2009 was an incredible year for the dietary supplement industry.  While the rest of American business floundered amidst the depths of a recession, the dietary supplement business thrived.  Americans concerned about maintaining their good health stocked up on supplements by the shopping cartful. In a year when initial public offerings and acquisitions were almost unheard [...]

This is Part II of the Post that began here in which we discuss the three important suits filed this summer by supplement lawyer Jonathan Emord challenging FDA administrative action on first amendment grounds. The cGMP Challenge – FDA Overreaching? The FDA supplement cGMP regulations were anticipated from the time that DSHEA was passed in [...]

Three New Jersey companies that manufacture and sell nutritional supplements and protein powder have just learned what happens when you do not follow health directives from the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA wants a shutdown that could last weeks, even months depending on the amount of work needed to trap animals, disinfect equipment and eliminate unlisted ingredients.

Following up on a post from June 30, the question of consumer confidence in nutritional supplements arises again. The Times-Herald reports that many supplements have quality problems. No one knows just how many of 40,000 products underdeliver on the goods listed their labels and over-deliver on unlisted, harmful ingredients and contaminants. “I believe that the problem is narrow, that the well-established and reputable brands deserve their reputations,” Michael McGuffin, president of the American Herbal Products Association, tells the paper that serves the Hudson Valley of New York.

Anne Hart has lots of questions about the quality and safety of nutritional supplements, 19 questions to be exact. They revolve around product integrity, contamination, mislabeling (think sibutramine), FDA oversight and so on.  A nutrition columnist for Examiner.com, Ms. Hart has several ideas for matching products to their labels,  all of which create more questions [...]

Get ready for the not-so-kind-and-gentle FDA when it comes to food safety. The agency took abuse from politicians and consumer advocates over its handling of peanut and pistachio contamination earlier this year. Possibly to avoid a third hit, the agency moved swiftly and without warning on May 7 when it sent U.S. marshals into a [...]