Is Shilajit Legal in Australia? What the Regulations Actually Say
The honest, short answer is that shilajit is not banned or scheduled in Australia. Whether a specific product is regulated as a food or as a therapeutic good depends heavily on how it is marketed, though, and no government source addresses shilajit by name. This article works through the actual rules, sourced directly from the Therapeutic Goods Administration, the Poisons Standard, and Australian biosecurity guidance, rather than repeating claims found on other sites.
Key takeaways
- Shilajit is not listed in the Poisons Standard and is not a scheduled or banned substance.
- Whether a product counts as a food or a therapeutic good depends heavily on the claims made about it, not just what it is.
- No import permit is currently required for finished, commercially packaged product under the plant-origin pathway, though that classification carries a genuine, unresolved ambiguity.
Is shilajit a scheduled or banned substance?
No. We checked the full text of the current Poisons Standard, the legislative instrument that lists scheduled and controlled substances in Australia, searching directly for shilajit and its common alternate names, mineral pitch and asphaltum. None of these terms appear anywhere in the document. Shilajit is not a scheduled poison or controlled substance.
Is it classified as a food or a therapeutic good?
This is the part most articles get wrong by stating a firm answer either way. Under the Therapeutic Goods Act 1989, section 3, a product becomes a therapeutic good partly based on how it is represented, not just what it is made of. The TGA's own published guidance gives a clear example. Crushed garlic in a jar is generally treated as a food, but the same garlic extracted, concentrated and marketed in a capsule with a claim like "relieves cold symptoms" can be treated as a medicine.
Applied to shilajit, it has no history of use as a food in Australia or New Zealand, which matters for the food carve out in the Act, but it does have a long traditional therapeutic use in Ayurvedic medicine, a tradition the TGA explicitly recognises. In practice, this means sold with no health or therapeutic claims, shilajit sits in a genuine grey area between food and supplement regulation, rather than being cleanly settled either way. Sold with any therapeutic claim, energy, testosterone, stamina, detox, cognitive or anti-ageing effects, even implied through testimonials, the product is pulled toward being legally treated as a therapeutic good, which then requires listing on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods before it can be lawfully supplied.
This is precisely why we are careful about the claims made across this site. See our evidence review for what has actually been studied, stated in appropriately measured terms rather than as therapeutic promises.
Can shilajit be legally imported into Australia commercially?
Australia's biosecurity import system has a specific case listing that names shilajit directly, under dietary supplements and natural medicines of plant origin for human consumption. For a finished, commercially packaged product treated as plant origin material, no import permit is required. There is a genuine open question here that we are not going to paper over. Shilajit is a mineral organic exudate, not purely plant matter, so whether it is correctly classified as plant origin or falls under a different biosecurity pathway is a compositional question that would be assessed case by case by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, not something we can declare settled here.
What this means in practice
No Australian government body has issued a recall, safety alert, or enforcement action naming shilajit specifically, as far as we could find. That is a reasonable data point, not a guarantee. It may simply mean the category has not drawn regulatory attention yet.
The practical, responsible position for any seller is to avoid unsupported therapeutic claims, be transparent about what testing has and has not established, and treat Australian Consumer Law's general prohibition on misleading or deceptive conduct as the baseline regardless of which specific regime applies.
What we are not claiming
ShilNepal is not TGA approved, not ARTG registered, and this article is not legal advice. If you need a definitive answer for a specific situation, the TGA and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry publish current, authoritative guidance directly, and a qualified lawyer can advise on your specific circumstances.
FAQ
Is shilajit illegal in Australia?
No. It is not listed in the Poisons Standard and is not banned.
Is shilajit regulated as a food or a medicine?
It depends on the claims made about it. Sold without therapeutic claims, it sits in a food supplement grey area. Making health claims can shift a product into therapeutic good territory, which then has its own registration requirements.
Do I need a permit to import shilajit into Australia?
For a finished, commercially packaged product treated as plant origin material, current biosecurity guidance indicates no import permit is required, though the plant origin classification itself has some genuine ambiguity worth confirming directly with the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry for a specific shipment.
Has the TGA taken action against any shilajit product?
We found no TGA recall, safety alert, or enforcement action naming shilajit specifically, as of our research.
