Phenolics, flavonoids rank amongst significant research

The ODS has been publishing the Bibliography since 1999. Each issue contains the original research papers of 25 studies deemed the most noteworthy by an international team of 49 reviewers.

According to the latest data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), 55 percent of Americans reported taking a dietary supplement in the preceding month.

Andrew Shao, VP for scientific and regulatory affairs at the Council for Responsible Nutrition, told NutraIngredients-USA.com: "It is important that a government body that is a significant authority on dietary supplement research has hand picked a number of well-conducted studies."​

However he said that the publication does have a shortfall in that it offers no comment on what these studies mean for the industry, consumers and health practitioners.

"We would like to see the ODS interpret the studies, and communicate their interpretation to the public,"​ he said, noting that public outreach is part of the office's expressed function.

As to the addition of a new category, he said the industry should be "encouraged"​.

But he said that phenolics and flavonoids are themselves umbrella terms within the even broader term 'antioxidant'.

"Many products blur the lines between what is good science and what is piggy-backing on the term antioxidant,"​ said Shao.

He suggests that the industry take a page out of the ODA's book and boil the message down to which​ antioxidants are useful for which​ health conditions - although he acknowledged that this may be difficult within the FDA's health claims framework.

"The cart is before the horse. The research has not yet caught up,"​ he said.

As well as phenolics and flavonoids, the bibliography also contains papers on vitamins, minerals, botanicals, fatty acids and other ingredients such as DHEA and glucosamine.