AHPA Updates

The American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) has approved the reappointment of Wynn Werner and P K Davè as co-chairs of the AHPA Ayurvedic Products Committee during the AHPA Board of Trustees meeting at SupplySide West in Las Vegas on Oct. 5.

AHPA President Michael McGuffin presented an overview of U.S. regulations for botanical raw materials at the 2016 Korea-China Joint International Phytonutrient Symposium organized jointly by the Korean Society of Food Science and Technology (KoSFoST) and the Chinese Nutrition Society and held on October 27 in Seoul, Korea.

IADSA is an association focused on the globalization of food supplement markets and regulatory challenges. This issue of the IADSA Newsflash includes an update on the European Commission (EC) request of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to provide a scientific opinion on the safety of green tea catechins with a proposed deadline of October 2017.

This article, "A caution to industry and regulators - 'Incidental DNA fragments' may be misinterpreted using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS)," is authored by Dr. Steven Newmaster, Professor, Botany & Genetics/Genomics at the University of Guelph, Dr. Subramanyam Ragupathy, Senior Scientist, NHP Molecular Diagnostics at the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario, and Dr. Robert Hanner, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at TRU-ID Ltd. These leading DNA experts detai challenges and pitfalls of DNA analysis used to verify the identity of herbal ingredients.

The American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) sent a letter to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) urging the agency to reconsider using its emergency scheduling authority to temporarily place constituents of the herb kratom into schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).

Domestic and foreign facilities that manufacture, process, pack, or hold food for consumption in the United States are required to register with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). All entities required to register must renew their registration from October 1 through December 31 every even-numbered year. If the facility registration is not renewed by 11:59 PM on December 31, 2016, the registration is considered expired.

A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) notice scheduled to be published tomorrow in the Federal Register requests comments on the agency's tentative conclusion that vinpocetine is not a dietary ingredient and is excluded from the definition of a dietary supplement.

In January, AHPA and UNPA launched a joint campaign to develop working relationships with state attorneys general (AG) and educate them about the herbal supplement industry to ensure they have an accurate understanding of the industry. Former Maryland Attorney General  and Past President of the National Association of Attorneys General. Gansler was hired to help deliver information and expertise about the industry to his colleagues.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today released revised draft guidance for new dietary ingredients (NDIs) to be published in the Federal Register on Friday. The revised draft replaces FDA’s 2011 draft.

AHPA President Michael McGuffin comments on bill's passage