By Adi Menayang, 31-Jan-2017
From open letters to official statements, many US food and beverage industry entities stand firmly on keeping NAFTA and a barrier-free bilateral arrangement with Mexico.
Women who consumed aloe sterol-fortified yogurt daily over 12 weeks revealed statistical differences in skin elasticity, skin moisture, collagen score, and transepidermal water loss, compared to a placebo, says a new study from Japan.
Motivated by transparency, the US Food and Drug Administration has released tens of thousands of adverse event reports for dietary supplements, but does the data actually allow for any conclusions to be drawn?
Wal-Mart, Target, CVS sell aloe without appearance of plant
The aloe vera gel many Americans buy to soothe damaged skin contains no evidence of aloe vera at all.
Samples of store-brand aloe gel purchased at national retailers Wal-Mart, Target and CVS showed no indication of the plant in various lab tests. The products all listed aloe barbadensis leaf juice — another name for aloe vera — as either the No. 1 ingredient or No. 2 after water.
There’s no watchdog assuring that aloe products are what they say they are. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration doesn’t approve cosmetics before they’re sold and has never levied a fine for selling fake aloe. That means suppliers are on an honor system, even as the total U.S. market for aloe products, including drinks and vitamins, has grown 11 percent in the past year to $146 million, according to Chicago-based market researcher SPINS LLC.
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After years on the market, aloe as an ingredient is still poorly understood by most regulators around the world, attendees at a recent ingredient-specific session were told.
Despite recent regulatory slings and arrows, the aloe market continues to expand, a trade organization representative said.
Company also warned for product labels that do not repeat all required information in both languages used on the label
Editor's Note: FDA sent this warning letter to Salud Natural Entrepreneurs for marketing aloe products with drug claims, including, "Analgesic," "Anti-inflammatory," "Antiviral," and "Antimicrobial." FDA also warns the company for labeling violations, including labels containing information in two languages, but not repeating all required information in both languages. The warning letter notes that FDA is unable to assess the adequacy of changes made to address alleged cGMP violations because of a lack of documentation.
Recent class action lawsuits for aloe vera products may have retailers rethinking the importance of third-party certification for the products that they sell – just ask CVS or Target.
Target has been hit with a class action lawsuit alleging its Up & Up Aloe Vera Gel product contains no actual aloe.
Plaintiff Susan Nazari of Sacramento, Calif., claims she relied on the Up & Up Aloe Vera Gel product labeling when she made the decision to purchase the product.
According to the aloe vera class action lawsuit, she would not have purchased the product if she had known it did not actually contain aloe.
Aloe vera gel comes from the aloe plant and is used to moisturize and soothe skin.