Folic acid and fibre claims rejected by FDA

Fibre supplement manufacturers will not be able to claim on labels that consuming fibre may reduce the risk of colorectal cancer, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decided this week. The agency also ruled that folic acid supplements could not claim that 0.8 mg of the supplement is more effective in reducing the risk of neural tube defects than a lower amount available naturally in certain foods. These decisions are the culmination of nearly four years deliberation by the FDA. The FDA originally rejected the fibre and folic acid claims because they were misleading and not supported by scientific evidence. But in 1999, the U.S. Court of AppealsWashington, D.C., ordered the agency to re-evaluate its ruling. The FDA has now backed its repeat decisions, saying it has a new, less stringent framework for evaluating proposed dietary supplement and disease relationship claims, which was applied to re-evaluate the fibre and folicacid claims.