Why are electrolyte and hydration claims so complicated?
There is something in the water. Literally. KHQ continues to receive a significant number of inquiries about fortifying products with electrolytes and making claims about electrolytes, hydration, athletic performance and fluid retention. The issue? Australia’s food regulations are out-of-date and confident compliance for such products requires threading many regulatory needles. This article explores how electrolyte fortification and hydration claims are regulated in Australia.
What is an “electrolyte”?
The precise term “electrolyte” is not defined in the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code (the Food Standards Code). In the absence of a legal definition, a common understanding of “electrolyte” might involve essential mineral salts that provide health benefits related to hydration and among other things when present in the right balance in your blood stream.
While “electrolyte” as a term is not defined, certain mineral salts are listed as a “prescribed electrolyte” under Standard 2.6.2 in relation to products classified under the Food Standards Code as an “electrolyte drink” or “electrolyte drink base”. The “prescribed electrolytes” are:
- Sodium;
- Potassium;
- Calcium;
- Magnesium; and
- Chloride.
Unfortunately, all electrolytes – especially when you make a claim about them – also likely meet this definition of “substances used as a nutritive substance” in Section 1.1.2-12, as they are minerals that are being added to food to achieve a nutritional purpose. The impact of regulation as “a nutritive substance” is that adding isolated electrolytes to food may require express approval in the Food Standards Code… for each electrolyte… for each permitted form… setting minimum and maximum quantities… etc.
As is nearly always the case, these restrictions will only apply when you are looking to add the minerals in isolated form. While isolated minerals are cheaper and more technologically consistent, electrolytes are much less regulated when they are naturally present in a traditional food ingredient. Potentially a reason for coconut water’s enduring popularity.
Even when wanting to add isolated electrolytes, those restrictions may or may not apply depending on which electrolytes in particular you want to add to your product and the regulatory classification of the end product.
As a result, if you are looking to build a product around marketing its electrolyte content, you need to think hard about the regulatory category of the end product and precisely which electrolytes you need for it to be successful.
What’s the downside of classifying your product as an electrolyte drink?
An electrolyte drink is a regulatory category of food that is defined in Standard 1.1.2 as “a drink formulated for the rapid replacement of fluid, carbohydrate and electrolytes during or after 60 minutes or more of sustained strenuous physical activity”.
Importantly, this regulatory category expressly permits the addition of a wide range of electrolytes in a variety of permitted forms, and features a number of pre-approved claims in relation to electrolytes and hydration.
Sounds like what both industry and the market want. So, what’s the downside? Well, there are a few:
- A product can only compliantly be classified as an “electrolyte drink” if it contains a minimum amount of sugar, to improve absorption of the electrolytes and replenish energy. However, most health-conscious consumers are now looking to increase their electrolyte and fluid consumption without increasing their sugar consumption. In other words, this out-dated standard only considers the nutritional needs of athletes.
- Electrolyte drinks only have permission to be fortified with electrolytes, and no other nutritive substances. This means (for example) no adding B vitamins in isolated form to your “electrolyte drink”, even if it is safe and what consumers want.
- While the regulatory category does have some pre-approved claims, electrolyte drinks are prohibited from making any other health or nutrition content claims other than the pre-approved ones.
To top it all off, Section 1.1.1-13 prohibits any product from representing itself as being an “electrolyte drink” unless it complies with corresponding requirements (i.e. minimum sugar levels, no B vitamins, etc).
In summary, this regulatory category no longer fits the desires of the market to provide a sugar-free beverage with electrolytes combined with other active ingredients.
Not all electrolytes are equal
Not all electrolytes are regulated the same way. In particular, sodium and potassium chloride salts are regulated as traditional food ingredients under Standard 2.10.2, not as nutritive substances. This view is reinforced by the fact that both sodium and potassium are excluded from consideration as vitamins and minerals for the purposes of nutrition content claims in Schedule 4.
However, that path is expressly limited to the sodium and potassium chloride salts. Not citrates. Not phosphates. Not carbonates (although sodium bicarb is arguably a traditional food ingredient as well!).
Many electrolyte salts, including magnesium and calcium salts, have wide permissions as food additives. For technological purposes. However, in our experience, as soon as you make a claim about electrolytes, food regulators view those salts as nutritive substances, not food additives.
This is particularly the case for alcoholic beverages, where there is a strong market desire to deliver “better for you” and less-dehydrating alcohol. These products swiftly gain attention of regulators, health advocacy groups and Ad Standards, despite gaining popularity and establishing market share quickly and despite being very clearly in breach of both the fortification and nutrition content claim prohibitions in the Food Standards Code.
What claims can I make about electrolytes?
Assuming you have found a way to load up your product with electrolytes in a regulatory category that allows you to market them, claims just about the presence or absence of electrolytes should only be regulated as “nutrition content claims”. These tend to be broadly permitted on most food products (with exceptions being infant formula, alcohol or kava).
However, while electrolyte drinks are permitted to make claims about electrolytes with minimal amounts of those electrolytes present, all other products must contain a minimum 10% RDI per serve just to mention the presence of a mineral. In other words, electrolyte drinks can have far less magnesium and still make claims about its presence. Another point to electrolyte drinks, if it wasn’t for the darned sugar requirement and other limitations.
And all of that is just regulation of claims about the presence of electrolytes, before you start saying what they do in the body. Any hydration claim risks moving from a nutrition content claim to a health claim, which has a considerable additional regulatory burden (nutritional profiling, substantiation requirements, etc). While there could be some regulatory debate about whether hydration claims are in fact health claims, the Food Standards Code has pre-approved the following claims as health claims on behalf of specific electrolytes or regulatory categories:
- Rapid rehydration in relation to strenuous physical activity.
- Necessary for normal electrolyte balance.
- Necessary for normal water and electrolyte balance.
As with all health marketing, there is also the risk of health claims drifting into prohibited therapeutic claims, in breach of both the Food Standards Code and the Therapeutic Goods Act. KHQ is aware of the Therapeutic Goods Administration issuing a number of compliance queries to electrolyte suppliers recently due to making clearly therapeutic claims, particularly claims in relation to pregnancy and lactation.
And all of this is ignoring Ad Standards’ enforcement of “prevailing community values”, as Gatorade discovered in November 2025 when it successfully had to defend its “WATER WASN’T MADE FOR THIS” campaign.
How to embrace the better-for-you nutrient craze?
The electrolyte craze may already be passing in favour of creatine, prebiotic fibre and whatever the next nutritional fad is. Regardless, the electrolyte craze presents unique yet perennial regulatory issues, namely:
- Are we legally allowed to put them in there?
- If not, is there another regulatory category where we can legally put them in there?
- And what claims are we allowed to make about them once we have found a way to legally put them in there?
If you need help answering those questions, please reach out to our Food & Beverage team for assistance.
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