Regulatory landscape of dietary supplements and herbal medicines from a global perspective.

The number of Individuals that use dietary supplements and herbal medicine products are continuous to increase in many countries. The context of usage of a dietary supplement varies widely from country-to-country; in some countries supplement use is just limited to general health and well-being while others permit use for medicinal purposes. To date, there is little consensus from country to country on the scope, requirements, definition, or even the terminology in which dietary supplement and herbal medicines categories could be classified. Transparent science-based quality standards for the ingredients across these regulatory frameworks/definitions becomes even more important given the international supply chain. Meanwhile, there has been a rapid advancement in emerging technologies and data science applied to the field. This review was conceived at the Global Summit on Regulatory Sciences that took place in Beijing on September 2018 (GSRS2018) which is organized by Global Coalition for Regulatory Science Research (GCRSR) that consists of the global regulatory agencies from over ten countries including the European Union. This review summarizes a significant portion of discussions relating to a longitudinal comparison of the status for dietary supplements and herbal medicines among the different national jurisdictions and to the extent of how new tools and methodologies can improve the regulatory application.

Australia's Imported Food Program--a valuable source of information on micro-organisms in foods.

Foods imported into Australia are subject to laboratory testing for microbiological and chemical hazards under the Imported Food Program (IFP) for the purposes of protecting public health and safety. The program, operating under the Imported Food Control Act 1992, is jointly administered by the Australian Quarantine Inspection Service (AQIS) and the Australia New Zealand Food Authority (ANZFA). Foods that fail under the IFP are subsequently subjected to appropriate treatment to rectify the problem, or are destroyed or re-exported. This article presents a limited analysis of IFP test results on selected foods imported between 1995 and 1999. As corrective action is taken immediately on the basis of failing test results, regular analysis of collated data is not considered a priority. Nonetheless these data potentially represent an important source of information on the nature of food microorganisms detected in imported foods. For example, IFP data could be used to focus local and state-based food surveillance efforts, provide information to importers, to inform national initiatives such as OzFoodNet, and to better target investigative and preventative efforts concerning foodborne illness.