Use Dietary Supplement? Check It Out Panel Drops Recommendation That Fda Be Given Evidence

Makers of dietary supplements should use science to back claims that their products actually help people’s health, a presidential commission said Monday - but it backed off forcing companies to submit evidence to the government.

Ultimately, consumers will have to do their own homework before buying supplements to make sure they’re not wasting their money, the Commission on Dietary Supplement Labels concluded.

“It behooves the public … to do a fair amount of investigation on their own,” said panel chairman Malden C. Nesheim, professor of nutrition at Cornell University.

The commission issued its final report Monday on how a 1994 law should be implemented. It recommended that nutritional claims be “supported by scientifically valid evidence.”

It urged manufacturers to make that evidence available publicly, but commissioners dropped a recommendation in their draft report calling for companies to submit a summary of evidence to the Food and Drug Administration.

Industry officials complained that the law does not require them to submit this information, Nesheim said, and they said disclosing it could help their competitors. He said consumer groups also complained that it could look like companies had some sort of FDA approval when, in fact, they did not.

Responsible companies will supply the information to consumers who ask for proof that their products actually work, Nesheim said.

“Informed and interested consumers ought to start asking for that,” he said.

The law requires manufacturers to assure dietary products are safe, and it spells out what claims can be made on labels and how these claims must be backed up.

But it allows manufacturers to sell these products without any outside experts or scientists evaluating them first. Under the law, the FDA acts only if trouble is suspected.

The report is now in the hands of Donna Shalala, the secretary of Health and Human Services, who has 90 days to decide whether to propose the recommendations as formal rules.

The commission also recommended:

The FDA be given more money to identify and investigate supplements that pose hazards. “There must be a strong and reliable enforcement system,” it said.

Dietary health claims on the labels of supplements should be based on the same “significant scientific agreement” that is required for conventional foods.

The industry consider establishing a scientific committee to review labels.

The FDA establish a panel to review herbal products that companies wish to market as preventive and therapeutic.

Specific guidelines for the content of labels including warnings when appropriate and guidance on using terms such as “stimulate” and “promote.”

The FDA had no comment on the report Monday.

An industry group, the Council for Responsible Nutrition, promised to use the guidelines to forge partnerships with regulators and others to assure safe products are available.