Arizona Nutritional Supplements (ANS, Chandler, AZ), a vitamin manufacturing company, recently worked with the Arizona Salvation Army in its efforts in the East Valley to provide approximately 970 families (more than 3,000 children) with some much-needed holiday cheer.

The Salvation Army was in need of an East Valley headquarters for its Angel Tags program. ANS Owners Jonathan Pinkus and Aaron Blunck were happy to offer the company’s 43,000 square foot warehouse to the Salvation Army and its local volunteers.
Local companies and individuals donated money and toys, including thousands of bicycles for local families in need of some holiday help.

“Our organization relies heavily on the generosity of local companies and individuals” stated Captain Jason Koenig of the Salvation Army. “Without a place to organize this effort, it would be nearly impossible to carry out this kind of project, affecting the number of lives that we have this year with this program … and we are truly grateful to the owners of ANS for their generosity.”

For more information, call (480) 966-9630 or visit www.aznutritional.com.

As 2009 begins, the Council for Responsible Nutrition’s (CRN) “Life…Supplemented” campaign has made three notable announcements: that it will be continuing for a second year, that it has named three national physicians to be spokespeople for the campaign, and that the results of the 2008 Healthcare Professionals (HCP) Impact Study—conducted this year with orthopedics, cardiologists and dermatologists—are in.

New York-based dermatologist Jeannette Graf, MD with WellStar Health System; Emory University cardiothoracic surgeon William Cooper, MD; and UCLA orthopedic specialist Nick Shamie, MD will share insights about the campaign’s new research and also will be the faces of the campaign, urging consumers to commit to a proactive wellness regimen.

New results from the 2008 “Life…supplemented” Healthcare Professionals (HCP) Impact Study revealed that orthopedic specialists, cardiologists and dermatologists take and recommend dietary supplements to their patients both for overall wellness and reasons associated with their particular specialties. According to the study, practitioners within each specialty also believe the usage of dietary supplements among consumers is mainstream and more popular today than it was five years ago.

The 2008 study revealed that nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of orthopedic specialists use dietary supplements and 63 percent believe the use of dietary supplements among consumers is mainstream. Nearly all orthopedic specialists who take supplements recommend them to their patients (94 percent), yet 82 percent of orthopedic specialists who do not take supplements still recommend them to their patients. In total, 91 percent of orthopedic specialists recommend supplements to their patients.

More than half (57 percent) of cardiologists use dietary supplements and 53 percent believe the use of dietary supplements among consumers is mainstream. Seventy-four percent believe patients’ usage of dietary supplements is higher today than it was five years ago. In all, 72 percent recommend them to their patients.

Eighty-three percent of dermatologists believe patients’ usage of dietary supplements is higher today than it was five years ago. Roughly four in five dermatologists who take supplements recommend them to their patients (79 percent), but only 28 percent of dermatologists who do not take supplements recommend them to their patients. Overall, 66 percent of dermatologists recommend supplements.

According to CRN, “Life…Supplemented” is currently funded through July 2009 and fundraising efforts for year three are currently underway.

Industry associations and companies have filed comments with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in response to its request for information with regards to Section 912 of the FDA Amendments Act of 2007.

This section, titled “Prohibition Against Foods to Which Drugs or Biologics Are Added,” was effective immediately upon its passage on September 27, 2007. The FDA’s request for comments addresses how it is intending to implement this law. Primary areas of concern relate to a provision of the new law that prohibits the adding of substances to food for which substantial clinical investigations have been conducted and made public. A broad application of this part of the new law would potentially force dietary ingredients that have undertaken the New Dietary Ingredient notification process off of the market while erecting a substantial barrier to entry into the mainstream food market for responsible companies that undertake serious investigations of the health benefits provided by the ingredients they develop.

“This has a potentially chilling effect on companies investing in science relating to dietary supplements,” said Sabinsa Corporation (Piscataway, NJ) CEO Jeff Lind. “Sabinsa believes that if the new law is applied to dietary supplements, manufacturers will be forced to make a ‘Hobson’s choice’ between conducting research on their products and marketing them as ‘food.’”

“That this would apply to supplements is nonsensical,” stated industry regulatory attorney Marc Ullman, who drafted Sabinsa’s comments. “A product can be a dietary ingredient even if you have had clinical investigation, as long as no one has filed an IND (investigational new drug) application. If Congress intended otherwise, it would have said so at the time it put Section 912 in place for ‘foods.’ Any other outcome would be especially ironic in light of the constant criticisms of our industry that we do not conduct enough research,” Ullman said.

The American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) has also filed comments with regard to Section 912.
 
The association maintains that the new section does not replace or amend DSHEA, and therefore, dietary supplements are in no way affected by this new law. Further, AHPA commented that this law should be implemented for other food categories (e.g., conventional foods, foods for special dietary use, medical foods, etc.) in a manner that does not in any way adversely impact incentives for investigations of the safety, functional effect or health benefits of substances that may be added to foods.

Finally, AHPA takes issue with the FDA’s use and potential redefinition of the word “drug,” which is clearly defined in the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA).

The EAS Asian office has launched “Marketing Health Supplements, Fortified & Functional Foods in Asia: Legislation & Practice,” an essential guide for nutritional product manufacturers struggling to navigate Asia’s regulatory maze or considering a future there.

The guide covers the national rules for health supplements, fortified and functional foods, the rules for adding vitamins and minerals to food and health supplements and the rules for the use of herbs and other functional ingredients in the People’s Republic of China, Brunei, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.

It also gives an analysis of the current labelling, claims and novel food regulatory environment in Asia; an overview of the health supplement regulatory harmonisation process within the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and insight into the activities of international regulatory body Codex Alimentarius.

For more information about the EAS guide or to buy the guide online visit www.eas.asia.

President-elect Barack Obama has selected former Governor Tom Vilsack of Iowa to serve as his agriculture secretary.

According to the New York Times, one of the first major decisions President-elect Obama and Vilsack may have to make is whether to grant the ethanol industry’s requests for billions in federal aid in the stimulus bill, which the President-elect has said he hopes to sign into law quickly, perhaps on his first day in office.

Vilsack is a strong advocate of combating global warming and developing alternative sources of energy. He was the co-chairman of a task force in 2008 on climate change for the Council on Foreign Relations, which recommended phasing out subsidies for mature biofuels, including corn-based ethanol, as well as reducing tariffs on imported biofuels such as Brazilian sugar ethanol.

On December 3, 2008, The Center for Food Safety (CFS) urged Obama to consider its recommendations for the most qualified and committed candidates for Secretary and Undersecretaries of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA)—Vilsack did not appear on that list.

But organic organizations are optimistic about Obama’s choice.

“Given what we know of his lengthy interactions with organic leaders in our industry, I know that there are business leaders that have his ear in the organic space,” said Steven Hoffman, managing director of The Organic Center, who expressed that the organic products industry has a voice with Vilsack. “He has spent time with the industry. I am heartened by that.”

In addition, the Organic Trade Association has sent a letter to Vilsack expressing its eagerness to work together to further help organic agriculture.

“In making the nomination, President-elect Obama indicated his intent ‘that the policies being shaped at the Departments of Agriculture and Interior are designed to serve not big agribusiness or Washington influence-peddlers, but family farmers and the American people,’" said Simcha Weinstein, director of marketing for Albert’s Organics. “We are encouraged by this outlook, hoping that together with his new Secretary of Agriculture we can see a move toward promoting and enhancing local and regional family farms and a sustainable vision for our food supply.”

Jeff Moyer, farm director of the Rodale Institute (Kutztown, PA), has been elected as the 2009 chair of US Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Standards Board (NOSB). The board elected Moyer at its meeting in November in Washington, DC, elevating him from the 2008 vice-chair role. His five-year board term began three years ago.

The NOSB is the US organic community’s high profile and all-volunteer advisory body to the National Organic Program (NOP), which sets USDA organic policy as part of the Agricultural Marketing Service. The board receives robust levels of comment from a broad range of constituent organic groups and individuals at and between its multi-day meetings held several times per year.

Moyer manages the 333-acre Rodale Institute research farm. He has refined the farm's cover cropping and crop rotation systems, and was instrumental in developing its no-till roller/crimper, a tool that makes organic no-till crop farming possible.

He holds a farmer/grower seat on the board, and sits on the crops, livestock, materials and executive committees.

For more information call (610) 683-1400 or visit www.rodaleinstitute.org.