https://anh-usa.org/the-biggest-supplement-threats-in-2026/
The Biggest Supplement Threats in 2026
We’re up to our knees working on which policies will have the biggest impact on your supplement access in 2026. Let’s make sure we get the best possible outcomes to assure your access to the health products you need. Action Alert!
THE TOPLINE
- 2026 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for supplement access, with multiple federal and state policies advancing that could sharply limit consumer choice.
- Major federal threats include FDA moves on GRAS reform, Senator Durbin’s supplement “listing” bill, and stricter New Dietary Ingredient rules, all of which could raise costs, eliminate thousands of products, and give the FDA broad new tools to restrict supplements.
- State-level bills targeting youth access to weight loss and muscle-building supplements could unintentionally restrict common nutrients for everyone, reducing visibility and availability of safe, beneficial products and undermining public health rather than protecting it.
We’re off to a blazing start in 2026, which is looking very likely to be a pivotal year for health freedom. We have lots of irons in the fire—we’ve been telling you about our ongoing legal efforts to open up free speech about the benefits of supplements and to protect natural medicines like homeopathy, CBD, natural desiccated thyroid, and peptides. But bad policies are also moving forward on multiple fronts that require your sustained grassroots opposition.
Here’s a survey of the top initiatives we have our eyes on in 2026:
The ‘GRAS’ Isn’t Always Greener
An FDA rule is due to be issued any time now that will make big changes to the “Generally Recognized as Safe” (GRAS) pathway by which certain food and many dietary supplement ingredients enter the market. It’s been an oft-stated priority for HHS Secretary RFK Jr. and it has been included (as the first item) on a list of 2026 deliverables at the FDA.
We’ve written many articles about this topic in the last year, including providing a white paper on the subject that explains in details how GRAS reform can be done without massively reducing consumer choice and chilling innovation. The main issue at play is the “loophole” by which companies can self-certify ingredients as GRAS (or, “self-GRAS”) without any transparency or FDA review. As we’ve explained in our own blueprint for GRAS reform, we agree that more transparency is needed, but we can’t “throw the baby out with the bathwater” and eliminate self-GRAS entirely, as we’re afraid the FDA is on the verge of doing. Self-GRAS is in fact how many safe, natural supplement ingredients come to the market, so eliminating it will have major ramifications for supplement access.
We are still working on influencing key people in the administration to guide GRAS reform to ensure continued access to health-promoting products.
Supplement Choices Going…Going…Gone!
Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) has once again introduced his anti-supplement listing bill. We discussed this in last week’s coverage. In short, what sounds like an innocuous transparency measure could actually have a major impact on your supplement access, threatening high-dose products and innovative formulations, raising prices, and reducing choice. The bill gives the FDA a hit list that it can use to attack supplements that haven’t complied with its overreaching policies. It’s been a bad idea for a long time. We’ve beaten Sen. Durbin before, and we can do it again, but only with your help.
State-based Threats
A number of states are considering bills that would prohibit the sale of weight loss and muscle building supplements to those under the age of 18. These bills use vague definitions that could sweep in a wide range of supplements—including protein powders, hormones, and essential nutrients—risking unnecessary restrictions on products unrelated to weight loss, even during a public health crisis.
Some proponents argue that these measures are needed to protect children from “unhealthy weight control behavior,” which are risk factors for eating disorders. This is a noble goal, but the language in these bills casts a wide net that could limit access to products that have nothing to do with weight loss. Additionally, some of these bills require restricting access to these products by placing them behind a counter or in a locked case, so access for everyone, not just minors, is restricted. Hidden from a customer’s view, some people may never become aware of a product that would perfectly suit their health needs—or be too intimidated to ask for it.
The result is reduced access to beneficial products for all consumers, which undermines—not protects—public health.
We’ve identified several states considering these bills. Click your state’s link to take action.
New Dietary Ingredients
This threat has been simmering for a long time at the FDA. The law calls for all “new” (that is, post-1994) supplements that come to the market to comply with “new dietary ingredient” (NDI) requirements. Yet the FDA has turned what was supposed to be a notification process into a complicated and expensive pre-market approval process for all “new” supplements. And to make it worse, the agency has adopted an exceedingly broad view of what counts as a “new” supplement. When we asked a legal scholar and economist to estimate the market impact of the FDA’s NDI rules, the results were astounding:
- as many as 41,700 products disappearing from store shelves;
- an industry-wide cost of between $2 billion and $165 billion in animal and human product safety studies to comply with the FDA’s NDI notification protocols; and
- the loss of between 55,270 and 104,475 jobs in the supplement industry.
“Regulation of New Dietary Ingredients” was another item on the FDA’s list of 2026 deliverables, so we will be on the lookout for developments and update you accordingly.
This is far from an exhaustive list, but these are the top threats we’re looking out for in the coming weeks and months. As ever, we will remain vigilant in the defense of every Americans’ health autonomy and alert you when threats arise and how your voice can be heard so we can work together to defend the health freedom of every American.
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