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NDIs Question of synthetic botanicals goes beyond legality to core of industry Nutraingredients-usa.com For one expert, the question of so-called synthetic botanicals goes deeper than whether they are legal. It’s a question that drives to the core of what the dietary supplement industry ought to represent, according to Jim Thomas, a research program manager for the ETC group, an NGO in Ottawa, Canada. Thomas will discuss the topic at UNPA's Feb. 9 NDI III: Roadmap to a Viable NDI Policy conference in Salt Lake City. Read more→ QUALITY INITIATIVES
SCCI launched with support of major retailersNutraingredients-usa.com The Natural Products Association has launched its Supplement Safety and Compliance Initiative (SCCI) with the support of GNC, Walmart, Vitamin Shoppe and Whole Foods Market. SCCI hopes to unify manufacturing standards and boost consumer confidence. Read more→TRADE Trump’s appointment of Navarro may spell trouble for supplement tradeNutraingredients-usa.com President-elect Donald Trump campaigned on a program redressing what he called wrongs in the trade relationship between the U.S. and China. Coupled with his choice of strident China critic Peter Navarro, Ph.D., to his cabinet, it could mean trouble for the supplement sector. Navarro, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, has had longstanding hostility toward Chinese trade practices. Read more→MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS Carlyle Group considering sale of Nature’s BountyReuters The Goldman Sachs Group has been hired by private equity firm the Carlyle Group to help it explore the sale of Nature’s Bounty, which includes brands such as Solgar and Met-Rx. Carlyle acquired the company in 2010, and Nature’s Bounty now has estimated sales of $3 billion. A $6 billion sale price has been mentioned at a time when Chinese interest in U.S. nutrition companies is growing. Read more→LEGAL FTC disperses funds in Herbalife settlementNaturalProductsINSIDER Six months after it reached a $200 million settlement with Herbalife, FTC has announced it is mailing checks to 350,000 people who suffered losses operating Herbalife businesses. The dispersals are coming from the settlement fund and rank among the largest distributions for redress that FTC has made in a consumer protection action. Read more→HOMEOPATHY Homeopathic doctor cites bias in FTC action against homeopathic claimsHuffingtonPost The fact that FTC was not accurate or honest in its historical account of homeopathy is among the evidence that the agency’s recent ruling of OTC homeopathic medicines as unsubstantiated is incorrect and biased, says homeopathic doctor Dana Ullman. Ullman notes that there are at least 300 clinical trials in peer-reviewed journals on homeopathy and that it is a respected form of treatment in France. Read more→PUBLIC POLICY Government reaffirms need for folic acid supplementationNPR.org The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force reiterated its 2009 assertion that all women who can conceive should take 400 mg to 800 mg daily of folic acid in case their diet isn’t providing enough. Despite some unknowns, the agency said the evidence is clear that folic acid can prevent risk of neural tube defects. Read more→REGULATORY DEA's Schedule 1 declaration for CBD may end up in court, gets mixed reaction from industryNaturalProductsINSIDER, NewHopeNetwork A notice from DEA published last month has received mixed reaction from members of the CBD industry and may ultimately result in a court fight over the substance the federal law enforcement views as marijuana extract. The agency asserted that marijuana extracts will continue to be treated as Schedule 1 controlled substances. Some companies believe that the move is simply an administrative maneuver that will have little bearing on marijuana extracts or hemp-derived CBD. Read coverage: DEA: CBD is marijuana extract, not hemp→ Paranoia will destroy ya: Did the DEA really make CBD into a schedule I drug?→ UNPA MEMBER NEWS OmniActive acquires IndFrag; Sabinsa’s DigeZyme delays muscle sorenessNutraceuticals World, UNPA OmniActive Health Technologies has acquired an 85 percent stake in Bangalore India-based Indfrag Ltd., a producer of natural extracts for supplements, sports nutrition, pharmaceuticals, food and cosmetics. The acquisition includes all products in Indfrag’s Food and Nutrition business. Sabinsa’s multi-enzyme complex DigeZyme, a proprietary blend of non-animal-sourced enzymes, was shown to offer potential for rapid recovery of Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS), in a recent study published in Sports Nutrition and Therapy. DOMS is thought to be an outcome of inflammation due to strenuous exercise. Read coverage: OmniActive to acquire IndFrag→ Sabinsa’s DigeZyme shows benefit for delayed onset muscle soreness in published study→GLOBAL REGULATORY French trade group clarifies link of vitamin D product to infant deathNutraingredients.com French food supplement trade group Synadiet has clarified that the Uvesterol D vitamin D product linked to an infant death last month was a prescription-only medicine and not available as a food supplement to the public. The French Health Ministry concurred, noting that though a suspension procedure for the product was underway, vitamin D itself is not unsafe. Read more→VITAMIN D NEWS Study finds Brits need more vitamin D; Labeling of D on Dutch products for infants inaccurateNewHopeNetwork, Nutraingredients.com Following a study by the U.K. Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition, British health officials are suggesting that citizens take vitamin D supplements during fall and winter. Estimates suggest that one in five adults and one in six children may have low levels of vitamin D. Fortified foods and supplements designed for infants could have significantly less – or more – actual vitamin D than the amounts labelled, according to researchers in The Netherlands. However, most products do fall within acceptable EU ranges. Read coverage: In or out of EU, Brits need more D→ Inaccurate vitamin D labeling a worry for infant targeted supplements, foods→NEW PRODUCT DISTRIBUTION Centralized buying strategy at Whole Foods may make it harder to launch brandsFastcoexist.com For many large natural brands, their path to success hasgone something like this: start selling at a farmers markets, get into local health food stores, pitch the product to aregional Whole Foods buyer, eventually get on the shelf at Whole Foods and grow from there. But as the retailermoves to a morecentralized buying model, some are questioning how it will change the ability of small brands to get on the store’s shelves. Read more→PROBIOTICS CRN, IPA release best practice guidelines for probioticsNewHopeNetwork Scientifically based, voluntary guidelines developed by the Council for Responsible Nutrition in partnership with the International Probiotics Association focus on how finished products display the number of viable probiotics in a product as colony-forming units. But it is unclear how much consumers understand about these technicalities. Read more→ANTIOXIDANTS L-ergothioneine poised to grow; new startup to develop sciadonic acidNutraingredients-usa.com 2017 looks like a big year for emerging antioxidant ingredient l-ergothioneine, which has had slowly building scientific support and is now seeing regulatory approvals and supply developments, including a positive ruling from EFSA. A new company, Sciadonics Inc., has formed to produce sciadonic acid, a new fatty acid, which the company says has potent antioxidant properties. The compound is a non-methylene-interrupted fatty acid that can be found in the seeds of an ancient family of plants, including conifers, cycads and gingko. Read coverage: L-ergothioneine poised for breakthrough in 2017, experts say→ Company forms to push benefits of sciadonic acid→ORGANIC USDA harmonizes standards to ease farmers’ transition to organicFoodnavigator-usa.com Farmers transitioning to organic soon could more easily sell their products at a premium even during the transition period before they are fully certified, thanks to a new USDA program. The program will use harmonized standards developed by the Organic Trade Associations that take into account each state of the supply line to oversee and approve accredited agents offering transitional certification to farmers. Read more→BOTANICALS ADULTERATION Joint programpublishes adulterants bulletin for St. John’s wortHerbalgram, Nutraceuticals World The ABC-AHP-NCNPR Botanical Adulterants Program has published an adulterants bulletin on St. John’s wort, which summarizes adulteration of St. John’s wort extract with food dyes and/or extracts made from other Hypericum species. The bulletin provides information on growing range, production and market importance of St. John’s wort. Read coverage: Botanical Adulterants Program releases St. John’s wort bulletin→ St. John’s wort Bulletin→MARKET RESEARCH Study notes millennial supplement use; why millennials matter for 'natural';Asia's heart-health market; do stores push supplements on teens?NewHopeNetwork, Nutraingredients-usa.com, Nutritional Outlook Consumer research has told us that millennials are more likely than baby boomers to trust the supplement industry, but what supplements are they actuallybuying? Recent research from The Hartman Groupsheds some light. On top of an adventurous culinary streak and an appetite for authenticity, millennials place more trust in the natural channel and nutrition as a first-choice health strategy, according to the Next Forecast 2017. Despite Asia Pacific being a region with high incidence of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), sales of heart-health products are not high, according to Euromonitor International, but may take off as positioning becomes more clear. The authors of a new study published in Pediatrics state that teenagers may not get the advice they need in health food stores in order to use supplements, such ascreatine or testosterone booster,properly. Read coverage: What supplements are millennials using?→ Why millennials matter so much to the natural products industry: NextForecast 2017→ Why cardiovascular health functional foods are primed to take off across APAC→ New study looks at whether health food stores recommend creatine, testosterone booster to teenage boys→RESEARCH Vitamins C, E protect the brain; fiber impacts metabolic health; CoQ10 benefits liver; studies support K for the heart; cranberry PACs mitigate e-coliNutraingredients.com, Nutraingredients-asia.com, NaturalProductsINSIDER, Nutritional Outlook Supplements of vitamin C and E may reduce the risk of cognitive decline, according to data from the Canadian Study of Health and Aging, concluding that users of these supplements had a 23 percent reduced risk of impairment. Fiber’s positive influence on health has been reinforced by two studies that underscore its capabilities as a prebiotic, metabolic manager and inflammation tamer. A 300-mg daily coenzyme Q10supplement significantly increased antioxidant capacity and reduced oxidative stress and inflammation levels post-surgery for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common type of liver cancer, according to a new study from Taiwan. Two new studies add to increasing evidence for vitamin K’s role in heart health, by showing the link of vitamin K-dependent matrix-GLA protein to vascular calcification and vascular and arterial stiffness. Fruit d’Or Nutraceuticals and Complete Phytochemical Solutions share new study results that explore the bacteria-disrupting mechanism of action in cranberry proanthocyanidins (PACs). Read coverage: Vitamin C, E supplements may protect against age-related brain declines: Study→ Fiber’s impact on gut metabolic health studied→ CoQ10 supplementation shows benefits for liver cancer patients, post surgery→ Two studies point to vitamin K dependent protein→ Study reveals how cranberry PACs mitigate E. coli activity→ Comments are closed.
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