Airborne Health Inc. (Bonita Springs, FL) has agreed to pay $7 million to settle investigations by 32 state attorneys general and the District of Columbia over the past marketing and labeling of its products. Airborne, a privately held company that makes popular dietary supplements with vitamins, minerals and herbs that it says help support the immune system, did not admit any wrongdoing in the settlement.

“The agreement announced today will have no impact on our products or on the ability of consumers to buy them, because it deals with language that had already been dropped from our advertising and labeling,” said Airborne Founder and CEO Victoria Knight-McDowell in a statement. “What hasn't changed is the simple fact that the key ingredients in Airborne have been shown to help support the immune system.”

Airborne agreed to certain prohibitions against making claims over the benefits of its products. The company also may not demand where a retailer puts its products in stores.

The settlement with the Attorneys General is the last of three settlements involving similar claims regarding the older advertising and labeling of Airborne dietary supplements. Airborne previously reached a $23.5 million settlement of a class action lawsuit and a $6.5 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission. The company said the FTC settlement funds would be paid only if the class action settlement does not cover all consumer claims submitted by September 18.

For more information call (800) 590-9794 or visit www.airbornehealth.com.

The Coca-Cola Company is using a new stevia product by Cargill in its new Odwalla drinks, tapping into a longtime natural product used for sweetening.

Cargill’s Truvia is a new natural, zero calorie sweetener made from the stevia leaf, and the marketing campaign will include network television and national consumer print and online advertising to communicate the benefits and availability of the sweetener.

The campaign includes four 30-second television spots directed by director Mikon van Gastel. Building on the brand identity, the ads focus on clean, close-up images of the stevia leaf, the crystalline nature of the tabletop sweetener and its use in foods and beverages. Television spots will air nationally on network and cable television. Print and online ads will run on media properties focused on women, wellness and epicurean topics.

With the Truvia sweetener, Coca-Cola plans to market three flavors of a juice drink in its Odwalla line, sources told The Wall Street Journal. These are ready to launch as soon as it is given the green light by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Scott Williamson, spokesman for Coca-Cola North America, declined to comment on whether the company was planning to launch a stevia sweetened drink in the US, or if it was prepared to do so without FDA GRAS.

The American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) filed comments with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regarding the implementation of Section 912 of the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act (FDAAA) of 2007. This section, which was effective immediately upon the passage of FDAAA on September 27, 2007, is titled, “Prohibition Against Foods to Which Drugs or Biologics Are Added.”
 
FDAAA section 912 creates new section 301(ll) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA). It prohibits interstate commerce in foods to which an approved drug or a licensed biological product has been added, and also prohibits the addition to foods of any drug or biological product that has been the subject of publicly-disclosed substantial clinical investigations. There are exceptions to these prohibitions, most importantly for any ingredient that was marketed in a food before it is approved as a new drug or licensed as a biological product, or before it becomes the subject of substantial clinical investigations. Similar prohibitions, with the attendant exceptions, have been in place for dietary supplements since the adoption of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) in 1994.
 
The association commented that new section 301(ll) does not replace or amend DSHEA, so that dietary supplements are not in any way affected by this new law.

In addition, AHPA believes that this law should be implemented for other food categories (like conventional foods, foods for special dietary use, medical foods, etc.) in a manner that does not in any way disincentives or adversely impact incentives for investigations of the safety, functional effect or health benefits of substances that may be added to foods.

Finally, AHPA suggested that the FDA should refrain from developing new definitions for terms that are already defined in the FFDCA, such as “drug,” or for which the common language meaning is perfectly clear, such as “marketed.”

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued the results of its interim safety and risk assessment of melamine and melamine-related compounds in food, including infant formula, conducted by scientists from FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition and the Center for Veterinary Medicine.

Research indicated that the FDA is currently unable to establish any level of melamine and melamine-related compounds in infant formula that does not raise public health concerns. According to the FDA, this is in large part due to gaps in scientific knowledge about the toxicity of melamine and its analogues in infants. First, the FDA is unsure of the consequences of continuous use of infant formulas as the sole source of nutrition, the possible presence and co-ingestion of more than one melamine analogue, and its effects on infants with immature kidney function. Despite its inability to say that these compounds are safe, the FDA maintains that this does not necessarily mean that any level of melamine or melamine-related compounds in formula will result in harm.

In other food products, the FDA concluded that levels of melamine and melamine-related compounds below 2.5 parts per million (ppm) do not raise concerns. This conclusion assumes a worst-case exposure scenario in which 50 percent of the diet is contaminated at this level.

In light of this research, the FDA will continue to screen products and ensure that potentially contaminated products from foreign sources are examined if imported into the US, and if appropriate, are prevented from entering commerce.

Two North Dakota farmers, who filed a lawsuit in June of 2007 to end the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) ban on commercial hemp farming in the US, were heard recently in the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

The oral arguments before the three-judge panel centered on the farmers’ assertion that because there is no possibility the hemp crop could be diverted into the market for drugs, the Commerce Clause does not allow DEA to regulate industrial hemp farming in North Dakota. If successful, the landmark lawsuit will lead to the first state-regulated commercial cultivation of industrial hemp in over 50 years. The court’s decision is not expected until 2009.

The farmers, North Dakota State Rep. David Monson and seed breeder Wayne Hauge are appealing a decision by the US District Court of North Dakota on a number of grounds; in particular, the District Court ruled that hemp and marijuana are the same. According to the Hemp Industries Association, scientific evidence clearly shows that not only are oilseed and fiber varieties of Cannabis genetically distinct from drug varieties, but there are absolutely no psychoactive effects gained from eating it. All court documents related to the case can be found online at http://www.VoteHemp.com/legal_cases_ND.html

The government’s arguments centered on the idea that the plaintiffs should apply to the DEA for permission to grow hemp and that the court didn’t have jurisdiction over the issues raised by the farmers.
 
In 2007 the North Dakota Legislature removed the requirement that state-licensed industrial hemp farmers first obtain DEA permits before growing hemp. The question before the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals will be whether federal authorities can prosecute state-licensed farmers who grow non-drug oilseed and fiber hemp pursuant to North Dakota state law. Vote Hemp, an industrial hemp advocacy group, and its supporters are providing financial support for the lawsuit. If it is successful, states across the nation will be free to implement their own hemp farming laws without fear of federal interference.  

Learn more about hemp farming and the wide variety of non-drug industrial hemp products manufactured in the US at www.VoteHemp.com and www.TheHIA.org.

Numi (Oakland, CA) has been awarded the California State WRAP (Waste Reduction Awards Program) Award from the California Integrated Waste Management Board for its achievement in landfill waste reduction. Numi also won the WRAP award in 2005 and 2006.

Numi converted its tea boxes to a minimum of 85 percent post-consumer waste, annually conserving more than 5,202 trees and reducing landfill by 334,560 pounds. In 2004, Numi also converted all of its marketing collateral to 100 percent recycled material.
 
The program recognizes Numi as a California business that has made outstanding efforts to reduce non-hazardous waste and send less garbage to our landfills. WRAP of the Year recognizes five of the best examples of these efforts, which serve as waste management models to the rest of their industry.

For more information call (888) 404-6864 or visit www.numitea.com.