Although all medium-sized dietary supplement manufacturers in the US will be required to meet new GMP regulations as of June this year, FDA has said it is unlikely to start inspections until fall. The agency’s manager of the Division of Dietary Supplements Brad Williams talks to Lorraine Heller.

Supplements and healthy foods are proving to be more resilient than other sectors in the midst of the current economic freeze. Investment banker David Thibodeau tells Lorraine Heller why this sector will continue to perform.

Lorraine Heller met with Randy Dennin, chairman of the Chinese branch of US trade group Natural Products Association (NPA), at Supply Side East and asked him about regulatory and other challenges on the Sino peninsula.

Today is the first day of Supply Side East, one of the major east coast trade shows for the functional foods and supplements industries. Lorraine Heller takes a peek at the program and shares some thoughts about what to expect from the show.

A proposed ruling to prohibit the use of omega-3 nutrient content claims would generate consumer confusion by limiting the ways in which manufacturers can communicate meaningful omega-3 references on their products, says the Global Organization for EPA and DHA (GOED).

Shane Starling takes Michael Chubb, the sales director at Canadian fatty acid specialist, Bioriginal, into the organic and natural product extravaganza that is Expo West for a real-time spec of end-product omega-3 ingredient innovation and application.

The staggered implementation of America’s controversial GMP rules is underway and due for completion in June, 2010. For the Council for Responsible Nutrition’s VP of regulatory and scientific affairs, Andrew Shao, PhD, the bill may be progressing but much remains to be resolved.

At Expo West recently, Shane Starling sat down with industry stalwart, Loren Israelsen, to discuss the Obama effect, Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois, the “flyspeck” that is the Dietary Supplements and Health Education Act (DSHEA), GMPs, oh, and the economic situation.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been criticized for not enforcing Good Manufacturing Practises, but according to the FDA’s Brad Williams, boosted funding means FDA inspectors may be about to “saturate the field”. He spoke with Shane Starling at Expo West.

Signs of the current economic recession were largely absent from the Expo West trade show in Anaheim, California, this year, with continued innovation in the field of functional foods and supplements.