For those of you who don’t know, Malaysia has very, VERY tight regulations on sports supplements and you are unable to purchase most of the new stuff that hit the shelves overseas here in Malaysia. Maybe the US FDA is not good enough for some doctor that bums in the government office I suppose? I’m not talking about steroids or anything illegal here.

Not only that, if you were to attempt to get it shipped to you, it would be confiscated by the Malaysian Customs. So we Malaysian fitness enthusiasts have to be content by just reading the amazing product reviews and drooling at the ads in bodybuilding magazines.

In the United States of America the FDA often stops imports from certain countries that do not meet our health standards and the list of banned products from our trading partners is endless. In the US our FTC, FDA and even Homeland Security often intervene to protect Americans from American Companies selling us products. Why do the Chinese get a free pass after the recent abuse?

When it comes to understanding what it takes to be approved as a “food contact substance,” the key question is what kind of use the substance will have. The possible different kinds of food contact substances are twofold: Food additives, which actually enter into the food in what often are rather minimal quantities; and food contact materials, such as packaging and cooking utensils.

The key questions for food contact substances that are not food additives are how much of them actually become combined with the food itself and what are the conditions of the use of the food contact materials, e.g., for liquid foods, acidic foods, hot foods, cold foods, etc.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) - http://www.fda.gov:

The FDA is probably most thought of when the word “recall” comes up. It is obvious that the FDA deals with food and drug issues, but they are also in charge of testing, monitoring and recalling medical devices (pacemakers, contact lenses…), animal feed, cosmetics, and products with the potential to cause health-related side effects, such as cell phones and lasers. Although the FDA is in charge of “food,” they also share that responsibility with the next federal agency…

United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) - http://www.usda.gov: