Policy & Regulation

Three FDA warnings related to supplement manufacturing, labeling or marketing submitted to Amazon or companies selling vitamin, mineral or supplement products on its e-commerce platform since April 2024.

Four months into session, no bills have been introduced in Congress to authorize FDA to establish a regulatory pathway for the lawful use of hemp ingredients in products other than drugs or propose some other solution to the federal conundrum present since lawmakers in 2018 de-scheduled hemp.

Dyes and colors which FDA says industries agree should no longer be used aren’t unsafe and are currently used only with the agency’s approval, industry stakeholders say. Center for Science in the Public Interest says the dyes are used “in tens of thousands of foods and beverages that are commonly consumed here in the United States.”

Being poor makes it more likely that you will suffer from self-treatable health conditions but it also means you will find it harder to take advantage of self-care solutions, finds a recently-published study by Bayer Consumer Health and IQVIA.

HHS Secretary Kennedy commends food companies for cooperating, but also says, “We have them on the run now and we are going to win this battle. And four years from now, we're going to have most of these products off the market.”

HHS Secretary Robet F. Kennedy Jr. and FDA Commissioner Marty Makary to announce planned changes as “a major step forward” as part of Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” campaign President Trump has adopted for his administration.

FDA introduced the option because it didn’t have sufficient staff to handle the volume of GRAS submission reviews requested by food and other firms for ingredients. Requiring submissions for all GRAS determinations “would just be an unworkable situation for the food industry if somehow submitting notice, submitting notices for FDA review and concurrence, was required,” says food and drug attorney Federick Stearns.

Instead of arguing FDA’s not authorized to offer option under authority from 1958 Food Additives Amendments, potential litigation could contend the law requires agency to continue making self-GRAS without notification available.

France's food safety regulator ANSES is proposing a reproductive toxicity category 1B classification for CBD under the EU's CLP regulation, which would mean an effective ban on CBD in cosmetics and foods. However, French hemp industry association UIVEC hopes that new evidence coming out of a European Commission review will put the issue to bed before it gets that far.

HHS Secretary Kennedy ‘s opposition to allowing GRAS without notifications has support but also questions just as strong about whether FDA is authorized to conduct a rulemaking to eliminate the option.

Speaking at a recent AESGP webinar, sustainability expert Onur Durmus called the the European Commission’s “Omnibus” proposals - designed to simplify ESG reporting rules and recently supported by EU Parliament - a “positive development” for the European consumer health industry.

European Food Safety Authority finds no cause and effect relationship between Givaudan's Pacran supplement and defense against urinary tract infections.

Manufacturers, marketers and other businesses in the industry may be thinking, “Well, this is different” because the president ordered tariffs on a list of countries rather than on his sole first-term target of China.

Changes established in West Virginia and proposed in numerous other states gained momentum after Trump was elected to his second term as president and nominated Kennedy to head HHS.

Tariffs on imports from China and look at eliminating self-affirmed GRAS pathway introduced under Trump while DoJ Consumer Protection Branch also continues supplement sector priorities enduring across administrations.

Sales of Bioventra’s probiotic put inventory at “a critical low” as “parallel rise in unverified listings on third-party marketplaces prompted concern among” customers. DoJ and food and drug industry attorney say counterfeiting remains a problem in supplement sector.

“It's kind of a free for all,” says longtime FDA funding advocate Steven Grossman. FDA knew funding it requested “was totally inadequate to the needs. So, Food Chemical Safety is stuck there with about six or eight other purposes the money could have been used for.

FDA says “extension affords covered entities the additional time necessary to ensure complete coordination across the supply chain in order to fully implement the final rule’s requirements—ultimately providing FDA and consumers with greater transparency and food safety.”

HBW Insight speaks to AESGP director general Jurate Švarcaite about what's on the agenda for the upcoming 61st AESGP Annual Meeting, which will take place in Warsaw, Poland, between 2-4 June. Highlights include the role of prevention in self-care, discussions about how regulators will ensure the competitiveness of European industry on the world stage and incoming changes to sustainability legislation.

CRN petition argues against general preclusion while NPA petition addressed specifically FDA’s wielding of the provision to prohibit the use of NMN supplements available in US. “FDA has acknowledged that they really can't answer one without answering. The two are inextricably linked,” says CRN CEO Steve Mister.