The popular press regularly publishes investigative reports on the dietary supplement industry. Often they are of a critical slant. It’s not difficult to see why. The regulatory status of the dietary supplement industry is practically flimsy with a post-market regulatory structure but little funding to support oversight by the FDA. As a result, unscrupulous or honestly unaware manufacturers and marketers at times launch adulterated, unsafe and mislabeled supplement products into the market. Consumers play a role too. They believe what they want to believe - extrapolating curative effects from structure-function claims and anecdotal successes stories.

Today, the New York Times published an article exploring this three pronged problem that the dietary supplement industry struggles with. You may read the article titled, Potential for Harm in Dietary Supplements here.

I encourage your comments below.

-Patrick

A longstanding advocate for the dietary supplement industry, Utah Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, published a response to the Roger Clemens steroid scandal and the general argument “Supplements Made Me Do It” that so many professional athletes utilize when caught using dangerous & illegal steroids.

He eloquently writes, “As a child, I couldn’t get away with rule-breaking by saying, “The devil made me do it!” Yet this is essentially what some Major League Baseball players say when accused of steroid use: “The supplements made me do it.”"

This Washington Post article is very well written and worth a close read. This is surely not the last we will hear of steroid usage in professional and Olympic sports this year, but we can only hope that the monotonous blaming of supplements for positive steroid tests will grow as old in consumers ears as it does in ours.

-Patrick

-Patrick

On December 29th, a professional soccer player died on the field of heart failure, as reported by ESPNsoccernet.

This may bring added attention to the high levels of stimulants in energy drinks and some dietary supplements in the United States as the Beijing Olympics grow near.

This should be concerning to U.S. nutritional ingredient manufacturers and suppliers keeping an eye on developing trends in the energy market. NBJ subscribers will recall NBJ’s September Sports Nutrition & Weight Loss issue contained commentary and analysis on the energy market.

Specifically, NBJ research indicates that energy drink and caffeine consumption…or rather over-consumption…may become a consumer health issue in 2008. A few publicized events like this may push the energy & caffeine consumption issue over the threshold in the consumer press.

The growth of Starbuck’s and certain energy drinks, including Red Bull and Hansen’s Energy, has been incredible, but reminiscent of other fast growing products that flew high, and fell hard.

Something to think about in the new year.

-Patrick

Registration is now open for Nutrition Business Journal’s Supplement & Nutrition Industry Raw Material & Ingredient Supply Webseminar. We’ll begin the live online event on December 4th, 2007 at 11am MT.

I think that this webseminar will be highly educational for any executive in or interested in the supplement & nutrition industry supply chain. So much has impacted this business in the last year - rising fuel costs, poor weather producing poor crops, currency fluctuations and China…to name a few. We’ll discuss all of these issues on December 4th, completely reviewing our November RMIS issue.

NBJ is one of the few research firms that dives deep into the supplement & nutrition industry’s supply chain in any significant way. Issues to be discussed will include: pricing, imports, exports, leading players, nutritionally enhanced flavors, sales and growth forecasts…and how they all relate to the complex and ever changing supply chain.

I highly recommend you sign up for this webcast.

-Patrick

I do my best to keep an eye on the popular press. I read Time, The Economist & BusinessWeek every week…as well as reading about 10 enewsletters on a daily basis.

Today, I came across an article in USA Today entitled: Got Omega-3? Not so much

It’s an interesting article and worth reading if you are in the business of the nutrition industry. The consumer press can do alot to swing product sales one way or another.

For more information on Omega-3 fatty acids, go to the website for the Global Organization for EPA and DHA omeag-3s www.goedomega3.com

This group is led by Adam Ismail, one of the leading analysts in the nutrition industry, and a close friend of mine. Enjoy!