[Incorrigible]

Come, come now. Such hyperbole is unbecoming when directed at a long time FReeper such as me.

GRAS designation is fine and like I already said, I'm quite comfortable with you ingesting (or whatever) the herb of your choice.

I am merely stating that production controls are lacking in comparison to pharmaceutical controls. Foodstuffs such as beef and poultry have more outside inspection and that's not saying a lot!

I'm actually in favor of private, independent rating agencies that can audit SOPs and methods and provide a rating for not just herbal companies but consumer goods as well. This way consumers can be more knowledgeable about the quality of what they are purchasing and ingesting. It certainly should not be the UN doing this job.

[webstersII]

"I'm actually in favor of private, independent rating agencies that can audit SOPs and methods and provide a rating for not just herbal companies but consumer goods as well. This way consumers can be more knowledgeable about the quality of what they are purchasing and ingesting. It certainly should not be the UN doing this job."

Sounds like we do agree. But the above statement is quite different from your earlier post:
"According to my pharmaceutical chemist wife, the herbal drug manufacturing process is long overdue for some oversight.
The quality control performed at most plants that produce OTC herbal drugs do not meet what she considers minimal requirements (she runs a very tight QC ship though)."

The earlier post sounds like you advocate regulation -- after all, what else is regulation but required "oversight"?

BTW, did you see that they pulled another pharmaceutical off the market this week because people were dying from it? If any industry needs some more oversight it would be the pharmaceutical companies.