Fraud in dietary supplements
USA
Mar 04, 2021
Dietary supplements constitute a growing means by which humans are incorporating nutrients into their diet. These functional ingredients provide supplemental nutrition to consumers in the form of multivitamins, gels, and beverages. Dietary supplements are typically high in economic value and, therefore, susceptible to fraud. Dietary supplement fraud, such as other types of food fraud, may not only lighten the wallet but also undermine the integrity of legitimately produced, quality products. Consumers who purchase mislabeled or tainted dietary supplements through nonconventional supply chains become unknowingly vulnerable to potential adverse health effects. Regulatory measures implemented by the US Food and Drug Administration aim to detect and mitigate the importation of fraudulent products. However, fraudulent dietary supplements continue to enter the US supply chain, presenting a formidable regulatory challenge. This chapter discusses previous studies that investigated incidents of dietary supplement fraud, the accuracy of label claims, the issues that were identified, and strategies for mitigating fraud.