Stricter Regimen for Vitamins

News last week that the U.S. Justice Department is investigating alleged price fixing in the vitamin industry could mean welcome new oversight for the consumers who now spend $3 billion worldwide on these products each year.

A grand jury in Dallas is reported to be weighing evidence, gathered by the antitrust division of the Justice Department, that focuses on bulk sales of vitamins for both humans and animals. The products are most often used in supplements in packaged foods, nutritional tablets, animal feed and cosmetics.

This investigation has special importance because of the high degree of concentration in the wholesale vitamin industry market. Just as necessary as the pricing probe is tougher oversight over content and labeling. Congress passed the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act in 1994, requiring makers of herbal remedies, vitamins and minerals to prove label and ad claims that their products will cure or prevent disease.

To date, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has allowed companies to advertise direct health benefits of only two supplements: calcium to prevent bone loss and folic acid for pregnant women to prevent some birth defects. In recent months, a presidential commission has urged the FDA to step up its enforcement of this act. Officials said the FDA had issued “courtesy” letters telling supplement makers of more than 40 product claims the agency considers improper under the 1994 law. These letters should be followed by action when necessary.

And the laws themselves should be tougher. Congress has shrunk from requiring vitamin and supplement makers to document the contents of their products, leaving consumers to wonder what besides vitamins are in the capsules. Such disclosure is prudent, to say the least.