Cindy LeProfessor ShenEnglish 30129 October 2015Dietary Supplements According to the official website of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a dietary supplement is a product intended for ingestion to add additional nutritional value or "supplement" the diet. Dietary supplements can come in many forms such as tablets, capsules, soft gels, gel caps, liquids or powders. What makes it a dietary supplement is the food ingredient it contains. The FDA states that a "food ingredient" contains one or more of the following: vitamin, mineral, herb or other botanical element, an amino acid (U.S. Food and Drug Administration). Dietary supplements are an alternative that can help ensure adequate dietary intake of essential nutrients. The Food and Drug Administration is not required to test the safety of dietary supplements before they are sold on the market. Before the integrators are questioned or any inspection must wait until he receives a report caused by the integrator. Joanna Sax states in her article, Dietary Supplements Are Not All Safe and Not All Foods: How the Low Cost of Dietary Supplements Preys on the Consumer, that dietary supplements sold down the aisle from FDA-approved over-the-counter (OTC) drugs oi Nonprescription drugs are not tested for safety or effectiveness before entering the market (377). Dietary supplements are treated as foods under FDA policies, so regulations for approval are questioned. The author of Dietary Supplements: A Review of United States Regulations with Emphasis on the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 and Subsequent Activities, states: “Congress and the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, have struggled to define such boundaries until they have not finally created a group of intermediate products called dietary supplements” (Scarbrough, 2004). The Intermediate Product Group, Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994, or DSHEA, was established primarily for the regulation of dietary supplements and has a new set of standards that are different from those of the FDA. The DSHEA has attempted to create a balance between foods that claim to have some health benefits and drugs that have clearly approved health