Nutritional science for mind health products
DSM Nutritional Products
The Interagency Working Group on Import Safety - which was formed in July on President George W. Bush's orders - has issued an initial Strategic Framework designed to shape the final outcome of the taskforce, due for November.
For dietary supplement manufacturers, this policy initiative could provide both the opportunity to voice their concerns to the Administration, as well as to think about how to best craft their own approach to complete supply chain safety.
One of points brought up in the report is that the working group will look to outside sources for comment as to how product safety could be improved upon.
"I like the fact that the report talks about working with external partners," Daniel Fabricant, vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs with the Natural Products Association, told NutraIngredients-USA.
The crux of this latest report, "Protecting American consumers every step of the way", is that evaluation of the US import process needs to shift from a regulatory "snapshot" environment to a "video" overview. As such, the Working Group proposes looking at the entire life-cycle of products and finding out where the weaknesses are in the various phases of importation.
With more opportunities to gather data along the life of a product, the areas of specific need should be better targeted.
"This information will generate signals as to who's doing due diligence and where there are gaps," said Fabricant.
Additional data points along the supply chain could have highlighted the melamine issue before it was too late, he said.
In April, wheat gluten products imported from China for use by the pet food industry were found to have been contaminated with the banned chemical melamine and were blamed for the deaths of hundreds of dogs and cats.
Then regulators discovered the pet products had been fed to a herd of hogs and three million chickens, leading to fears the contamination would spread further to the human food chain.
"We know that in the 21st century's global economy, our efforts to assure product safety for Americans cannot just begin at our borders, they must begin at the time the products are produced in other countries," said the US Food & Drug Administration's Commissioner, Andrew von Eschenbach, in a response to the new report.
The purpose of the framework and impending policy shift is not to examine every product, but instead to find out where there are missing safety links in the global supply chain on goods entering the US.
"The federal government cannot and should not attempt to physically inspect every product entering the United States," wrote Michael Leavitt - secretary of health and human services - in an introductory letter to the report. "Doing so would not only bring international trade to a standstill, but would also distract limited resources from those imported goods that pose the greatest risk."
Approximately $2 trillion worth of imported goods entered the US in 2006, which the government expects will triple by 2015. The largest portion of imports coming into the US stem from Canada, followed closely behind by Chinese goods - accounting for $305bn and $275bn in FY2006 respectively.
"The opportunity is there for dietary supplement manufacturers to participate in programs that have the 'video' approach and not 'snapshots'," said Fabricant, citing third party certification programs for nutraceutical companies.
The Working Group's action plan is set to be released in November.