The Natural Products Association (NPA) announced that Daniel Fabricant, PhD, has been appointed interim executive director and CEO of the organization effective August 3. Fabricant has served as vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs with NPA since December of 2004. As was previously announced, David Seckman, who has headed the association for more than nine years, will be leaving at the end of the month to lead the Food Processing Equipment Manufacturers Association.

“We are greatly appreciative of Dr. Fabricant’s willingness to assume the role of executive director as we conduct a search process for a permanent successor to David Seckman,” said Pat Sardell, NPA’s president. “A search committee has already been formed and we hope to complete the recruitment process as expeditiously as possible.”

Fabricant currently directs the association’s GMP Certification Program, the NPA-US Pharmacopoeia ingredient testing program based in China, and the association’s natural certification and TruLabel programs. Additionally, he directs NPA’s participation as a subcontractor for the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Dietary Supplements Dietary Supplement Label Database (DSLD) feasibility study. He serves as a spokesperson for the NPA on scientific, regulatory and technical topics to association members, legislative bodies, regulatory agencies and the media, on the national, international and state level.

Market research group Mintel GNPD reported that amid rampant private label food product development, manufacturers stay current with the latest food trends. Providing more than just cheap alternatives to national brands, the newest private label foods woo shoppers with premium ingredients, portability and health benefits.

So far in 2009, Mintel GNPD has seen nearly 1,800 new US private label foods appear on retail store shelves: 27 percent of all food products introduced this year. In 2005, private label foods comprised only 13 percent of new food product launches.

“Not only have private label introductions increased, but product innovation is reaching unprecedented highs,” states Krista Faron, senior analyst at Mintel. “Retailers no longer only launch ‘me-too’ products to compete against major national brands. Instead, private label lines are hotbeds of creativity, driving markets and establishing themselves as trend leaders.”

As over half of Americans try to spend less at restaurants, Mintel sees private label retailers creating premium in-home meals that boast restaurant quality and fresh ingredients

Portable, high-quality lunches are another hot area of private label development, reported Mintel's Krista Faron. People want to save money by lunching at the office, and new private label foods make desk-dining easy and enjoyable.

“Private label manufacturers realize ‘value’ means more than ‘low price’ to consumers, so they’re wisely creating new products that deliver on some of today’s most exciting food trends,” commented Faron.

As the recession causes more Americans to cut down on food spending, both at home and by dining out less, private label has benefited: the US market grew 9.3 percent in 2008 (compared to 4.5 percent for branded food sales). Mintel forecasted it will grow another 8.1 percent by the end of 2009.

A court action has been lodged which challenges the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) qualified health claims system via five disputed selenium health claims.

The action, lodged by Jonathan W. Emord of Virginia-based law firm, Emord & Associates, states that the qualified health claims system must modify its procedures as it is preventing truthful messaging from reaching consumers, and challenges five selenium cancer health claims, reported NutraIngredients USA.

Emord said the action, which seeks “declaratory and injunctive relief” from the FDA and US Department of Health and Human Services, followed a 1999 case (Pearson versus Shalala), which validated qualified health claim messaging as a First Amendment freedom of speech right.

Following that decision, the FDA implemented the qualified health claims system, but Emord says the system is not abiding by the First Amendment, the Pearson versus Shalala judgment and others that followed it.

The claim has been lodged in the same court of law that heard Pearson versus Shalala and three similar cases that followed—all of which were won by clients of Emord.

Emord estimated the US District Court could deliver a verdict within 6-12 months.

The legal complaint was supported by Colorado-based food lawyer, James Prochnow, who said the action was a response to the FDA’s, “historical, institutional, stubborn refusal to acknowledge, in an application way, the difference between drug claims and health claims.

Fellow food attorney, Marc Ullman, agreed the claim had merit as the qualified health claim system was not answering its mandate, but proving that in a court of law may prove difficult.

“FDA has adopted what I believe is a very calculated/sophisticated legal strategy for dealing with qualified health claims,” he said. “This involves trying to insulate that Agency from First Amendment challenges by ‘permitting’ every qualified health claim presented to it, but with so many qualifications/limitations as to neuter the claim to the point that the message it conveys is ‘FDA does not believe this product works.’”

One of the submitted claims, for prostate cancer, stated in its original form is “Selenium may reduce the risk of prostate cancer. Scientific evidence supporting this claim is convincing but not yet conclusive.”

The FDA’s disputed modification read: “Two weak studies suggest that selenium intake may reduce the risk of prostate cancer. However, four stronger studies and three weak studies showed no reduction in risk. Based on these studies, FDA concludes that it is highly unlikely that selenium supplements reduce the risk of prostate cancer.”

Sun Chlorella Corporation (Kyoto, Japan) began operations in 1969, a year that predates natural grocery chains and the now-common shelves of supplement and functional food offerings. The goal was to make chlorella—a single-celled, fresh water algae that is densely packed with the highest chlorophyll and protein content of any studied plant—accessible to consumers in an easily digestible form.

Over the past four decades, Japanese consumption of chlorella has soared past that of vitamin C, the company said. Its many health benefits have also gained recognition in the US, as chlorella has been clinically shown to purify and detoxify, support the immune system and recovery process and provide intense nourishment with its unrivaled roster of all essential amino acids, dietary fiber, vitamins and minerals, said Sun Chlorella.
 
“With 40 years of unwavering commitment to quality and an investment in improving health, we are excited to enter our next phase of growth with our extensive product line for consumers interested in this study-backed, whole food source,” said Sun Chlorella USA Vice President and COO Rose J. Straub.

For more information, call (310) 891-0600 or visit www.sunchlorellausa.com.

According to the Washington Post, The House approved the first major changes to food safety laws in 70 years Thursday July 30, giving sweeping new authority to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to regulate the way food is grown, harvested and processed.

“Americans are dying because the Food and Drug Administration does not have authority to protect them, and American producers and agriculture are being hurt,” said Rep. John D. Dingell (D-MI), the bill’s author, who has been pushing food-safety change for more than 20 years. “This will fundamentally change the way in which we ensure the safety of our food supply.”

The measure passed 283 to 142. The Senate is expected to take up its version after the August recess. President Obama, who has voiced concerns about the safety of peanut butter consumed by his eight-year-old daughter, endorsed the House bill Wednesday.

The legislation affects every aspect of the US food system, from farmers to manufacturers to importers, the Post reported, placing significant responsibilities on farmers and food processors to prevent contamination.

The 159-page bill was backed by a raft of consumer groups and trade associations but faced opposition from some farm interests and their House Republican allies, who said it gives too much authority to the FDA and will lead to higher costs and burdensome paperwork without necessarily making food safer.

“The federal government will tell our farmers and ranchers how to do something they’ve been doing since the dawn of mankind,” said Rep. Frank D. Lucas (R-OK). “It goes too far in the direction of trying to produce food from a bureaucrat’s chair in Washington, DC.”

The legislation requires food producers and importers to pay an annual $500 registration fee, which would help fund stepped-up FDA inspections, enforcement and related activities such as food safety research. About 360,000 facilities in the US and abroad would be subject to the fees. The Congressional Budget Office reported that the fees would not cover the cost of the new system, leaving the FDA to incur a net cost of $2.2 billion over five years.

The legislation requires food manufacturers to identify the particular risks they face, create controls to prevent that contamination, monitor those controls to make sure they are working and update those measures regularly. Such controls have been mandatory for the seafood and juice industries since the 1990s after several high-profile contamination cases; they are widely believed to have reduced outbreaks involving those products.

The legislation requires the FDA to sharply step up inspections. The FDA now inspects food facilities about once a decade. The bill would also mandate inspections of high-risk facilities at least once a year and low-risk facilities at least every three years.

The measure also gives the FDA significant authority to contain outbreaks of food-borne illnesses. The agency would be able to recall food if it suspects contamination, instead of relying on the food maker to act voluntarily. It also allows the FDA to quarantine a geographic area, blocking the distribution of suspect food to the rest of the country. And the FDA would gain access to records at farms and food production facilities.

Under the legislation, the food agency will get new enforcement powers and be able to impose beefed-up civil and criminal penalties. One provision allows the FDA to declare food “adulterated” simply if the grower or manufacturer has failed to follow safety standards, regardless of whether the food is actually tainted.

Small farms are exempt from registration fees, ranchers and farmers now regulated by the Agriculture Department are excluded from the requirements of the bill, and the FDA will have to consider the special concerns of small growers and organic farmers, among other provisions.

Organic yogurt maker Stonyfield Farm’s (Londonderry, NH) President and CE-Yo joined critics in panning a study that dismisses the nutritional benefits of organic foods.

Gary Hirshberg said he applauds The Organic Center (TOC), a non-profit industry think tank, for publicly taking the UK study authors to task for using old data and flawed logic in reaching the conclusion that organic food is no healthier than conventional. TOC alleges that the UK study actually downplayed the positive findings, which favored organic food and did not measure important nutrients such as antioxidants.

Hirshberg referenced studies that have shown organic foods higher in beneficial antioxidants, substances or nutrients to slow or prevent heart disease, diabetes and some forms of cancer. A 2007 Newcastle University (UK) study concluded organic fruit and vegetables contained up to 40 percent more antioxidants than non-organic varieties; organic milk contained more than 60 percent more antioxidants and healthy fatty acids than conventional. A 2007 study by the University of California found organic tomatoes had elevated levels of up to 97 percent of two types of antioxidants.

Hirshberg went further, stating the study by the United Kingdom’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) ignores the environmental and related health benefits of an organic farming system that avoids the use of millions of pounds of toxic persistent pesticides, herbicides, fertilizer and other chemicals that leach into soil, water and air.

“There are about 120,000 milking cows on organic dairy farms in the US, and these farms avoid the use of an estimated 40 million pounds of fertilizer and 758,000 pounds of pesticides on the 761,000 acres of farmland now used to grow organic feed or organic pasture,” said Hirshberg.

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