrivigilance footprint is something most brands don’t think about until they receive an DGCCRF inquiry.

Before You File: A Pre-Notification Review Checklist

Brands that handle the French market entry cleanly typically complete a structured pre-notification review well before any télédéclaration is submitted:

• Confirm every ingredient against the relevant French positive lists and, where applicable, the EU Novel Food Catalogue
• Review all claimed benefits against the EU authorized health claims register, and draft label claims in the exact approved wording
• Prepare the full French-language label, including all mandatory warnings, and have it reviewed against current DGCCRF labeling guidance
• Identify and formally engage the EU-based responsible operator, with their legal role documented in the distribution agreement
• Confirm the product’s regulatory classification — food supplement, not medicinal product — under French law criteria, including an ANSM botanical check if the formulation includes any plant with borderline medicinal properties

For a straightforward formulation using vitamins, minerals, and well-established botanical ingredients, this review typically takes 3–6 weeks. For botanically complex products or formulations that include ingredients with borderline classification status, the timeline extends — sometimes considerably.

France is not a market to rush into with a generic EU compliance strategy. The regulatory framework is specific, the enforcement environment is active, and the consequences of getting it wrong — product removal, DGCCRF enforcement notices, liability exposure for your responsible operator — are avoidable with the right preparation upfront. The brands that do well here are the ones that treat the télédéclaration as the starting point of a compliance programme, not a bureaucratic box to check.

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Written by Nour Abochama, Quality & Regulatory Advisor, Care Europe | VP Operations, Qalitex. Learn more about our team

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