James Roza, CN?????????????????????? Once again, legislators from New York are attempting to pass a state bill (A2957) which would require all dietary supplements to bear a statement attesting to whether or not it has been tested by the United States Food and Drug Administration. This bill has been introduced before and each time it has been thankfully rejected. Its sponsors, however, are undaunted and are now in the process of once again securing the necessary votes they will need to have the bill passed.

Their justification supposedly stems from the fact that some manufacturers of dietary supplements voluntarily choose to have their products tested by the FDA to ensure itsintegrity while others do not. The rational for this action thoroughly perplexes me. Since when was the FDA in the business of testing and evaluating products? Never to my knowledge! Yes, the FDA does test dietary supplements, but at their own discretion. They have never voluntarily accepted products from manufacturers to corroborate their content or potency.

Clearly the motivation of these individuals is completely misguided and appears to be simply another attempt to discredit and malign our industry. This is most unfortunate because it runs counter to the advances we as an industry have made in finally forcing the FDA to implement cGMP standards. Although this should have been done over 10 years ago, we now have GMP standards to which the whole industry must abide. These standards ensure that quality is held and maintained throughout the production process so that there is no question regarding the integrity of a product once it's finished. What the legislators are once again proposing is not only asinine and unnecessary; it is a step back into the "dark ages" when the misguided thought that you could test the quality back into a supplement after it had been produced.