Hormones top the list of risks. Inside the FDA's enforcement program. It is a bitter irony that the suffering of Faith Rumph and 1,500 other victims of l-tryptophan did not led not to better safety and quality control. Instead, the disaster led to lower standards and a largely voluntary system. We take food for nutrition and its pleasures.
Drugs are to cure illness, relieve symptoms and prevent disease.
For the multitude of foods, the regulatory hand of the federal government is light, except for additives and contaminants. Drugs, because of their much greater capacity for both good and harm, are tightly regulated. They are tested among hundreds or even thousands of people who are systematically observed. The scientific record establishing the medical profile of a new drug is tens of thousands of pages long and represents six or seven years of research. No drug may be offered for sale across state lines without FDA approval .