WASHINGTON — The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday warned consumers to avoid buying medicines online to treat swine flu, saying one such product contained nothing more than talc and over-the-counter fever-reducer.
The FDA raised the warning after some of its investigators purchased and analyzed products represented online as Tamiflu (oseltamivir), one of the anti-viral medicines that has been shown to be effective against A(H1N1) flu.
“One of the orders, which arrived in an unmarked envelope with a postmark from India, consisted of unlabeled, white tablets taped between two pieces …

U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is introducing new legislation that is designed to protect citizens from food borne illnesses.
She wants to ensure there are safe, healthy foods available for everyone.
In a telephone conference, the senator announced a comprehensive plan to overhaul the nation’s food safety laws by improving inspection, recall response and public education.
The proactive cornerstone of the senator’s new legislation is to mandate E. coli inspections of ground beef.
“While the U.S. Department of Agriculture has made some progress improving food safety regulations, the nation’s food safety laws have not been …

Another big name in the pharmaceutical industry has caught the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) attention for making allegedly bogus claims about one of its products. In this case, Procter & Gamble Company has been touting the vitamin C benefits of is Vicks DayQuil and NyQuil products, said Reuters.
It seems that based on the FDA’s list of ingredients approved for over-the-counter (OTC) cough and cold medications, there is no allowance for combining vitamin C with the active ingredients that can be found in the two medications, according to Reuters, …

Figures released by Allergy UK, a charity set up to help the millions of people who suffer from food sensitivity, estimate that 45 per of the country’s population is affected by the condition.
“There’s been a 10 fold increase in people with food intolerances in the UK in the last 25 years,” said Cyndi O’Meara, an expert nutritionist and author of “Changing Habits, Changing Lives Cook Book.”
“A big part of the problem is that we are assaulting our children with chemicals because the food that we are feeding them isn’t real …

From chewing gum to diet soda, aspartame and other low-calorie artificial sweeteners are ubiquitous in food and drink favourites. While the addition of aspartame and other sugar substitutes has garnered extreme controversy over the years, there’s still overwhelming scientific evidence indicating that aspartame is harmless, according to government recommendations.
But surfing the Internet seems to reveal a different story. Much of this can be blamed on “Dr.” Betty Martini, founder of Mission Possible World Health International, an organization trying to cut out aspartame use. Martini claims that this “toxic” substance can …