FDA: “Who Let The Dogs Out?”

Our favorite government agency, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), has been busy.  After enduring well deserved abuse over the handling of the peanut and pistachio contamination incidents earlier this year, the agency seems to have adopted a more aggressive approach in dealing with food ingredient storehouses and the FDA’s favorite whipping boy, the supplement industry.

On May 7, the FDA sent Federal Marshalls to raid a warehouse in Memphis, Tennessee owned by food producer American Mercantile.  They seized $1.5 million in food ingredients, including cornstarch, orange peels, licorice powder, sarsaparilla, and salt.  In a news release, the agency claimed that after repeated notices, American Mercantile had not treated a rampant insect and rodent infestation problem within the warehouse.

American Merc didn’t clean up their mess, so the FDA swept in and hauled off the tainted food. To quote the FDA news release, “The FDA will not tolerate a company’s failure to adequately control and prevent filth in its facility…the FDA is prepared to use whatever legal means are necessary and appropriate to keep potentially contaminated products out of the marketplace.”

“The food and supplements industry can expect a lot more of this,” says Loren Israelsen, executive director of the supplements trade group United Natural Products Alliance, told the publication. “This is the new FDA, so wake up everybody.”

New FDA? Not exactly.

Big Pharma’s bulldogs have a history of going after supplement makers.

Tomorrow:

Big Pharma Sicks The FDA On A High Profile “Weight Loss” Pill

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