Project Title: Development of a Database of Dietary Supplement Labels by an Industry Nonprofit Association or Foundation

Contact:

Paul Coates, Ph.D.
Director
Office of Dietary Supplements
National Institutes of Health
E-mail: coatesp@mail.nih.gov

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The Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS), Office of Director, NIH wishes to obtain approval for a concept to support a contract specified in FY 2005 and FY 2006 Congressional Appropriations language, which reads as follows:

"The committee also expects the ODS to contract with industry non-profit associations or foundations which currently have and maintain a database of dietary supplement labels to develop, create, continually update, maintain and make available to government and research entities a database of all supplement labels sold in the United States. The creation of this database would allow ODS to have access for research purposes of all known supplements manufactured in the United States and to allow access by other Federal agencies for ensuring safety to consumers, through the mandatory listing of ingredients in these products on the label, who purchase supplements manufactured and /or sold in The United States (pg 170 of the Committee Report)."

At present a complete and comprehensive database of information contained on dietary supplement labels does not exist. Development of such a database containing a comprehensive list of the name and amount of each ingredient declared on the label of these products would be useful both for research purposes and for consumer information.

Research to assess total intakes of essential nutrients and other bioactive constituents from foods and supplements requires such a database. Likewise, efforts by federal agencies to assess ingredients and dosage levels would benefit from such a database. Communication about the contents, benefits and safety of dietary supplements to consumers would also be facilitated by such a database.

ODS wishes to contract for the creation of a database of dietary supplement labels of products that are sold through all distribution channels in the United States. The database must be complete, comprehensive, dynamic and publicly accessible for achieving the above purposes. The database must be compatible with existing federally funded dietary supplements databases (e.g. the Center for Disease Control/National Center for Health Statistics National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) dietary supplement database and the USDA's food composition databases). Close interaction with ODS, including monthly meetings to ensure compatibility with existing research projects and databases, is essential. The database must be continually updated and maintained. Initial priority should be given to capturing vitamin- and mineral-containing products and other dietary supplements such as botanicals of public health significance due to high prevalence of use or other criteria.

It is anticipated that the contract will be initiated in FY 2005.