Bogus ingredients put consumers’ health at risk

Imperfect system
Doctoring products is not new. During the Great Depression, merchants bulked up flour with talc. For centuries, sawdust was added to bread. What’s different now is the global economy has expanded the realm of potentially bad products.

The latest examples involve toothpaste which contained a chemical cheaper than the standard sweetener — and used in antifreeze. The first brands were from China — this week, the FDA warned about product from South Africa. Though no serious illnesses have been reported, the FDA is stopping imports of suspect Chinese toothpaste and has urged Americans to throw away any tubes they have.

Before that was pet food spiked with a low-cost industrial chemical from China that appeared to boost its protein content and has been blamed for sickening hundreds of cats and dogs.

Because the FDA inspects only 1 percent of overall imports, it falls to manufacturers to conduct quality-control tests.

The system is imperfect. Pressure not to interrupt the manufacturing process can make for a shallow analysis. The right battery of tests, for example, can decipher whether a substance actually is chondroitin — but it’s cheaper to run a basic test that’s tricked simply by using a cheap filler with molecules roughly the same size as costly chondroitin.

Federal regulators are close to producing “good manufacturing practice” guidelines specific to supplement makers that could solve some of the root problems. The move to write new rules dates to the 1990s, when at least two people required emergency treatment for an irregular heartbeat after taking a “body cleansing” supplement containing the toxic substance digitalis rather than the listed herb plantain.

Absent those specific guidelines, the private sector has created a patchwork of voluntary quality certifications that can include overseas inspections of raw material suppliers, many in China and India.

Not just an imported problem
Federal regulators find fake ingredients in domestic products as well. The FDA has levied big fines and even won jail terms for makers of “pure” juices that were actually water, food coloring and flavoring, as well as cheap soybean oil masquerading as olive oil.

Neither of those posed a health threat. In other cases, connecting substituted ingredients with illnesses can be hard. An unlisted ingredient could trigger an allergy or become harmful when combined with a pharmaceutical someone is taking — but doctors might not realize the chain because the patient didn’t knowingly ingest the ingredient.

Former agency scientist William Obermeyer said FDA officials estimated that only 1 percent of sicknesses caused by supplements are reported. He left to help found ConsumerLab.com, which arranges supplement testing and frequently reports that products fail.

Based on fallout from the pet food case, the FDA is assessing how it can outthink suppliers who try to substitute in harmful ingredients.

“Are there other incentives of an economic nature that could ultimately pose a safety hazard?” said David Elder, director of enforcement in FDA’s regulatory affairs office. “That’s clearly some thinking and some work that we have before us.”

It’s a huge task: There are thousands of ingredients that could be altered in untold ways.

China also is promising action.

Beijing recently announced steps to repair the battered image of its food and ingredient exports. Assurances include the nation’s first recall system, better inspections and criminal punishments for those who ignore safety rules.

The central government’s administration supervising product quality ignored repeated requests for comment on ingredient substitution, including what mechanisms may already be in to prevent it.

Meanwhile, China has started rejecting U.S. shipments as substandard, an apparent retaliation for criticism of its own exports. The products: pistachios, raisins — and health supplements.

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