FTC, FDA Launch Health-Information Initiative

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have announced a new consumer-health-information initiative aimed at curbing bogus dietary supplements claims and allowing conventional foods manufacturers to make a greater range of accurate, science-based claims about the health benefits of their products, according to a Dec. 18 FTC announcement.

As a result, FDA will issue a guidance on qualified health claims for conventional foods and dietary supplements and strengthen enforcement of existing dietary supplements rules. The health-claims guidance will allow marketers to package products with verbiage that explains how, for example, Omega-3 fatty acids may reduce the risk of heart disease. Currently, FDA allows only 14 such statements; the new guidance will open the door to other claims that are backed by a “weight of the evidence,” according to Mark McClellan, FDA commissioner, via a Dec. 19 article in The Wall Street Journal.

FTC and the FDA have worked jointly on other projects in the past, including the Health Fraud Steering Committee and the Health Fraud Coalition, according to the FTC announcement. The announcement did not outline how exactly the increased enforcement actions against false or misleading dietary supplements claims would be carried out.