Iowa Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin on Wednesday was named chairman of the Senate health committee, succeeding Sen. Ted Kennedy as the leader of a panel that is key to passage of broad health care reforms.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Harkin said he wanted a bipartisan deal on reforming health care but was willing to push forward without Republican support.

Asked how he would push such changes through the Senate, he said that would depend on how Republicans respond.

“It’s a question to ask Republicans,” Harkin said. “Would they rather stay with the status quo or make constructive changes?”

According to Daniel Fabricant, acting CEO of the Natural Products Association (NPA), the Senator has always “looked at” prevention in health.

“The Senator has always looked at matters related to health very progressively, from working to ensure that FDA has the proper funds to conduct enforcement activities to looking towards complementary, integrative, preventive and alternative forms of health care, which sometimes includes supplements, to improve the nation’s health,” he said in an interview with NutraIngredients-USA.com.

Harkin will give up his job as Agriculture Committee chairman but will keep his seat on the panel, where he has served since he was first elected to the Senate in 1985.

Barely two months after Hydroxycut products were recalled, a reformulated version of the reformulated Hydroxycut weight loss pill is back on the market as Hydroxycut Advanced.

Iovate Health Sciences voluntarily recalled its product Hydroxycut on May 1 following 23 reports of illness. These illnesses included the death of one man, and caused a woman to require a liver transplant.

According to the company, after further analysis of the incidents and the ingredients in the original products, they were unable to isolate the ingredient that may have caused the serious side effects. In an attempt to make the product safer, it was reformulated and many of the ingredients changed.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) launched the Reportable Food Registry (RFR), an electronic portal that food industry officials are required to use when they discover their products contain potential cases of food borne illness.

Facilities that manufacture, process or hold food for consumption in the US must tell the FDA within 24 hours if they find a reasonable probability that an article of food will cause severe health problems or death to a person or an animal. The requirements apply to any person who has to submit registration information to the FDA for a food facility that manufactures, processes, packs or holds food for human or animal consumption in the US.

The reporting requirement applies to all foods and animal feed regulated by FDA, except infant formula and dietary supplements, which are covered by other regulatory requirements. Some examples of reasons a food may be reportable include bacterial contamination, allergen mislabeling or elevated levels of certain chemical components.

Uncle Matt’s Organic (Clermont, FL), the oldest organic orange juice brand in the US, is celebrating its 10th anniversary year by formally announcing Project Sunshine, the company’s philanthropic program at the community level. As a family business, Uncle Matt’s Organic is committed to supporting local projects to make the community stronger and to educate citizens about organics and green initiatives. According to Matt McLean, company CEO, “As part of our mission, we have always been involved in our local area, making it a better place to live and work, promoting a healthy lifestyle and protecting the environment. To forward these goals and as part of our anniversary celebration this year, we have expanded our philanthropic endeavors by creating Project Sunshine one way our small family can make a big difference.”

Project Sunshine includes the following community organizations and projects:
• Second Harvest Food Bank
• Relay for Life: American Cancer Society
• Special Olympics and the Lakes and Hills School
• Green Isle Boys Ranch
• Sunrise ARC Impact 100, for disabled children and adults
• Cooper Memorial Library: donation of books on organics and green initiatives
• Greater Clermont Cancer Tennis Tournament
• Magic Senior Basketball Team (National Champions in the 80+ yrs. Division)
• Clermont Middle School FFA agricultural projects
• Lake County Teacher Appreciation Breakfast
• Organic Grove Tours for Home Schools and other groups
• Chamber of Commerce Breakfast
• Annual Chamber of Commerce Golf Tournament
• South Lake Memorial Hospital Golf Tournament
• Lake County 4H Citrus Tree Project

For more information, visit www.unclematts.com.

Now that the final regulations on good manufacturing practices (GMPs) for dietary supplements are in effect for Dietary Supplement firms with 25 or more employees, EAS is conducting this Dietary Supplement GMP Seminar to train industry on the new rule. Given by former FDA compliance officials, this intensive training program, held October 6-7, will provide all the information needed to comply with the rule, covering the responsibilities of domestic and foreign firms who manufacture, label, pack or hold dietary supplements for sale in the US, including those involved with the testing, quality control and distribution of supplements.

This two-day course will provide you with the knowledge and skills for evaluating, auditing, managing and improving the cGMP compliance of in-house and/or contract laboratory. Attendees will gain knowledge for identifying and closing CGMP gaps and implementing the 15 key laboratory quality systems. They will also be provided with examples of lab cGMP deficiencies from FDA-483 drug citations and recommendations for practices and procedures to ensure and demonstrate cGMP compliance with the Final Rule.

The seminars will be held at EAS Consulting Group Training Facility, 1940 Duke Street
Suite 200, Alexandria, VA. For more information, call (703) 684-4438 or visit www.easconsultinggroup.com

In a move to continue to take advantage of modern communications technology, Cyvex Nutrition (Irvine, CA) has announced it has created an industry blog: www.cyvex.com/blog.

The blog will feature discussions penned by industry experts and Cyvex own executive personnel, such as company President Matthew Phillips, Research Director Tatiana Anguelova and Founder Gilbert Gluck. It will also feature commentary from other industry experts and consultants. Visitors can also post comments and questions, as long as they have valid emails and comments will be monitored for appropriate content.

“We are continuing to create a community where the industry can easily and informally discuss consumer trends, regulations, ingredients, research, technology, world crop analysis and other related topics,” said Phillips. “We have had tremendous success with our social network media accounts and wanted to open up this industry for those folks who may not have Facebook and Twitter accounts.”