NIH's New Supplement Database Makes Label Claims Easy to Search

What claims are competing supplement companies making on their product labels? What approaches are other companies taking to comply with labeling requirements? And what warnings do products, especially those with certain ingredients, carry on their labels? A new searchable online database hosted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services National Institutes for Health (NIH) makes accessing this information easier than ever.

The free database launched in June catalogues information from 17,000 dietary supplement labels and could be useful for supplement companies to perform market research. The database enables users to search labels by brand name, manufacturer, dietary ingredients, other ingredients and/or any text on the label. Users can also browse labels by ingredient, product name or company contact information.

The database includes label information from dietary supplement products currently on the U.S. market and supplement products that have been discontinued or are no longer on the U.S. market, according to NIH. It enables users to reference what companies are putting on product labels, including ingredients, directions for use, health-related claims, general precautions, brand intellectual property (IP) statements, FDA disclaimers and seal statements such as USDA organic.

A disclaimer notes information on labels may not meet current FDA regulations or may not have met the regulations in effect when the label was published. This means labels in the database shouldnt be used to find examples of ways to comply with labeling laws and regulations. This is the same caution companies should observe whenever looking at other products and how they are labeled.

NIH also said the database currently covers less than one-third of the supplements on the U.S. market. NIH estimates there are 55,000 dietary supplement products in the U.S. marketplace, and it plans to expand the database to include labels from most of the supplement products on the market.

The Dietary Supplement Label Database will be updated regularly to incorporate most of the more than 55,000 dietary supplement products in the U.S. marketplace," said Steven Phillips, M.D., director of the National Library of Medicines Division of Specialized Information Services, which partnered with NIH to launch the database.

Regular updates will also be needed to track the hundreds of new dietary supplements that NIH said are added and removed from the U.S. marketplace each year, and to track the frequent adjustments to product formulas and information on labels.

NIH worked with Therapeutic Research Center, an independent research organization, to update the database. Therapeutic Research uses its Manufacturers Connect program as its primary means for gathering and updating label data. This program pairs a research associate with each dietary supplement manufacturer or distributor. The research associate contacts the company at least annually to inform them of new or updated products. Manufacturers are asked to send a current list of all dietary supplement products and a clean image or physical copy of the product label for each current product. Manufacturers can also notify Therapeutic Research when a product is launched, reformulated or goes off market to ensure their entries are current throughout the year.

Therapeutic Research prefers to receive labels directly from manufacturers. However, they will accept labels from other sources such as retail locations and third-party resellers. Usually, this is when information on specific products is requested by a database user and information is not readily available from the manufacturer.

NIH does not endorse or guaranty the accuracy of information on labels in the database, so supplement companies should verify the accuracy of information to ensure the database doesnt include inaccurate or out-of-date information.

In addition to helping companies compare their labels to other labels, NIH hopes the database will help consumers find the information they need to ensure safe and responsible consumption of supplements. American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) president Michael McGuffin highlighted the database as a resource that could help inform consumers about dietary supplement products.

"AHPA supports efforts to provide consumers with accurate, up-to-date information that helps them make informed decisions when purchasing herbal products," McGuffin said. "The National Institute of Health's new Dietary Supplement Label Database could help consumers easily find the dietary supplement information they need, including ingredients, directions for use, health-related claims and any cautions they should consider before consuming."

Supplement companies should be aware that the posting of supplement labels in a searchable online database makes this information more accessible and open to more scrutiny. NIH noted in a press release that the database is designed to help researchers, consumers and health care providers. It could also be a useful tool for FDA and FTC regulators, who could use it to search for certain claims or ingredients to ensure labels meet current laws and regulations.

However, cooperation with NIH and its contractor in voluntarily providing information to the database also has the benefit of showing consumers, legislators and regulators that the dietary supplement industry is willing to cooperate with projects of this nature.

Learn more about the database, including what FDA regulators had to say about it, in the INSIDER TV News Desk, " Database Allows FDA to Search Label Claims."

Haley Chitty began serving as the director of communications at the American Herbal Products Association (ahpa.org) in 2013. He has more than 10 years of communications and public relations experience at nonprofit organizations.