Large pharmaceutical companies are getting on the herbal band wagon, making herbal product lines with name brands we've grown to trust. Food companies are also marketing foods as supplements. Consumers can find the soups in grocery stores, natural food stores and health food markets. Marian Burros, in the Dec. 30 New York Times, reports that nutraceuticals, designer foods, or functional foods are the fastest-growing category of new foods on the market. According to Gene Grabowski, vice president for communications of the Grocery Manufacturers of America says that consumers can expect to see an even greater selection of foods laced with compounds intended to fight disease in 1999 and 2000.
Consumers mistakenly assume that supplements or functional foods are safer than drugs.
However, there are no federal regulations that establish specific criteria for purity, identification and manufacturing procedures. In fact, at the recent conference on medicinal herbs sponsored by the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, standardization of herbal products was a key issue. Analytical tests are necessary to determine if consumers are getting what the package says we are. To address such concerns, the U.S. Pharmacopeia is in the process of developing scientific monographs on herbal products. A delegation from the Grocery Manufacturers has been meeting with the FDA to lobby on the definition of functional foods and how they should be regulated.