Makers of dietary supplements, including vitamins, herbs, and others, will now have to meet government standards to show the products are true to their label and not contaminated.

The standards were introduced by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and will take effect June 2008 for large companies, while smaller firms have until 2010 to comply.

The rules call for supplement makers to test the purity, strength and composition of all supplements, and address design and construction of manufacturing plants, record-keeping and handling of consumer complaints.

The new rules could potentially protect consumers from tainted products (such as those that have been recalled in the past because of contamination with pesticides or metal), while ensuring the products contain the ingredients they’re supposed to.

Fortunately, these new rulings do not change the current rule that supplements do not have to be proven "safe and effective" before they can be sold (as drugs supposedly do).

However, supplements are also limited from making health claims (this is reserved only for drugs). For instance, cherry growers cannot legally say that tart cherries may do more good than aspirin or other anti-inflammatory drugs when it comes to pain relief, even though it’s been clearly proven.

Ron Paul recently introduced The Health Freedom Protection Act, which would prevent the FDA from censoring truthful claims about the curative or preventative effect of dietary supplements, and if it’s passed this would be another victory for consumers.

WashingtonPost.com June 23, 2007