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This article has 3 goals. First, to call attention to the issue of economically motivated adulteration (EMA) within foods and dietary supplements. Second, to educate how it is that various herbs - with ginkgo extract as an in-depth example - are economically adulterated. Third, to list questions that clinicians can ask their suppliers in order to gain a better understanding about the quality of herbs that they sell.
Unfortunately, many foods and dietary supplements in the market place are of very low quality, having been intentionally manipulated by the supplier with the intent to increase profits. This phenomenon has become so common place that it has a name, economically motivated adulteration (EMA). EMA is worldwide in scope. At the very best, it wastes consumers' money but causes little or no harm. At the worst, it can take people's lives.
A recent, far-reaching EMA example is the adulteration of milk products in China with the industrial chemical melamine, a synthetic polymer that is heat tolerant and fire resistant so is often used for whiteboards, floor tiles, kitchenware, and fire-retardant fabrics. Melamine was added to milk to cause it to appear to have a higher protein content. In November 2008, China reported an estimated 300 000 victims of melamine poisoning, with 6 infants dying from kidney stones and other kidney damage and a further 860 babies hospitalized.1
Exactly What Is Economically Motivated Adulteration?
On April 6, 2009, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a Federal Register notice to announce a public meeting and to request submission of comments pertaining to any known EMA of FDA-regulated goods. It also requested the submission of information pertaining to "predicting and preventing EMA of food (including dietary supplements and animal food), drugs, medical devices, and cosmetics."2
In its April 6 notice, FDA also proposed a working definition of economically motivated adulteration,2 as follows:
EMA is the fraudulent, intentional substitution or addition of a substance in a product for the purpose of increasing the apparent value of the product or reducing the cost of its production, i.e., for economic gain. EMA includes dilution of products with increased quantities of an already present substance (e.g., increasing inactive ingrethents of a drug with a resulting reduction in strength of the finished...