Association heads question science used to justify decision

New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman recently asked four major retailers to stop sales of store-brand herbal supplements because the products allegedly did not contain the ingredients on their labels—a move that has generated a sharp rebuke from associations representing the industry.

According to news site Sci-Tech Today, Schneiderman said the supplements sold by GNC, Target, WalMart and Walgreens represented a health risk given they could expose consumers to unlisted ingredients. His office had the products tested and found that 79 percent had no trace of the DNA of the plants labels said they contained. In addition, the tests found contamination by other material, including rice, beans, pine and wheat. http://bit.ly/1v1Bzzn

The Council for Responsible Nutrition, which represents supplement makers, called the attorney general's actions "a self-serving publicity stunt" with little scientific basis.

"Supposed concerns about the products in question are based on a novel testing method that has been roundly criticized by botanical scientists who question whether DNA barcoding technology is an appropriate or validated test for determining the presence of herbal ingredients in finished botanical products," CRN CEO Steve Mister said. "Processing during manufacturing of botanical supplements can remove or damage DNA; therefore while a DNA testing method can be useful in some cases, this method well may be the wrong test for these kinds of products."

Also quick to criticize the tests was Daniel Fabricant, head of the Natural Products Association. In a news release defending its products, the health retail chain GNC noted Fabricant used to be the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's chief regulator of dietary supplements.

"You can't even start to draw any conclusions or learn anything from it," Fabricant said.

The American Herbal Products Association also called the tests an "inadequate and unproven analytical method to test herbal supplement products."