07.02.10
Members and staff for the Global Organization for EPA and DHA Omega 3s (GOED) met with FDA officials this week to discuss regulations and DRIs for omega 3s. On the issue of DRIs, it urged FDA to fund a review by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) for EPA and DHA.
“GOED has known for some time that the launch of any DRI review by IOM is dependent on the completion of the current ongoing review of calcium and vitamin D DRIs,” the organization said. “While we were expecting this review to finish up this summer, we learned that the completion date has been pushed back to October.”
Additionally, GOED pointed out, many U.S. and Canadian regulatory bodies are looking with great interest into how chronic disease risk reduction is incorporated into the DRIs, because previously the levels were established solely based on the essentiality of nutrients.
”Based on the meeting, we will also be exploring the requirements for a nutrient content claim petition that could be used to preserve the ability to make ‘Source of’ and ‘High in’ claims on EPA and DHA, but this path does not appear to be fully defined,” the trade association explained. “FDA issued a proposed rule two years ago to bar the use of the claims on procedural grounds, to which GOED and others supplied comments. We would only be speculating, but it appears that the final ruling on the issue is not imminently forthcoming.”