Welcome to our new blog, published by lawyers Kevin Houchin and Joel Rothman.  Houchin and Rothman are better known as the attorneys who filed the now infamous iFart v.

GUEST BLOG by David A. Mark The Institute of Medicine is currently reviewing the Dietary Reference Intake value for vitamin D that last changed in 1997.

A recent study by LegalMetrics, a litigation analysis firm, named the Southern and Middle Districts of Florida among the top five districts for speed to resolution in patent infringement cases.  

Calvin Pace of the New York Jets will be sitting out the first four games of the 2009 season because he violated the National Football League's policy on doping.

Following up on a post from June 30, the question of consumer confidence in nutritional supplements arises again. The Times-Herald reports that many supplements have quality problems. 

Anne Hart has lots of questions about the quality and safety of nutritional supplements, 19 questions to be exact. They revolve around product integrity, contamination, mislabeling (think sibutramine), FDA oversight and so on. 

Manufacturers beware. Your regulatory problems may not be over when you pull a product from the store shelves. Matrixx Initiatives Inc. recalled its Zicam products on June 16 and three days later the Securities & Exchange Commission sent a letter of inquiry.

The Nutritional and Dietary Supplement Law Blog is pleased as punch to announce that Joel B. Rothman, your faithful editor and publisher, has joined the West Palm Beach office of Arnstein & Lehr LLP as a partner.

In the days following the FDA warning on the dangers of taking Hydroxycut and the manufacturer's recall, the reaction has been more sliced than divided. There were the oft-seen reactions: NaturalNews headlined its commentary, "FDA Floats Hydroxycut Scare to Discredit Yet Another Supplement Company." 

Here is some good advice I received in an email courtesy of Greenberg Traurig partner James R. Prochnow who allowed us to reprint this here.  The advice came in the context of potential reaction from the article by David Epstein and George Dohrmann in Sports Illustrated entitled "What You Don't Know Might Kill You."

There was a ton of buzz this past week about the article by David Epstein and George Dohrmann in Sports Illustrated entitled "What You Don't Know Might Kill You."

This month's Nutritional Outlook magazine features an article by your favorite Nutritional and Dietary Supplement Law blog editor/publisher Joel Rothman.  Entitled "Playing It Safe: Marketers can protect themselves against product adulteration and recalls," the article provides several valuable tips for supplement marketing companies looking to avoid legal and regulatory problems in today's challenging environment.

Get ready for the not-so-kind-and-gentle FDA when it comes to food safety. The agency took abuse from politicians and consumer advocates over its handling of peanut and pistachio contamination earlier this year.

The company says that its product will boost testosterone levels by 10,000%. The plaintiffs says the product is snake oil marked up to $70 a package.

The Food & Drug Administration issued on May 1 a consumer warning to stop using Hydroxycut, the heavily marketed weight-loss product. The agency said that "some Hydroxycut products are associated with a number of serious liver injuries" and announced that the maker was recalling all products.

  The FDA has just announced a massive recall of the popular weight loss supplement, Hydroxycut. According to the FDA press release dated today, FDA has received 23 reports of serious health problems ranging from jaundice and elevated liver enzymes, an indicator of potential liver injury, to liver damage requiring liver transplant.

The old saying that news travels fast and bad news travels faster could apply to the latest recall of dietary supplements. The Food & Drug Administration found sibutramine in almost three dozen weight-loss products distributed by Universal ABC Beauty Supply International Inc.

The recent recalls of peanuts and pistachios brings to mind public concerns about the safety of all foods, including nutritional supplements. There's good reason to be worried, if a recent report on Chinese slimming capsules is accurate.

Canada.com reports that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has raised concerns over elk antler velvet, a common ingredient used in Traditional Chinese Medicine and many supplement products. 

The New York Times reported this week what many of us in the supplement industry have observed for some time, namely that despite the difficult economic times supplement sales have been somewhat immune to the worldwide economic downturn.