No Bovine Tissue in Supplements

The US Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) most recent Import Alert concerning bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) contamination was published in January of this year and contained a list of tissues at high risk, as well as a list of countries where BSE (otherwise known as "mad cow disease") has been found.

The alert asked manufacturers of cosmetic and dietary supplement products to investigate the geographic source of any bovine material and develop a plan to assure, with a "high degree of certainty," that bovine material does not come from a known BSE-infected country.

In addition, to assist manufacturers and importers whose products are within the scope of this recommendation in developing their plans, the FDA provided the following:

• To ensure that bovine-derived materials used in the product are from non-BSE countries, identify all countries where the animals used were born, raised or slaughtered. The supplier of the bovine-derived materials should provide the necessary records.
• Maintain traceable records for each lot of bovine-derived material and records of products containing the materials.
• The National Nutritional Foods Association wants to ensure that suppliers who might produce these products are aware of the alerts issued by both the US Department of Agriculture and the FDA.

FDA's import alert:
<fda.gov/ora_import_ial704.html>
Phone NNFA: (949) 622-6272