What should you do if you find yourself facing a sudden maelstrom of consumer concern following the testing and recall of a range of health food supplements from the shelves of major retailers including Wal-Mart, Walgreens, Target and GNC in New York State?
Canadian Health Food Association (CHFA) President Helen Long advises sharing some details about the pre-market approval process that has positioned Canada as a global leader in the regulation of natural health products (NHPs).
The American tests used a new and relatively untested process called DNA bar-coding. After the results made headlines, Harvard Medical School assistant professor Pieter Cohen told the New York Times that the test results were so extreme he found them hard to accept, suggested that “the manufacturing process may have destroyed some of the ingredients’ DNA, rendering the DNA barcode test ineffective.”
Echinacea, gingko biloba, ginseng, garlic, saw palmetto, valerian root and St. John’s wort samples were tested. One product claiming to be gingko biloba was found to contain no gingko biloba at all. Other products contained unlisted ingredients including wheat and beans that have been known to cause allergic reactions – and could be potentially dangerous to consumers.
CHFA points out that Natural Health Products in Canada follow a strict licencing protocol to prevent this sort of thing from happening here. From the moment Product Licence Applications (PLAs) are filed with Health Canada, product safety, effectiveness and quality are monitored. Applications must provide information about the medicinal and non-medicinal ingredients used, scientific research supporting any health claims, product labeling, and information about the manufacturing site. The licencing process includes standardized laboratory tests demonstrating that the product contains the advertised medicinal and non-medicinal ingredients.
“Once approved,” says Long, “Health Canada issues an 8-digit Natural Product Number (NPN), which can be found on the product label and the Licensed Natural Health Product Database.”
The CHFA statement concluded by saying, “While CHFA in principle supports the evolution of new and proven testing techniques to ensure consistent and high-quality products are available to Canadians, the DNA bar-coding technique for the review of NHPs has not been validated by Health Canada or other regulatory authorities, nor is it widely available to manufacturers at this time.”
