AHPA Updates

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has called for Congress to require mandatory product listing (MPL) for all dietary supplements in the U.S. marketplace. In its 2021 budget request, FDA stated that this concept would “require all products marketed as ‘dietary supplements’ to be listed with FDA and give FDA authority to act against non-compliant products and the manufacturers and/or distributors of such products”. AHPA has received reports that MPL legislation may soon be proposed in the U.S. Congress. As the debate over MPL continues to develop, and as part of his “Short Legal Briefs” series, Informa Markets editor Josh Long has conducted a pair of interviews with major dietary supplement industry figures delving into the cases for and against MPL.

On Monday August 23, 2021, AHPA submitted comments to the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) in response to the recent enacted Emergency Rule titled “Adult Use Cannabis and Hemp Concentration Limits.”

In addition to the recent update to the AHPA guidance on Good agricultural and collection practices and good manufacturing practices for botanical materials (AHPA GACP-GMP) addressing prevention of pyrrolizidine alkaloid (PA) contamination, AHPA has developed educational resources that finished product marketers and botanical ingredient companies can provide to their supply chains to help educate farm managers and workers about best practices for avoidance of PA contamination.

Through a coordinated effort, several parties with long-standing engagement with and commitment to herbs and herbalism prevented consumer confusion concerning the word “herbalist” by opposing the use of the term as a trademark by an entity not associated with herbalists.

The Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has recently modernized the Dietary Supplement Label Database (DSLD), a public repository of dietary supplement labeling information.

AHPA Members are encouraged to participate in the Fall committee meetings and events being held via Zoom, virtually, and in-person October 26 through November 19. The AHPA Staff Contact for each committee will email additional information and reminders to committee members before the meetings.

The August 2021 AHPA Report includes: AHPA Webinar: AHPA Hemp Lexicon Supports Standardized Terminology; AHPA Board of Trustees approves two new guidance resources for the hemp industry; AHPA introduces new entry for rooibos to the online Botanical Safety Handbook 2nd Ed.; USDA APHIS to delay Lacey Act Phase VI enforcement; and more!

AHPA has released a botanical safety assessment of rooibos as a new entry in the Botanical Safety Handbook 2nd Ed. online version.

In comments submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on July 6th, the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) requested revisions to proposed research by the agency on front of package symbols intended to convey the claim “healthy”. In these comments, AHPA requested that FDA expand their research to capture how consumers may respond to the “healthy” symbol in a wider range of package formats, including retail packaged spices and retail packaged tea products.