Forget what the FDA or USDA currently says.  This is creating a "new" food administration that would regulate just about everything that goes into your mouth...well, almost.   

All this legislative mumble jumble over what bills do and don't do sure can get confusing to the average citizen. I really believe they do this on purpose, so we don't know what we're voting for. Ughhh!

Oh well, I will try to simplify this DSHEA thing though it's much more complicated than this.

• The Safe Food Act will create a new agency.
This new agency would take over everything that relates to food, with the exception of dietary supplements. S.645 and H.R.1148 in the Safe Food Act specifically excludes dietary supplements.

• The FDA currently handles food and drugs. The Safe Food Act will take away food and leave drugs and dietary supplements under the FDA.

• FDA would treat dietary supplements as drugs, doing away with most of the protection that consumers and the supplement industry gained under DSHEA Act of 1994

GOD HELP US IF THEY DO! The FDA's track record is pretty frightening.

The DSHEA Act came about because the FDA was, in short, terrorizing people who sold dietary supplements and alternative health professionals.

HOW TO STOP FDA CENSORSHIP NOW!
http://www.newswithviews.com/Dean/carolyn22.htm
...During the time of the great health care reform debate regarding Hillary’s plan, millions of us sent millions of messages to our elected officials in Washington, urging them to pass the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994. We made it abundantly clear we wanted to stop the FDA from conducting gunpoint raids on doctors’ offices and seizing millions of dollars worth of supplement products. The FDA made it vividly clear that it intended to remove such products from the market because they represented competition to synthetic drugs. Congress got the message and passed DSHEA unanimously.
 
Key Provisions of DSHEA
http://www.dshea.org/key_provisions.html

I used to publish a regional, alternative health magazine in the 90's and know this kind action by the FDA to be true.

A Brief Compendium of Recent FDA Raids
http://www.rmhiherbal.org/a/f.ahr6.fda.html
Lest one forget the long list of abuses, here follows  a brief review of recent FDA actions and policies. Many of these cases are documented  in greater detail elsewhere.

• 1990: Max Gerson's dietary treatments for degenerative diseases were criminalized by the FDA just as he was publishing scientific evidence and clinical reports on their effectiveness in boosting immune system function. 

• 1987, Florida: The Life Extension Foundation was raided by armed FDA agents,  who seized nutritional supplement supplies, files, and personal belongings.  Lawsuits against the FDA are still pending.

• 1990, Oregon: FDA agents raided Highland Laboratories and removed everything  except office furniture. No employees were informed of the legal grounds for the raid and were threatened with violence if any of  them attempted to enter their workplace. The FDA never charged anyone with a violation,  but no property has ever been returned.

• 1990, California: The FDA raided and ransacked the pet food store of Sissy Harrington-McGill.  FDA agents stated that her pet store literature claiming that  vitamins would keep pets healthy was a violation of the Health Claims Law, which was never passed  by Congress. Ms. Harrongton-McGill served 114 days in prison, after being tried and convicted by a judge without a jury trial,  in spite of her request for a jury trial. Lawsuits have been filed against the FDA.  [ajw]

• 1990, Nevada: The Century Clinic, which administered chelation therapy, homeopathy, and nutritional supplements, was raided twice by FDA and Postal Service inspectors. First, the premises were ransacked and almost all supplies and equipment removed. After no charges were filed against the clinic by the FDA, Century Clinic sued the FDA for return of the seized property. The FDA retaliated with a second raid more extensive than the first,  extending to the private homes of the businesses owners and employees. Again, no charges were filed by the FDA. 

• 1991, Tijuana, Mexico: Jimmy Keller, who administered natural healing methods  in cases of cancer after healing himself of metastasized cancer unresponsive to conventional therapy, was kidnapped from his office in a Mexican hospital by bounty hunters employed by the U.S. Justice Department. On arrival in the U.S., he was arrested for  wire fraud: making interstate telephone calls  to attract people to his clinic in Mexico. He was convicted to two years in prison. 

• 1991, California: FDA agents raided NutriCology, a nutrition supplement company operated by Stephen Levine, Ph.D., a molecular geneticist from the UC Berkeley.  Levine spent $500,000 to defend against three different FDA injunctions,  all of which were thrown out of court.

• 1992, Washington state: FDA agents raided and terrorized the medical clinic of  Jonathan Wright, M.D. The FDA initiated the raid after a recent batch of contaminated  B-vitamins was discovered in another state, yet Wright's clinic had no connection to the company making the contaminated vitamins and dis not use their products.  In spite of this, the FDA agents removed most of the clinic's contents,  meanwhile terrorizing patients and treating them like criminals. As of 1993, no clinic property  has been returned, yet no charges against the clinic or any of its employees  have been filed by the FDA. 

• 1992, California: David Halpern, several of his family members, and the  presidents of three European vitamin companies are charged with 198  counts of conspiracy and smuggling for importing banned nutritional supplements  that are freely available in Britain and Germany.  The indictments carry a potential prison term  of 990 years. 

• 1992, Texas: The FDA induced the Texas Department of Health  and Texas Department of Food and Drug to raid over a dozen major health food stores. Over 250 products were seized from the shelves,  including vitamin C, zinc, herbs, aloe vera, and flaxseed oil. Following a massive public outcry, FDA threatened health food store owners,  "Don't talk to the press, or we'll come down on you twice as hard.". No charges were ever filed by the FDA, and no products were ever returned. 

• 1993, USA: Dozens of natural healing clinics,  health food stores and natural product manufacturers throughout the U.S. were assaulted by combined forces from the FDA, DEA, IRS, Customs, and US Postal Service in commando-style SWAT raids. Stocks of vitamins and herbs were confiscated as well as bank accounts, automobiles, and computers. Especially of interest as a target of the raids were mailing lists of customers and clients. The Postal Service assisted in the actions by blocking all mail to some of the businesses, effectively preventing them from continuing  any business and from conducting effective legal defense. 

The above list is by no means exhaustive, but is merely a sampling.

Tyranny in the USA: The true history of FDA raids on healers, vitamin shops and supplement companies
http://www.newstarget.com/z021791.html

FDA Vitamin Store Raids
http://www.boogieonline.com/revolution/body/health/raids.html

FDA RAIDS
http://www.myopia.org/fdaraids.htm

HON. RON PAUL OF TEXAS
BEFORE THE US HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
November 10, 2005
http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2005/cr111005.htm
Free Speech and Dietary Supplements

Mr. Speaker, I rise to introduce the Health Freedom Protection Act. This bill restores the First Amendment rights of consumers to receive truthful information regarding the benefits of foods and dietary supplements by codifying the First Amendment standards used by federal courts to strike down the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) efforts to censor truthful health claims. The Health Freedom Protection Act also stops the Federal Trade Commissions (FTC) from censoring truthful health care claims.

The American people have made it clear they do not want the federal government to interfere with their access to dietary supplements, yet the FDA and the FTC continue to engage in heavy-handed attempts to restrict such access. The FDA continues to frustrate consumers’ efforts to learn how they can improve their health even after Congress, responding to a record number of constituents’ comments, passed the Dietary Supplement and Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA). FDA bureaucrats are so determined to frustrate consumer access to truthful information that they are even evading their duty to comply with four federal court decisions vindicating consumers’ First Amendment rights to discover the health benefits of foods and dietary supplements.

FDA bureaucrats have even refused to abide by the DSHEA section allowing the public to have access to scientific articles and publications regarding the role of nutrients in protecting against diseases by claiming that every article concerning this topic is evidence of intent to sell a drug.

Because of the FDA’s censorship of truthful health claims, millions of Americans may suffer with diseases and other health care problems they may have avoided by using dietary supplements. For example, the FDA prohibited consumers from learning how folic acid reduces the risk of neural tube defects for four years after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended every woman of childbearing age take folic acid supplements to reduce neural tube defects. This FDA action contributed to an estimated 10,000 cases of preventable neutral tube defects!

The FDA also continues to prohibit consumers from learning about the scientific evidence that glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate are effective in the treatment of osteoarthritis; that omega-3 fatty acids may reduce the risk of sudden death heart attack; and that calcium may reduce the risk of bone fractures.

The Health Freedom Protection Act will force the FDA to at last comply with the commands of Congress, the First Amendment, and the American people by codifying the First Amendment standards adopted by the federal courts. Specifically, the Health Freedom Protection Act stops the FDA from censoring truthful claims about the curative, mitigative, or preventative effects of dietary supplements, and adopts the federal court’s suggested use of disclaimers as an alternative to censorship. The Health Freedom Protection Act also stops the FDA from prohibiting the distribution of scientific articles and publications regarding the role of nutrients in protecting against disease.

This legislation also addresses the FTC’s violations of the First Amendment. Under traditional First Amendment jurisprudence, the federal government bears the burden of proving an advertising statement false before censoring that statement. However, the FTC has reversed the standard in the case of dietary supplements by requiring supplement manufactures to satisfy an unobtainable standard of proof that their statement is true. The FTC’s standards are blocking innovation in the marketplace.

The Health Freedom Protection Act requires the government bear the burden of proving that speech could be censored. This is how it should be in a free, dynamic society. The bill also requires that the FTC warn parties that their advertising is false and give them a chance to correct their mistakes.

Mr. Speaker, if we are serious about putting people in charge of their health care, then shouldn’t we stop federal bureaucrats from preventing Americans from learning about simple ways to improve their health. I therefore call on my colleagues to stand up for good health care and the First Amendment by cosponsoring the Health Freedom Protection Act.