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Kappa Bioscience AS (Oslo, Norway) has entered the market as a new ingredients supplier.

Tea marketer Choice Organic Teas has been verified as non-GMO by the nonprofit Non-GMO Project.

In a recent ConsumerLab.com evaluation of alpha-lipoic acid supplements, only two-thirds of the brands tested passed quality review. Lipoic acid is a natural antioxidant that can help diabetics control blood sugar and reduce symptoms of peripheral neuropathy.

On October 15, FDA and the Federal Trade Commission together issued their first joint warning letter to www.drweil.com, a website associated with health guru Dr. Andrew Weil, for what the agencies called fraudulent H1N1 marketing claims. Among other things, the agencies took issue with a page on the website titled 'Swine Flu and You,' on which Weil gave advice on how to avoid contracting the H1N1 flu. On the same page, Weil suggested using his Weil Immune Support Formula product to help ward off colds and the flu.

Following last week...s FDA announcement that the agency will begin to enforce against misleading front-of-package (FOP) nutrition labels, officials of the recently launched Smart Choices FOP labeling program announced that it would put its program on hold. Last Tuesday, FDA released a letter to industry stating that the agency will begin policing claims made in FOP labels. This is the first time that the agency has taken an active role in overseeing FOP label claims.

Kellogg Co. plans to discontinue use of the phrase, 'Now helps support your child...s immunity,' on boxes of Kellogg...s Rice Krispies and Cocoa Krispies cereal. The move was announced after a letter questioning the marketing claim was sent to Kellogg by San Francisco city attorney Dennis J. Herrera. Herrera...s letter requested that Kellogg provide evidence to back up its immunity claim, which Kellogg started adding to its packaging after the company began adding extra antioxidants to the cereals in question last year.

The landmark Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act signed into law by President Obama on March 23 includes several provisions that address complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and dietary supplements.

Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) introduced new legislation to the House, this Tuesday, which would significantly alter the claims permitted on dietary supplements and health foods. HR 4913, the Free Speech About Science Act of 2010 would allow dietary supplements and health foods to run labels referencing 'legitimate scientific research' deemed permissible under language of the new bill. The bill would amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. It is currently co-sponsored by Representative Jared Polis (D-CO).

Following the European Food Safety Authority...s (EFSA) release of its second batch of Article 13 health claims opinions on February 25, companies began sharing concern over EFSA...s batch-by-batch approach. Now, a global petition is making headway. As of today, 382 companies have already signed on to what is being called the 'Health Claims Letter,' a petition addressed to European Commission president José Manuel Barroso, which calls for a reconsideration of EFSA...s method of releasing evaluations.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) established an Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) for the safe use of stevia as a food sweetener, last week.

As the U.S. Senate gears up for a new financial reform bill, the Restoring American Financial Stability Act, trade associations and business groups, including representatives of the food and supplements industries, are calling for major changes before further negotiations.

Tomorrow, the U.S. Supreme Court will take oral arguments in the case of Monsanto v. Geertson Seed Farms, the first-ever Supreme Court case to be heard on genetically modified crops. Geertson Seed Farms, an Idaho-based alfalfa producer, filed a lawsuit in 2006 opposing the USDA...s approval of a pesticide-resistant alfalfa developed by agriculture company Monsanto (St. Louis), known as Roundup Ready Alfalfa (RRA).

In order to help companies comply with the standards of cGMP documentation, the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA; Silver Spring, MD) has made available a new cGMP compliance tool, Good Documentation Practices: A Guide for the Dietary Supplement Industry.

A bill aimed at financial reform will not include broadened Federal Trade Commission (FTC) powers. The final version of the bill, the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010 (S. 3217), will not include provisions that would have provided FTC with "additional authority [that] very likely would have led to advertising rules that would have undercut the protections of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act," stated the Natural Products Association (NPA).

Tahitian Noni International (Provo, UT) has petitioned for and received its third Novel Food approval for the noni fruit from the European Commission on Food Safety. The company...s noni puree and concentrates are now approved for sale across the European Union. Previously, the company gained approval for its noni juice and leaves to be used in preparation of other products, such as tea.

A European Commission (EC) court has published its review of a French court case concerning whether or not EC member states can set their own limits on maximum intake levels for vitamins and minerals. The original French proceedings involved food supplement manufacturers, including Solgar Vitamins (Ferrières-en-Brie, France) against French Ministries, including the Ministry for Agriculture and Fisheries.

For the last several months, the Financial Services Reform Bill has been the talk of Congress, with the Senate passing its own version of the bill, last week. Nutritional Outlook recently reported on a controversial provision that, if added to the final bill, would provide the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) with expanded powers to regulate industry.

HealthCo (Bloomingdale, IL), a division of NOW Health Group, has received Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) status for its Stevia FSE ingredient. The company contends that its Stevia ingredient is different from most other Stevia ingredients because it is enzymatically treated to remove stevia...s usual bitter aftertaste.

Health Canada has approved phytosterols (or plant sterols) and sterol esters for Novel Food use, according to Cognis Nutrition & Health (Cincinnati). Phytosterols, found naturally in plants, can compete with, and therefore lower, dietary cholesterol in the body.

A new bill introduced today demands that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA; Rockville, MD) implement the regulatory powers provided by the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) established in 1994. Called S.3414, the Dietary Supplement Full Implementation and Enforcement Act of 2010, the new bill has been introduced by Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT), the original author of DSHEA, and Tom Harkin (D-IA). The bill also requires that FDA receive a minimum of $20 million in funding to aid enforcement.

Stevia producer GLG Life Tech (GLG; Vancouver) has signed a memorandum of understanding with Grupo Azucarero Mexico (GAM; Las Lomas, Mexico), Mexico...s largest sugar producer, to distribute and market stevia products in Mexico, according to a GLG press release published earlier this month. GAM owns and operates four sugar mills and three processing plants across Mexico, a country where stevia products have already entered the market. PepsiCo introduced its stevia-based Gatorade G2 beverage in Mexico, last year.

Food For Health Ireland (FHI; Cork, Ireland) announced, last week, that it has begun utilizing metabolomics in its research of milk metabolites. Based at University College Dublin, FHI is a government agency that aligns scientific and commercial dairy interests to explore the health potential of 'commercially viable bioactives in milk.' 'Metabolomics allows us to examine how milk compounds can alter [metabolism],' said Lorraine Brennan, PhD, project leader for FHI at University College Dublin.

Chemicals company BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany) has reached an agreement to purchase ingredient supplier Cognis (Monheim, Germany) for an enterprise value transaction of €3.1 billion. The acquisition is subject to clearance by merger-control authorities and is expected to close by November of this year, BASF announced.

A blend of probiotics could improve symptoms of Atopic Dermatitis (AD) in children, according to a new study presented this month at the 'Probiotics: From Bench to Market' conference, sponsored by the New York Academy of Sciences.

Global bakery products leader Grupo Bimbo (Bimbo; Mexico City) has announced a call for entries for its Pan-American Nutrition Award 2010.The Pan-American Nutrition Award will recognizes leading research papers produced by both established professionals and young scientists across four regions: the United States of America, Mexico, Central America, and South America. Entries will be considered from more than 20 focuses, including:-Cereals, grains and their role in nutrition.-Nutrition at life stages.-Processes to prevent nutritional deficiencies.

Tea exporters should focus on developing sales growth at home, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO; Rome), which published a global tea industry report online, this week. FAO states that major tea exporters, such as China, Kenya, Sri Lanka, and India could increase local consumption of tea by better marketing tea for its health benefits to those consumers.

Jarrow Formulas has donated more than 10,000 containers of protein powder to Feeding America, the nation...s leading domestic hunger-relief charity, and the AIDS Project Los Angeles Necessities of Life Program, designed to improve the lives of people affected by HIV disease. The nutritional supplement brand donated 4826 bottles of Whey Protein and 5046 containers of Muscle Optimeal, a meal-replacement formula.

In the United States, global probiotic beverage leader Yakult U.S.A. (Torrance, CA) only distributes its product in six U.S. states'”but major growth could be on the way. This June, Yakult U.S.A. announced plans to build its first U.S. factory in Fountain Valley, California. The factory, expected to be up and running by 2012, will have the capacity to produce as many as 760,000 bottles of Yakult, daily.

Pharmachem Laboratories Inc. (Kearny, NJ) has pledged $1 million to Vitamin Angels (Santa Barbara, CA), a non-profit organization dedicated to reducing nutrient deficiencies in children across the globe. Over five years, Pharmachem will donate $200,000 annually to the organization.