Q&A with Patricia Knight and Peter Reinecke

In October 1994, Congress passed the Dietary Supplement Health & Education Act (DSHEA), creating a definition and regulatory paradigm specific to dietary supplements. With lobbying efforts, retail blackout" days and consumer letters to legislators, the industry pulled together in hopes of protecting consumers right to choose safe, efficacious dietary supplements, and saw a boom of business as the impact of DSHEA took effect.

Five years ago, when Natural Products INSIDER celebrated the Act's 15th anniversary, we asked industry insiders to share their recollections of the events leading up to the passage of DSHEA, as well as their insights on where they thought the dietary supplement industry was headed. We took these recollections and published them in a Digital Issue.

To honor DSHEA's 20th anniversary of this event, INSIDER updated that Digital Issue, reaching out to the same experts asking their take on law 20 years after it passed.

In 1994, Patricia Knight was the chief of staff for Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Peter Reinecke was the chief of staff for Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), co-sponsors of the DSHEA in 1994. They saw DSHEA's passing from the Congressional perspective.

Read this full Q&A in INSIDER's History of DSHEA Digital Issue.