Crackdown On Cosmetics Fda Fears Makeup, Creams May Contain ‘Mad Cow’ Products
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is planning to close a regulatory loophole that allows dietary supplements and cosmetics to contain ingredients from cattle with “mad cow disease.”
The proposed action comes in the wake of recent findings suggesting that the disease, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, may be linked to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare brain disease in humans.
Many supplements and cosmetics - ranging from “energy boosters” to “anti-aging” creams - contain beef proteins or hormonal extracts from bovine organs and glands.
But unlike pharmaceutical manufacturers and food processors, which must ensure their products do not contain beef or beef byproducts from BSE-infected herds, makers of dietary supplements and cosmetics have been exempt from such rules.
Herds in at least five European countries are known to harbor BSE. With little or no documentation to indicate the country of origin of bovine ingredients, consumers cannot be certain that products are free of the BSE agent, experts said.
FDA officials said they believe the risk of getting CJD from a dietary supplement or cosmetic is quite small. But they worry about the remote possibility that dietary supplements made of bovine organs could cause CJD in people or that a BSE-contaminated cosmetic could infect a person through a cut in the skin or contact with the eyes.
Regulations are being considered because, despite the FDA’s efforts to get the cosmetic and food-supplement industries to comply with voluntary guidelines, neither industry has come up with a satisfactory plan.
Product labels are required to tell consumers what kind of animal products they contain. Among those found in some dietary supplements are organ extracts such as hormones, nucleic acids and enzymes.
Some of these supplements, collectively known as “glandulars,” are taken by athletes as a source of natural steroid hormones.
Other bovine-derived supplements are marketed to women to lessen the symptoms of menopause.
Cosmetic ingredients derived from cows include hydrolyzed beef proteins, collagen, placental liquids and extracts and amniotic liquids or extracts - ingredients used in skin-care and anti-wrinkle creams.