The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently told the Congress that it had limited powers for inhibiting the sale of dietary supplements with steroids from hitting the market shelves.

From News.Yahoo.com:

“FDA generally cannot identify violative products before they enter the marketplace,” said Michael Levy, director of the FDA’s division of new drugs and labeling compliance, at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary crime and drugs subcommittee. “After products enter the market, we must undertake a painstaking investigative and analytical process” to show the products violate the law.

Levy said that dietary supplement makers need not prove a product is safe unless it contains a new ingredient not previously part of the food supply. That allows unscrupulous companies to market products that can pose health risks, he said.

“Marketing a steroid product as a ‘dietary supplement‘ conveys to the consumer a false sense of safety and legitimacy for these potentially harmful products,” Levy said.

Daniel Fabricant, interim executive director and CEO of the Natural Products Association, which represents retailers, manufacturers, suppliers and distributors of health foods and dietary supplements, said his industry is being “victimized by a guerilla-style criminal drug-peddling operation.” He said the solution is enforcement of current laws.

The subcommittee chairman, Sen. Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Democrat and Philadelphia Phillies fan, said before the hearing that his interest was piqued in a part by the case of Phillies pitcher J.C. Romero, who was handed a suspension of 50 games this season, after Romero was found to test positive for Androstendione, a substance that was also used by Mark McGwire in the 1990s.

It is noteworthy to remember here that the Major League Baseball Players Association has pressing the Congress for long to come up with stringent reporting requirements for supplement manufacturers and hard penalties for repeat offenders.