February 25, 2014

ISAPP will meet March 5 with FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition to discuss conducting human research on foods. The FDA made it clear in a guidance from September 2013 that human research conducted on functional endpoints for foods requires an investigational new drug (IND) application. However, the FDA re-opened the comment period on that guidance, and ISAPP – along with American Society of Nutrition, Institute of Food Technologists and ILSI-North America – will share concerns with CFSAN that the IND requirement for food research is misguided. As succinctly stated by Dr. James Heimbach, who will be representing ISAPP at the meeting, “A substance can’t be an investigational new drug unless it is a drug, and FDA is attempting to declare legitimate food ingredients that provide benefits other than taste or aroma to be drugs.” See related posts from February 5, 2014, November 26, 2013 and September 25, 2013.