News Briefs
FDA Issues Final Rule on Dietary Supplements
The FDA announced in June a final rule establishing regulations to require current good manufacturing practices (cGMPs) for dietary supplements. The rule ensures that dietary supplements are produced in a quality manner, do not contain contaminants or impurities, and are accurately labeled.
The regulations establish the cGMPs needed to ensure quality throughout the manufacturing, packaging, labeling, and storing of dietary supplements. The final rule includes requirements for establishing quality control procedures, designing and constructing manufacturing plants, and testing ingredients and the finished product. It also includes requirements for record-keeping and handling consumer product complaints.
Under the final rule, manufacturers are required to evaluate the identity, purity, strength, and composition of their dietary supplements. If dietary supplements contain contaminants or do not contain the dietary ingredient they are represented to contain, FDA would consider those products to be adulterated or misbranded.
The aim of the final rule, according to FDA, is to prevent inclusion of the wrong ingredients, too much or too little of a dietary ingredient, contamination by substances such as natural toxins, bacteria, pesticides, glass, lead, and other heavy metals, as well as improper packaging and labeling.
The final rule includes flexible requirements that can evolve with improvements in scientific methods used for verifying identity, purity strength, and composition of dietary supplements.
As a companion document, FDA also is issuing an interim final rule that outlines a petition process for manufacturers to request an exemption to the cGMPs requirement for 100% identity testing of specific dietary ingredients used in the processing of dietary supplements.
Under the interim final rule, the manufacturer may be exempted from the dietary ingredient identity testing requirement if it can provide sufficient documentation that the reduced frequency of testing requested would still ensure the identity of the dietary ingredient. FDA is soliciting comment from the public on the interim final rule. There will be a 90-day comment period, ending Sept. 24, 2007.
The final cGMPs and the interim final rule are effective Aug. 24, 2007. To limit any disruption for dietary supplements produced by small businesses, the rule has a three-year phase-in for small businesses. Companies with more than 500 employees have until June 2008 to comply, companies with less than 500 employees have until June 2009 to comply, and companies with fewer than 20 employees have until June 2010 to comply with the regulations.
FDA issues final rule on dietary supplements. Altern Ther Women's Health 2007;9(8):64.Subscribe Now for Access
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