The dread and utter feeling of helplessness that one gets before going in for a colonoscopy is normal. What’s not normal is being excited for the procedure. Well, that could all change now that the Food and Drug Administration approved a tiny, ingestible camera to help screen patients who have trouble with the traditional four-foot long, flexible tube used in colonoscopies. [More]
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Colonoscopy Fun: FDA Approves Tiny Camera That Travels Your Digestive Tract Taking Selfies
By 2.10.14
FDA Updates Safety Requirements For Infant Formula, Because No One Like Contaminated Fake Milk
By 2.6.14
The Food and Drug Administration is taking additional steps to ensure our youngest citizens are getting the nutrients they need from formula by updating quality standard requirements for manufacturers. So maybe you can rest a bit easier knowing your child’s formula probably isn’t contaminated. [More]
Some Hubbard Life, Joy, QC+ Dog & Cat Foods Recalled Because Salmonella Is Not Vet-Recommended
By 2.6.14
Ohio-based Pro-Pet LLC has issued a limited recall of varieties of three of its dry dog and cat food brands — Hubbard Life, Joy, and QC+ — over concerns about possible salmonella contamination. [More]
FDA Announces Proposed Rule To Safeguard Food During Transportation
By 1.31.14
No on likes salmonella in their peanuts or listeria on their cantaloupe, or in any of their food for that matter. While contamination can occur in just about every step of the food production process, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is taking the final steps to make sure the transportation of food isn’t the problem by setting new criteria for the transport of food. [More]
Report: FDA Lets Farmers Use Antibiotics That Pose “High Risk” To Humans
By 1.28.14
Before it recently issued a “pretty please” to drug companies, asking them to voluntarily stop making billions of dollars off of unnecessary antibiotics sales to farmers, the Food and Drug Administration spent decades appearing to avoiding the topic. But a new report claims that the FDA actually spent 10 years internally reviewing the safety of dozens of antibiotics used in animal feed, drugs that the FDA’s own scientists said pose a high risk to human beings. [More]
Nutrition Facts Labels Getting First Makeover In Twenty Years… Eventually
By 1.24.14
Pick up any package of food at the grocery store, turn it around, and there it is: the ubiquitous, standardized nutrition label. It’s second nature at this point: we all know exactly what it looks like, and what we can expect to find listed on it. [More]
Just A Friendly Reminder That Some Wart Removers Can Catch Fire
By 1.16.14
You know those over-the-counter cryogenic wart removers for removing the unwanted clusters of tissue? The FDA says that since 2009, it knows of 14 incidents in which these products have caught fire, doing harm to people and or their property. [More]
FDA Warns Doctors, Pharmacists Against Prescribing High Doses Of Acetaminophen
By 1.15.14
Even though many people pop Tylenols or slug NyQuil without thinking about the consequences, too much acetaminophen can wreak havoc on one’s liver. Today, the Food and Drug Administration has asked health care professionals to please stop prescribing and dispensing dosages of medicine that contain more than 325 mg of acetaminophen, saying the risk to a patient’s liver is higher than any additional benefit of the drug. [More]
Coming Soon: Vending Machine Calorie Counts
By 12.30.13
The Affordable Care Act doesn’t just mean highly entertaining conversations over dessert amongst your relatives this holiday season. There’s one new requirement that’s been sort of overshadowed by health insurance exchanges and electronic medical records: companies that own more than 20 vending machines will have to post calorie counts for the items they sell. [More]
Is Your Food Genetically Modified? Senator Asks President To Change Rules So You’ll Know
By 12.20.13
Senator Dianne Feinstein of California today urged the Obama administration to change FDA food labeling regulations to include a provision for indicating when foods or ingredients come from a genetically modified source. [More]
FDA Proposal Gives Makers Of Antibacterial Soap A Year To Prove Their Products Are Safe
By 12.16.13
The Food and Drug Administration has been under pressure for some time now to take a closer look at antibacterial soap to see whether we should actually be slathering the stuff all of over our hands and bodies every day. And now it’s proposing a one-year period for manufacturers to prove that yes, the soap is safe for everyday use and in the long-term. [More]
Big Meat & Big Pharma Pleased As Punch With FDA’s Pointless New Antibiotic Guidelines
By 12.13.13
Yesterday, the FDA came out swinging (with a Wiffle ball bat) against the medically unnecessary use of antibiotics in animal feed (by politely asking the drug companies that make piles of cash off these drugs to please stop selling so many of them to farmers just to encourage tissue growth). To demonstrate just how weak this (in)action is, one need look no further than the enthusiastic response from the nation’s huge meat and drug companies. [More]
FDA Politely Asks Drug Companies To Voluntarily Stop Providing Antibiotics For Animal Feed
By 12.11.13
In the face of numerous reports indicating that the practice of using medically unnecessary antibiotics to bulk up farm animals is leading to millions of people getting sick each year from drug-resistant pathogens, the Food & Drug Administration drew a line in the sand today and put an end to the practi– oh wait, I meant that the FDA has politely asked drug companies to voluntarily phase out sales of these drugs to farmers. [More]
New 23andMe Customers Will Only Have Access To Hereditary Information
By 12.6.13
Two weeks after being told by the FDA that it needed to stop marketing its at-home genetic testing kits, and several days after it stopped marketing the disease-diagnosing aspects of the product, Google-backed 23andMe is finally letting customers who had paid for the $99 kit know what is going on. [More]
Los Angeles Might Treat Sale Of E-Cigarettes Like Regular Smokes
By 12.5.13
It’s not just has-been actors like Stephen Dorff and Jenny McCarthy who smoke electronic cigarettes. They have become increasingly popular not just with smokers trying to quit but with people who want the fun of smoking without the whole “ashtray lung” after effect. Additionally, e-cigs don’t come with most of the pesky sales limitations of their tobacco counterparts, making them easier to buy and sell for some folks. But if the Los Angeles City Council gets its way, electronic cigarettes will soon be treated exactly the same as the unplugged versions. [More]
23andMe Stops Marketing Of Genetic Test Kits, But What About Everyone Who Already Has One?
By 12.4.13
Shortly before Thanksgiving, the Food and Drug Administration ordered that Google-backed 23andMe stop marketing its at-home genetic testing kits because the company had failed to get regulatory clearance for many of the product’s advertised uses. On Monday, the company announced it was abiding by that decision but hopes to work something out with the FDA, but has yet to tell any of its current customers what is going on with their kits. [More]
FDA Orders Halt To Marketing Of 23andMe DIY Genetic Test Kits
By 11.25.13
Alleging that the makers of the popular, Google-backed 23andMe at-home genetic testing kit are violating federal law by marketing the product for things like disease diagnosis without regulatory clearance, the FDA has ordered an immediate halt to sales of the kits. [More]
FDA Scientists Find Amphetamine-Like Ingredient In 9 Diet Supplements… So Where’s The Warning?
By 11.19.13 — Updated: 2.8.17
Scientists from the Food and Drug Administration have found nine “all natural” dietary supplements that contain a “non-natural” amphetamine-like compound. But then why hasn’t the FDA itself issued any kind of warning to the public about using those products? [More]
