FDA Announces Convening of the Botanical Safety Consortium

Constituent Update

November 14, 2019

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced today that the Botanical Safety Consortium (BSC) has formally been convened. This milestone is the result of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that was recently signed between the FDA, the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and the Health and Environmental Sciences Institute (HESI). This MOU establishes the framework for the BSC.

The BSC was originally announced in the FDA’s February 2019 statement on the agency’s new efforts to strengthen regulation of dietary supplements through modernization and reform. The Consortium’s mission is to provide a forum for scientists from government, academia, consumer health groups, industry, and non-profit organizations to work collaboratively to generate a sound scientific basis for integrating existing safety data and the latest toxicology tools to evaluate botanical safety in dietary supplements. With the execution of the MOU, specific guidelines for membership and participation in the BSC will be established by early 2020.

HESI, a non-profit 501(c)(3) charitable scientific organization, will serve as the convener and facilitator for the BSC. 

For additional information about the Botanical Safety Consortium, including how to join, contact HESI at botanicalsafety@hesiglobal.org. The Consortium’s website, www.botanicalsafetyconsortium.org, will be updated with additional information in the coming months.