AHPA Updates

A national election that many have called the most important in a generation is now behind us. The American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) will host a webinar on November 10, 2020 (2:00-3:30 pm Eastern) to bring together three experts from Van Scoyoc Associates and our AHPA member community for an analysis and discussion of the election, with a particular focus on possible impacts for the herbal products and dietary supplements industries.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a final rule on November 6, 2020 revising and expanding the pesticide tolerance crop grouping regulations. Crop groups are lists of similar crops which allow the establishment of shared pesticide tolerances for all commodities included in each group, permitting the use of identified pesticides on those crops. The final rule converts the previous group 19, “Herbs and Spices” into two new groups: group 25 for herbs and group 26 for spices. A large number of commodities were also added to each group.

The American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) joined a coalition of organizations headed by the Food and Beverage Issue Alliance (FBIA) to request a comment period extension for FDA’s recently published proposed rule on food traceability. AHPA has previously reported on the proposed rule in this AHPA Update.

Silver Spring, MD, Nov. 4, 2020 -- The American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) today announced Amber Bennett’s promotion to Vice President of Marketing and Engagement, a new position that reflects AHPA’s expectation for continued growth and its ongoing commitment to finding more and better ways to serve its membership.

The November 2020 AHPA Report includes: AHPA Sports Nutrition Congress: A Grand Slam!; AHPA has released updates via the online Botanical Safety Handbook 2nd ed.; AHPA Chief Science Officer Dr. Holly Johnson to present at Whole Plant Expo; FDA issues proposed rule for traceability on "certain foods"; and more.

The American Herbal Products Association is calling attention to the need for food facilities (including dietary supplement facilities) that are required to register with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to renew their registration not later than December 31, 2020, if they have not already done so. The biennial food facility registration renewal period began October 1.

By all accounts, the inaugural, virtual AHPA Sports Nutrition Congress hit it out of the ballpark!

With 225+ registrants, 20+ speakers, and 13 sponsors, the full-day event moved at a rapid pace, with informational nuggets and key takeaways from every session. Speakers from competing companies came together to share their insights, expertise and stories to help build a better industry. Registrants were the winners.

AHPA has released updates via the online Botanical Safety Handbook 2nd ed. to nine additional botanicals.

FDA issued a proposed rule on September 23, 2020 entitled “Requirements for Additional Traceability Records for Certain Foods”. The proposed rule would establish additional traceability recordkeeping requirements beyond what is already in existing regulations for foods on a newly published “Food Traceability List.” The category of “Herbs (fresh)” is included on the Food Traceability List and provides examples of parsley, cilantro and basil. Food products containing ingredients from the list would be subject to the same traceability requirements up to the point of retail.

Wouldn’t you rather be on offense than backchecking?

Join us for the inaugural Sports Nutrition Congress, presented by AHPA, and these legal, regulatory and business experts will coach you to apply best practices to limit ingredient, product and brand risk and liability to keep your company in the game. Don’t miss the “Staying Out of the Penalty Box” session.