Earlier
this summer the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) launched the Dietary
Supplement Label Database (DSLD). This website provides label information
from supplement products marketed in the US. The database is easily searchable
by ingredient, product name and company name and provides a summary of
information on the labels as well as label images. Based on my casual
perusal of the database it is clear that very few of the labels would serve as
good examples of compliant labels. Nevertheless, the database has been
made available to help medical professionals and researchers know what products
are on the market in the US. It may also serve as a tool for supplement
manufacturers wishing to do a bit of market research.
I
contacted the NIH with a few questions about this website and received the
following response from Therapeutic Research, the contractor responsible for
adding and updating dietary supplement labels for the DSLD:
“The primary way we gather and keep labels up
to date is through our Manufacturers Connect program. Through this program, we
pair one of our research associates with each manufacturer or distributor of
dietary supplements. The research associate will contact the company at least
annually to determine if there are new or updated products. Additionally, this
provides the manufacturer with a single point of contact through which they can
notify us of any changes to their formulations.
We ask manufacturers to send us a current
list of all dietary supplement products and a clean image or physical copy of
the product label for each of the current products. Then our staff will add all
of the new products and review any existing entries to ensure the entire
product line is up-to-date in the DSLD. We like to have a point of contact with
each manufacturer that we can reach out to with any questions that may come up
during the entering/updating process. Manufacturers often reach out to us when
a product is launched, reformulated, or goes off market. This allows
manufacturers to ensure their entries are current throughout the year and not
just during the annual review process.”
You
may already know whether your labels have become part of this database.
Nonetheless, you may follow this link to view the database: http://dsld.nlm.nih.gov/dsld/index.jsp
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