Introduced by Viriginia Rep. Baxter Ennis (R), HB 1585 is similar to a recent bill introduced in Texas at the end of 2024. Both bills specifically mention creatine, green tea extract, raspberry ketone, garcinia cambogia and coffee bean extract.
“Additionally, the bill includes language encompassing products with labeling or marketing bearing statements or images that express or imply that the product will help modify maintain or reduce body weight, fact, appetite, overall metabolism or the process by which nutrients are metabolized or increase muscle or strength,” Kyle Turk, vice president of government affairs for the Natural Products Association, told NutraIngredients-USA.
Timetable
The pre-file precedes Virginia’s legislative session, which is set to begin on Jan. 8, and the bill faces a tight timetable in the weeks ahead.
Turk explained that the last day to introduce legislation in the state is Jan. 17, and the last day for appropriations in both chambers to complete action on budget bills is Feb. 2.
“The crossover date, which is the last day for each house to act on its own legislation, is Feb. 4,” he said, adding that the legislation session adjourns on Feb. 22.
Elsewhere
As reported by NutraIngredients-USA at the start of December, similar bills were introduced in Texas and pre-filed in New Hampshire.
Both of these bills contain very similar language to the one that passed in New York in 2023.
This is the latest in a campaign of legislative efforts across the country to restrict access to certain categories of dietary supplements. The efforts reportedly originate from the Strategic Training Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders (STRIPED), launched as a “public health incubator” based at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Boston Children’s Hospital.
Proponents of the restrictions cite a purported link between the use of such products and the worsening of eating disorders, even though a review of the scientific literature, funded by the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), concluded that the “evidence to date does not support a causative role for dietary supplements in eating disorders.
“The use of dietary supplements for weight management in both male and female teens appears to be declining, and the objective of weight loss is not observed as a common motivation for the use of dietary supplements among this age group,” wrote Susan Hewlings, PhD, RD, the author of the review, which was published in Nutrients.
Earlier in 2024, the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA), the Natural Products Association (NPA) and the United Natural Products Alliance (UNPA) expressed joint opposition to controversial legislation in California that also aimed to restrict dietary supplement sales to minors. The bill failed to pass Senate appropriations; a result hailed by the dietary supplements industry.
A similar bill passed the New Jersey Assembly in October 2024 (A1848). The bill was received in the New Jersey Senate on Dec. 5, and referred to the Senate’s Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee. S3987 was introduced in the New Jersey Senate on Dec. 19.
Over the last 10 years, similar proposals have been defeated in Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Missouri and Rhode Island.
