August 2000

Call For Supplement Regulations
Heats Up

AAFCO works to make nutraceuticals and herbals “legal” while educating companies that violate current regulations.

The issue of “nutraceuticals,” most notably whether they are supplements or drugs and who should regulate them, is hot—really hot. There’s no question, however, as far as the FDA and AAFCO (the American Association of Feed Control Officials) are concerned. Officials say the ingredients are illegal with unproven safety and usefulness, and laws that forbid the sale of nutraceuticals are being blatantly ignored. Indeed, sales continue to skyrocket—almost everywhere that is.

In 1999, Texas cracked down on the sale of certain ingredients in equine supplements (see June 1999) and enforced existing laws that prohibit the sale of products containing ingredients that are not GRAS (generally recognized as safe) or don’t have…