The Consumer Health Information for Better Nutrition Initiative

Published on: February 22, 2003

Recently, we have been seeing the issue of food and drug labeling pop up in the news quite frequently particularly regarding dietary supplements. With the Food and Drug administration’s commitment to rid the marketplace of products that mislead consumers, many businesses have been investigated and even required to turn over their product supplies as we saw last week with the seizure of dietary supplements under the name Vitamin Hut and RX for Health.

The good news for consumers of these products is that the Commissioner of Food and Drugs, Mark B. McClellan, announced last week a new initiative to make available more thorough information about foods and dietary supplements in efforts to help Americans make healthy dietary decisions. The Consumer Health Information for Better Nutrition initiative hopes to encourage manufacturers to only make health benefit claims that are based on scientific fact and to eliminate claims that are false and misleading.

The consumer health information initiative comprises three related actions:

Issuing guidance on qualified health claims for conventional foods and dietary supplements. Any such claims must be pre-approved by FDA and meet the "weight of the scientific evidence" standard, including support by a credible body of scientific evidence.

Strengthening enforcement of dietary supplement rules. Today, FDA is emphasizing its commitment to carrying out the intent of Congress in the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 by outlining its enforcement strategy against false or misleading claims about dietary supplements. As an example of its commitment to strong enforcement, FDA is also announcing a seizure of a dietary supplement making unapproved drug claims.

Establishing an FDA Task Force on Consumer Health Information for Better Nutrition. This task force will develop a framework to help consumers obtain accurate, up-to-date, and science-based information about conventional food and dietary supplements. This includes the development of additional scientific guidance on how the "weight of the evidence" standard will be applied, as well as the development of regulations that will give these principles the force and the effect of law.

With efforts such as this initiative, consumers should expect to see more factual information available to ensure that products' claims are truthful, safe and effective. With regard to the makers of these products, expect to see a market that bases competition on real nutritional value instead of bogus and unreliable claims.