Last week’s top headlines included the reintroduction of a mandatory product listing bill in the U.S. by long-time industry critic Sen. Dick Durbin, concerns around the liver effects of Garcinia, and a focus on Vietnam, one of the fastest-growing health supplements markets in Southeast Asia.
Sen. Durbin reintroduces Dietary Supplement Listing Act again
U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Richard Durbin has introduced the Dietary Supplement Listing Act of 2026, which would require dietary supplement manufacturers to list their products with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
“FDA—and consumers—should know what dietary supplements are on the market and what ingredients are included in them,” Senator Durbin shared in a statement issued Jan. 15. “This is FDA’s most basic function, and the first step to protecting consumers. Americans deserve a transparent supplement market, and it’s past time that we deliver it for them.”
He asserts that when Congress passed the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) of 1994, the absence of a provision requiring companies to register their products with FDA left the agency without the information needed to properly understand or oversee a market that has grown from 4,000 to an estimated 100,000 products over the last 30 years.
If passed, the act would require companies to provide FDA with product names, a list of all ingredients, an electronic copy of the label, allergen statements and health and structure/function claims made by their products. This information would be made public to Americans through a regularly updated electronic database. Proprietary blend ingredient information would have to be provided to FDA but would be kept confidential. Failure to provide the required information would cause products to be considered misbranded.
The Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) issued a statement supporting the legislation as a “CRN-backed product listing proposal.”
“In an era when the Administration has rightly called for more transparency about what we eat and how food is made, it makes sense to apply that same transparency to dietary supplements,” said Steve Mister, president & CEO of CRN.
The Natural Products Association continues to oppose the Dietary Supplement Listing Act, stating that Americans do not need Washington micromanaging their dietary supplement cabinets but rather enforcement action from FDA to remove bad actors and unlawful products from market.
“Congress already established a comprehensive, risk-based framework for dietary supplements under DSHEA, and this proposal blows right past it by creating a backdoor system that was never authorized,” Dan Fabricant, president & CEO of NPA, told NutraIngredients.
Hepatotoxicity concerns and the growing action against Garcinia cambogia
Garcinia gummi-gutta (L.) N. Robson—more commonly known as Garcinia cambogia and native to South and Southeast Asia—has been increasingly linked to adverse events and case reports of liver injury.
Used for centuries as a culinary ingredient to provide acidity and in traditional medicine to address stomach complaints, it was not until researchers in the 1960s identified hydroxycitric acid—the compound thought to affect fat metabolism—that Garcinia was associated with weight loss.
By the diet culture boom of the 1990s and 2000s, a recently formalized U.S. dietary supplement industry began harnessing this discovery, incorporating Garcinia extracts into products marketed for weight management and fat burning.
Growing concerns about detrimental effects on liver health are not prompting governments across the globe to take regulatory action against the tropical fruit.
France has issued a strong health warning and banned its sale for a year, while the European Food Safety Authority is assessing its safety. Similarly, South Korea and Australia have implemented precautionary measures and labeling requirements due to reported liver injuries. In the U.S., despite no outright ban, the FDA has recalled products containing Garcinia cambogia due to safety concerns, and some states have restricted its sale to minors.
Vietnam’s booming supplement market overshadowed by counterfeit woes
Vietnam has become one of the fastest-growing health supplements markets in Southeast Asia (SEA), but a string of counterfeit scandals that shook the country last year is putting the industry and local regulators to the test.
Vietnam has become the second-largest importer of Australia’s health supplements, trailing only China. Euromonitor reported that Vietnam’s health supplements market was valued at US$2.9 billion last year and was forecast to reach US$4.6 billion by 2030, making it the fastest-growing health supplements market in SEA.
It was also last year that the discovery of an illegal milk production ring, counterfeit health supplements and false advertising sparked widespread concern over nutritional products sold in the country.
Now regulatory reforms and increased inspections are expected to restore consumer trust. Australian brands like Careline Australia are capitalizing on this growth, seeing Vietnam as a springboard into other SEA markets. Key growth areas include vitamins, dietary supplements, herbal products and emerging categories like beauty-from-within and healthy aging, driven by younger consumers and an increasing elderly population.
“The functional food industry in 2025 suffered a serious upheaval, partly due to incomplete institutional frameworks,” Dr. Nguyen Xuan Hoang, permanent vice president of the Vietnam Association of Functional Foods (VAFF), told an executive board meeting on Dec. 26, 2025. “In 2026, with new laws and decrees, I hope that next year, thanks to the solidarity of the association’s members, the industry will recover and have a new look.”
