In early February 2015, the New York State attorney general's office announced a major investigation into certain herbal supplement products and called upon retailers to pull these products from store shelves until the ingredients could be verified.
Last week, in what appears to be a continuation of these efforts, the New York AG announced that several state attorneys general had formed a coalition for an "expanded probe" to "further investigate the business practices of the herbal supplement industry." Along those lines, more than 50 class actions have been filed in the past month that accuse the retailers of fraud through the sale of the supplements. Although supplements are regulated by FDA, the extent of that regulation has often been controversial, and state authorities may exercise their consumer protection authority to fill what some perceive as a gap in regulation. The Council for Responsible Nutrition, a major dietary supplement trade association, has called the New York AG's investigation "uninformed, reckless, and inexcusable" and responded with a host of resources that explain why the DNA testing method relied upon by the New York AG is inappropriate for determining the content of dietary supplements, and therefore cannot be trusted for accurate or reliable account of the content of an herbal dietary supplement.
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