Bethesda, MD—The Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) has been keeping a Dietary Supplement Label Database (DSLD), and is now wondering whether to expand the resource with additional features and added functionality.

According to the Oct. 29 Federal Register, the DSLD currently has 50,000 labels, including information from manufacturers about ingredient content/amount, appropriate health claims, photos of labels and more. This information is not only helpful to scientists interested in figuring out the populations' intakes of certain nutrients, but also for helping healthcare providers learn about the products their patients are taking.

Over the next three years, the ODS hopes to capture information on the more than 75,000 dietary supplements available to U.S. shoppers. For now, ODS wants "ideas and suggestions for how the DSLD
might evolve. What features might be added, improved, or enhanced—for example, in capabilities related to
search, sorting, organization, and downloading of information—that would make it a more valuable tool for users?

Comments are due to ODS@nih.gov before November 27 to be considered by a federal stakeholder panel for the DSLD.

Published in WholeFoods Magazine (online 11/2/15)