The Food and Drug Administration has taken another step in its war on powdered caffeine. The controversial ingredient linked to a pair of deaths was the subject of a slew of new FDA warning letters to companies selling the substance to consumers.
Chipotle: People who eat GM foods are not themselves genetically modified. The same applies to cows fed GM feed…
Chipotle says it will vigorously defend a “meritless and unfair” lawsuit accusing it of falsely advertising its wares as non-GMO. But attorneys say the case shows that firms are vulnerable to civil litigation over non-GMO claims if genetic engineering...
Her academic training in analytical chemistry, which required a lot of repetition, prepared Tara Crouch, PhD well for her new role at EAS Consulting Group. Crouch said said she has seen the same problems in industry over and over.
A potential class action lawsuit filed against Schiff Nutrition points out the potential liability firms can expose themselves to when they don’t follow claims guidelines exactly.
Four of the five main trade associations for dietary supplements have written to the FDA to express their “interest in and support for” the elevation of the Division of Dietary Supplement Programs (DDSP) to an ‘Office’ within the Center for Food Safety...
Vemma Nutrition, a multilevel marketing company that based its business on a line of mangosteen juice drinks, has been shut down by an Arizona court acting on a Federal Trade Commission request for allegedly operating an illegal pyramid scheme.
The Food and Drug Administration is continuing enforcement actions based on the precepts laid out in the draft guidance on New Dietary Ingredients with a warning letter sent to a company marketing a product that contains the stimulant-like ingredient...
Losing one’s memory continues to be one of consumers’ number one health concerns. While that represents a healthy market opportunity, companies seeking to address that concern with a dietary supplement need to be very careful about what they say about...
Eight years after the EU nutrition and health claims regulation (NHCR) came into force the question of how to win a health claim is still not satisfactorily answered in the eyes of many food operators.
The heat surrounding the NYAG affair may have abated somewhat. But an expert in investigations conducted by the offices of state attorneys general said the episode is far from over.
Beverage industry superstar Bai Brands – which hit the headlines this week with the launch of antioxidant-infused Antiwater – has also attracted the attention of plaintiff’s attorneys in California, which claim it played fast and loose with food labeling...
The American Herbal Products Association has urged the United States Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) to not the muddy the waters by using the term “dietary supplements” in an official document to refer to what are really misbranded or unapproved drugs.
Is it time to consider new legislation to alter the landscape that DSHEA created for the dietary supplements industry? The issue was raised in a recent public industry forum and met a generally positive reception.
The Department of Justice at FDA’s behest has launched a criminal contempt action against a Montana dietary supplement marketer who continued selling misbranded supplements and unapproved drugs even after a civil contempt ruling. It’s an unusual step,...
FDA’s Ted Elkin and FTC’s Mary Engle will present key regulatory insights at The Conference, hosted by the Council for Responsible Nutrition, October 21–24 at The Ritz-Carlton, Rancho Mirage, in Palm Springs, CA.
A court action filed by network marketing giant Herbalife against the online messaging firm Twitter points out the risks posed to brands by social media, said an expert on the topic. The company is trying to force Twitter to divulge the identity of a...
GMA: 'HR 1599 protects the consumer from a costly and confusing 50 state patchwork of labeling laws'
The US House of Representatives has passed the industry-backed voluntary GMO labeling bill - The Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act 2015 - by 275 votes to 150, and rejected all four amendments it was asked to consider.
A glitch in FDA labeling regulations has silently been biding its time to sow confusion among dietary supplement companies. The issue is how to identify a product as a dietary supplement. Or not.
There are two bills about GMO labeling floating around Congress, but the momentum appears behind the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2015. Here are eight things to know about the Act.
Efforts to prevent state and local governments from mandating GMO labeling cleared an early hurdle with House Agriculture Committee’s approval this week of the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act.
A newly strident critic of the dietary supplement industry, Senator Claire McCaskill, D-MO, levied another attack on the way the business is regulated in the wake of a fine levied by the Federal Trade Commission against the marketers of a memory-support...
Competition is heating up in the sports certification field, as several companies offering verification schemes that test for banned substances announced developments recently.
Many own label product distributors remain ignorant about their responsibilities under good manufacturing practice (GMPs) when using contract manufacturers and Quality Agreements are still not widely enough used, say industry experts.
The American Herbal Products Association has succeeded in helping to pass an amendment in Louisiana that restores to legal commerce certain herbs that have been legally marketed as dietary supplements in the US but had been banned under state law.
The Council for Responsible Nutrition has issued new formulation and labeling guidelines for members who are marketing melatonin supplements targeting sleep support, the organization announced yesterday.
In another example of what can happen when the FDA steps through the doors, dietary supplement manufacturer Country Doctor Herbals has received a warning letter from the Food and Drug Administration that is remarkable in its comprehensiveness.
Members of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee uncharacteristically fight back against criticism of its recommendations and ask Congress to drop proposed legislation that would effectively block regulators from acting on many of the committee’s...
Manufacturers do not need to label major food allergens if they can prove to FDA prior to distribution that the production process eliminates allergenic proteins from the product or that the allergen is in such a low amount that it does not pose a risk,...
Amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act to limit military access to dietary supplements will not be included in the final bill after failing to make it to the floor vote, NutraIngredients-USA has learned.
The laws governing dietary supplements must expand and evolve to protect consumers from potential harm and misleading communication, says Dr Taylor Wallace.
In the wake of the New York Attorney General affair, one question that has been raised is whether barriers to entry in the US market are too low, and give bad actors too much room to maneuver. But an expert on the supplement trade in Europe says barriers...
The American Botanical Council has released an in-depth look at the history and implications of the New York Attorney General affair on the organization’s website. The 9,500-word article, containing 71 references, is the most detailed look at the situation...
The Natural Products Association and the Council for Responsible Nutrition are rallying support against amendments to the Department of Defense 2016 spending bill to limit military access to dietary supplements. The spending bill is considered by some...
The Attorneys General for New York and Indiana have urged the US Food and Drug Administration to immediately enhance its oversight of dietary supplements by reforming current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMPs).
Should the dietary supplements industry look at the actions of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman as a wake-up call? There are many valid reasons to brush off his actions as mere grandstanding, but if for nothing other than political purposes...
The fact that an upcoming workshop on botanical identification methods has sold out quickly demonstrates the industry is increasingly getting serious about improving its performance on GMP compliance, one of the presenters has said.
An executive with one of the companies promoting cannabidiol for dietary supplements believes that FDA’s recent determination that the compound is not a legal dietary ingredient is premature and will be overturned.
An HBO Real Sports segment about dietary supplement use in the US military implied that Sen. Orrin Hatch was complicit in the deaths of several US soldiers who collapsed with the banned ingredient DMAA in their systems.
Senators Orrin Hatch and Martin Heinrich are urging new US Attorney General Loretta Lynch to ‘aggressively’ tackle the issue of products marketed as supplements but tainted with steroids or pharmaceutical ingredients.
Those members of Congress friendly to the dietary supplements industry and their staffs don’t seem overly concerned about the brouhaha stirred up by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. In a recent briefing of members of the Dietary Supplements...
The Center for Science in the Public Interest is conducting a survey to assess “whether the advertising claims made about [a supplement] are legally and factually permissible”, with the initial focus on saw palmetto.
A recently filed citizen's petition asking FDA to extend GMP requirements to ingredient manufacturers met with a cautious but generally positive reception among industry stakeholders. Having ingredient suppliers stand outside this aspect of the law...
In a recently updated communication on marijuana, the Food and Drug Administration has flatly stated that products based on cannabidiol (CBD), a non-narcotic fraction of Cannabis sativa, cannot be marketed as dietary supplements. The reason? A pre-existing...
The Organic & Natural Health Association has filed a citizen petition with the US Food and Drug Administration to extend the FDA’s current cGMPs (code 21 CFR Part 111) to raw material manufacturers.
The Federal Trade Commission, alleging false advertising, is seeking a permanent injunction to prevent Lunada Biomedical Inc. from claiming that its dietary supplement Amberen causes substantial weight loss.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has agreed to enter into a “dialogue” with the Natural Products Association over his assault on herbal dietary supplements, the organization confirmed in a joint statement today.
As widely predicted, the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) is appealing a federal court ruling denying its bid to halt implementation of Vermont’s GMO labeling law (Act 120) until a lawsuit over the Act is resolved.
Proposals to amend the regulations, an unsuccessful lawsuit against Beech-Nut, and additions to the list of carcinogens are just a few of the topics to be discussed during an upcoming webinar about Prop 65 hosted by the American Herbal Products Association.
Attorney: This case could end up in the Supreme Court
While opponents of Vermont’s GMO labeling Act 120 suffered a major setback this week after a federal judge rejected many of their arguments, some attorneys predict the case could ultimately end up in the Supreme Court to settle a long-running debate over...
Fourteen companies have received warning letters from the FDA regarding products containing DMBA (1,3-Dimethylbutylamine), which the Agency states is not a legal dietary ingredient and products containing it are considered to be adulterated.
