ABSTRACT
Clearly demarcating foods from drugs is an important project of modern states, yet one which has never been fully achieved. In particular, the emergence in the mid- to late 20th century of the category variously called “health products” or “dietary/nutritional/vitamin supplements” created a significant gray zone which has only expanded with time. For many consumers around the world, “health products” are now considered an indispensable third category of consumables beside food and drugs, and in extreme cases, their virtual substitute. While the phenomenon is widely reported, analyzed, and sometimes decried, we know comparatively little about how it came to be. Category shifting helps explain why such substances remain understudied in social studies of medicine and pharmaceuticals, as well as food studies, although as boundary objects, they can help illuminate the larger process of state (and cultural) regulation across both domains. This chapter contributes to a history of this phenomenon by focusing on an early example - fish liver oil - whose categorization remains ambiguous even in the 21st century. The product has its origins in Europe, but has since also moved to the United States, and then China, allowing us to make comparisons across regulatory regimes on three continents. The chapter shows how fish oil has been defined by its encounters with different governance regimes, based not so much on arguments about intrinsic qualities or even use, but fiscal and political priorities. The resulting rules or policies have had an effect on how the product has circulated, and have been influenced in turn by patterns of circulation.
