The companion bills were introduced by assemblyman Felix Ortiz to both the New York state assembly and the New York state senate. Critics of the dietary supplement industry accuse it of being unregulated, but the industry has repeatedly insisted that the 1994 Dietary Supplement Health & Education Act (DSHEA) is a sufficient regulatory safeguard.

These current bill proposals are likely to cause consternation in the supplement industry.

"It would be burdensome and silly," lawyer Marc Ullman of Ullman, Shapiro & Ullman, NutraIngredients-USA.

Ullman said this is not the first such bill presented by Ortiz, but may nonetheless be a "serious effort" to change legislation governing the industry because it has been presented in both houses of the state's government.

This bill is a wake-up call for the dietary supplement industry to monitor decisions being made affecting industry in order to protect its interests.

"Industry needs to be aware of what is going on at both levels of government and pay attention," said Ullman.

Bills S. 938 and A. 2068 were presented in the same form at both level of the New York legislature:

"…no person shall manufacture, sell or expose for sale any product which shall be termed as a dietary supplement or nutritional supplement without branding or labeling such product with a statement that the product has or has not been tested by the United States food and drug administration…"