What’s in dietary supplements? NutraIngredients on transparency

NutraIngredients is another one of those industry newsletters I read every day.  Here is its collection of articles—a special edition—on supplements.  In the United States, supplement ingredients and labels are governed by the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994, which effectively deregulated the products leaving the public to take the products on trust, sometimes justifiably, but sometimes not.

Special Edition: Transparency in Dietary Supplements

Issues concerning adulteration, identity and others swirl around the dietary supplement industry.  In this special edition, NutraIngredients-USA looks at the opportunities for proactively dealing with these questions in an effort to boost transparency and retain consumers’ trust.

• What’s in my product? Supplement brands, suppliers get creative as they vie for consumer trust:  From profiling their ingredient suppliers to setting up codes consumers can look up, supplement brands are using transparency to win over consumer trust… Read
• Transparency lens focused on supply end of supplement industry: Securing sources of supply is not only good business practice, it can also boost a company’s transparency efforts. Examples abound of companies putting raw cost concerns aside to push forward efforts to make sure fragile ecosystems are protected and potentially endangered species are nurtured… Read
• Efforts by AHPA, BAPP pull back veil on issues relating to identity, adulteration: Efforts by two major groups in the botanical trade are boosting transparency relating to the identity and purity of these ingredients… Read
• The dietary supplement industry has morphed into something much bigger, industry expert argues: “We are no longer the dietary supplement industry,” said Scott Bass, partner and head of global life sciences at Sidley Austin LLP, during his opening remarks as co-chair of ACI’s Sixth Annual Legal, Regulatory and Compliance Forum on Dietary Supplements in New York last week… Read
• Trade group advocates to keep skip lot testing option in dietary supplements GMPs: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is soliciting comments for a GMP code in which ingredient companies can petition for skip lot testing, but one trade group found discrepancies in the Federal Registrar notice… Read
• Study highlights progress in turmeric supplement quality, but concerns around synthetic curcumin adulteration: A new analysis of 87 different turmeric dietary supplements has highlighted the diversity of available products and the challenges this gives consumers. Concerns were also raised around potential adulteration with synthetic curcumin… Read
• Boswellia oleogum resin prone to adulteration, new bulletin outlines: The botanical Boswellia has been used for its anti-inflammatory properties for millennia, but it’s not uncommon to find some products today labeled as Boswellia to skimp on the amount of the botanical or to substitute in a less-researched form… Read
• Observers question adverse event reporting compliance for products sold on Amazon: Some industry observers are starting to question how many of the thousands of supplements sold on Amazon and other high volume online platforms comply with adverse event reporting requirements and other rules pertaining to the sales of these products… Read
• Consultant launches new regulatory compliance certification for dietary supplement companies: Curtis Walcker is the consultant slash owner behind consulting firm Dietary Supplement Experts, LLC. He launched a new certification this week, designed based on client feedback, to focus on everything from GMPs to FTC compliance… Read