Cosmetics overseen as drugs to ensure food safety?
This article was originally published in The Rose Sheet
Executive Summary
In order to help FDA's Center for Food Safety & Applied Nutrition focus on its "core mission" - protecting the nation's increasingly vulnerable food supply - cosmetics oversight could be funded by a user fee program or "shifted to the FDA's drug center, where more resources might be available," Scott Gottlieb, American Enterprise Institute fellow and former <deputy commissioner for medical and scientific affairs at FDA, suggests in July 18 testimony on the safety of Chinese imports before the Senate Commerce Committee. He acknowledges, however, that the cosmetics industry "might also find itself subject to regulatory creep as the drug standard gets subtly and inadvertently applied to cosmetic products - in particular increasingly popular 'cosmeceuticals.'" The same day, President Bush establishes the Interagency Working Group on Import Safety to help guarantee the safety of food and other products shipped to the U.S. The group will review current procedures and methods on import safety here and abroad and decide whether "additional initiatives should be undertaken"...