FDA Opens a Public Directory of What It Has Said About Supplement Ingredients (2023)

On 6 March 2023 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration launched the Dietary Supplement Ingredient Directory, a single public web page where anyone can look up an ingredient used in products marketed as dietary supplements and find what the FDA has said about it and whether the agency has taken any action. At the same time the FDA retired its Dietary Supplement Ingredient Advisory List, a rapid-alert list it had run since 2019. The directory was an information tool: it made no new FDA decision about any ingredient. In February 2024 it was renamed “Information on Select Dietary Supplement Ingredients and Other Substances.”

This page reports what the FDA’s own announcements and the directory page itself say: what the agency did, what the directory contains, the seven categories of FDA action it uses, the advisory list it replaced, the 2024 update, what the directory looked like when checked on 18 October 2026, what it does not do, its status, and how it fits other FDA supplement actions. No company or product is named here.

Table of Contents

  1. What the FDA Did
  2. What the Directory Contains
  3. The Seven Categories of FDA Action
  4. The 2019 Advisory List It Replaced
  5. Who the Directory Is Meant For
  6. The February 2024 Update and New Name
  7. What the Directory Listed When Checked in October 2026
  8. What the Directory Does Not Do
  9. Dates and Status as of 18 October 2026
  10. How It Fits Other FDA Supplement Actions
  11. Primary Documents
  12. Key Research Papers
  13. Connections
  14. Featured Videos

1. What the FDA Did

The FDA announced the directory in a Human Foods Program constituent update dated 6 March 2023, titled “FDA Launches New Directory of Ingredients Used in Products Marketed as Dietary Supplements.” (A constituent update is a short notice the FDA posts on its website for the public and industry; it is not a rule.) The update describes the directory as “a webpage where the public can look up ingredients used in products marketed as dietary supplements and quickly find what the FDA has said about that ingredient and whether the agency has taken any action with regard to the ingredient.”

In the same update the FDA said it was “retiring the FDA Dietary Supplement Ingredient Advisory List,” and that anyone who had signed up for that list’s email service “will automatically receive updates to the Ingredient Directory as they become available.”

The action was not published in the Federal Register (the U.S. government’s daily journal of rules and notices), has no regulatory docket, and does not change any regulation. A check of the Federal Register through 18 October 2026 found no FDA document on the directory or on the retired advisory list.

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2. What the Directory Contains

According to the 2023 announcement, “The directory is in list form and includes links to the agency’s actions and communications for each ingredient on the list. If there is a separate FDA webpage for the ingredient, the directory links to that page.” The FDA called it “a one stop shop of ingredient information that was previously found on different FDA webpages.”

The directory page itself, in the version current as of 1 May 2026, is a table with four columns:

The page says the actions and communications it links to “include FDA’s evaluation of health claims, safety communications, and compliance and enforcement actions,” and it encourages users “to reference the linked action or communication for additional explanation about an ingredient’s use in dietary supplements.” Ingredients reviewed through new dietary ingredient (NDI) notifications are handled on a separate FDA page of submitted 75-day premarket notifications, to which the directory refers readers.

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3. The Seven Categories of FDA Action

The category column was added in the February 2024 update. The directory’s footnote says FDA actions and communications on each ingredient “generally fall within one or more categories,” numbered as follows (wording from the directory; the section numbers refer to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, the main U.S. food and drug law, abbreviated FD&C Act):

  1. “Ingredient is the subject of an authorized health claim or qualified health claim.” A health claim is a label statement linking a food or supplement ingredient to a disease or health condition.
  2. “Ingredient is the subject of a safety communication.”
  3. “Ingredient is not a ‘dietary ingredient’ under section 201(ff)(1) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act).”
  4. “Ingredient is excluded from the dietary supplement definition under section 201(ff)(3) of the FD&C Act.”
  5. “Dietary ingredient has not met the safety standard in section 402(f)(1)(A) of the FD&C Act.”
  6. “New dietary ingredient has not met the safety standard in section 402(f)(1)(B) of the FD&C Act.”
  7. “New dietary ingredient requiring a premarket safety notification under section 413(a)(2) of the FD&C Act but for which no notification has been submitted.”

The first category concerns label claims the FDA has authorized or allowed. The other six describe a safety communication or an FDA view that the ingredient does not, or does not yet, meet a legal requirement for dietary supplements. One ingredient can carry more than one category number.

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4. The 2019 Advisory List It Replaced

The FDA introduced the Dietary Supplement Ingredient Advisory List in a constituent update dated 16 April 2019, describing it as “a rapid-response tool meant to quickly alert the public when the FDA identifies ingredients that do not appear to be lawfully marketed in dietary supplements.”

The 2019 update explained how that list worked: “Ingredients are added to the Dietary Supplement Ingredient Advisory List based on a preliminary assessment by the FDA,” and the list “enables the FDA to communicate with the public while it completes a final determination regarding these ingredients.” It also said the list “is not exhaustive and will be updated as ingredients are added to or removed from it.”

The 2023 announcement described the advisory list in the same terms when it retired it, and moved the list’s email subscribers to the new directory. The difference in scope is visible in the two descriptions: the advisory list was limited to ingredients that did not appear to be lawfully marketed, on a preliminary basis, while the directory gathers every kind of FDA statement about an ingredient — including favorable health-claim decisions — on one page.

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5. Who the Directory Is Meant For

The 2023 announcement says the directory “is intended to help manufacturers, retailers, and consumers stay informed about ingredients that may be found in products marketed as dietary supplements and quickly locate information about such ingredients on the FDA’s website.”

The announcement and the directory page both carry limits on what readers can take from it:

The FDA invited feedback. The 2023 announcement said the agency “welcomes additional feedback and information regarding these ingredients,” to be sent to its Office of Dietary Supplement Programs. The current directory page goes further: “If you have evidence that calls FDA’s views into question, we invite you to submit such information, along with your reasoning.”

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6. The February 2024 Update and New Name

On 21 February 2024 the FDA added a note to the top of the original constituent update. It says the agency “has updated the agency’s Ingredient Directory, including renaming the web page to be Information on Select Dietary Supplement Ingredients and Other Substances,” and that “These changes are the result of some constructive stakeholder feedback received since we initially published the directory.”

The update lists three other changes besides the new title:

The FDA’s “What’s New in Dietary Supplements” page lists the March 2023 launch as its only 2023 entry, and the February 2024 update as a separate entry for that month.

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7. What the Directory Listed When Checked in October 2026

The directory page fetched on 18 October 2026 (marked “Content current as of 05/01/2026”) lists 84 ingredient entries. Some entries are combinations, such as calcium with vitamin D. The counts below come from reading that table; they describe that one version of a page the FDA updates over time.

By category (an entry with two categories is counted under both):

By date added or updated: 27 entries are dated 2023/03, 41 are dated 2023/04, 1 is dated 2023/06, 8 are dated 2024/02, 1 is dated 2024/05, 1 is dated 2025/05, 3 are dated 2025/12 and 2 are dated 2026/05. Because the column records the month a listing was “added to the directory or updated,” these dates do not show exactly which entries were present on launch day.

Several entries link to a dedicated FDA page for the ingredient (for example DMAA, BMPEA, cesium chloride, tianeptine and vinpocetine), as the 2023 announcement said they would.

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8. What the Directory Does Not Do

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9. Dates and Status as of 18 October 2026

Status as of 18 October 2026: in place as an information page, under its 2024 name, and still being updated. The directory is not a rule, so it has no proposed, final or stayed status; the advisory list it replaced remains retired. A check of the Federal Register through 18 October 2026 found no FDA document about the directory.

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10. How It Fits Other FDA Supplement Actions

The directory sits in a longer run of FDA supplement steps shown on the agency’s “What’s New in Dietary Supplements” page, which, as of 3 March 2026, lists items from warning-letter rounds in 2017–2022 and the 2019 advisory list through the 2023 launch, the 2024 directory update, NDI notification guidance in 2024, a 2025 letter to industry and a 2026 public meeting on the scope of dietary ingredients.

Several 2023 and later actions reported elsewhere on myhealthcare.com concern ingredients that appear in the directory. In January 2023 the FDA said CBD does not fit the existing food or supplement rules (CBD Needs a New Regulatory Pathway (2023)); CBD is listed in the directory under category 4. Tianeptine, listed under categories 2 and 3, is the subject of FDA Urges Retailers to Stop Selling Tianeptine (2024); Amanita muscaria is the subject of FDA Finds Amanita Muscaria Unsafe in Food (2024); and 7-OH, whose entry is dated 2025/12, is the subject of FDA Moves Against Concentrated 7-OH Kratom Products (2025) and 7-OH Kratom Products: The 2026 Scheduling Steps.

Later questions about which substances count as dietary ingredients at all are reported on FDA Reverses Course: NMN Allowed in Dietary Supplements (2025) and FDA Public Meeting on What Counts as a Dietary Ingredient (2026). Contamination and hidden-drug findings in supplements are gathered on Dangerous Supplements.

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11. Primary Documents

  1. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Human Foods Program (2023). FDA Launches New Directory of Ingredients Used in Products Marketed as Dietary Supplements. HFP Constituent Update, 6 March 2023, updated 21 February 2024. Not published in the Federal Register; no docket — fda.gov constituent update
  2. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Information on Select Dietary Supplement Ingredients and Other Substances (formerly the Dietary Supplement Ingredient Directory). FDA program page, content current as of 1 May 2026 — fda.gov ingredient directory
  3. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. What’s New in Dietary Supplements. FDA program page, content current as of 3 March 2026 — fda.gov What’s New in Dietary Supplements
  4. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (2019). FDA Implements New Dietary Supplement Ingredient Advisory List. Constituent Update, 16 April 2019 — fda.gov constituent update (2019)

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Key Research Papers

  1. Tucker J, Fischer T, Upjohn L, Mazzera D, Kumar M (2018). Unapproved pharmaceutical ingredients included in dietary supplements associated with US Food and Drug Administration warnings. JAMA Network Open 1(6):e183337 — PubMed PMID: 30646238
  2. Cohen PA, Avula B, Katragunta K, Khan I (2022). Recalls, availability, and content of dietary supplements following FDA warning letters. JAMA 328(4):393-395 — PubMed PMID: 35881132
  3. Cohen PA, Maller G, DeSouza R, Neal-Kababick J (2014). Presence of banned drugs in dietary supplements following FDA recalls. JAMA 312(16):1691-1693 — PubMed PMID: 25335153
  4. Geller AI, Shehab N, Weidle NJ, Lovegrove MC, Wolpert BJ, Timbo BB, Mozersky RP, Budnitz DS (2015). Emergency department visits for adverse events related to dietary supplements. New England Journal of Medicine 373(16):1531-1540 — PubMed PMID: 26465986
  5. Navarro VJ, Barnhart H, Bonkovsky HL, Davern T, Fontana RJ, Grant L, Reddy KR, Seeff LB, Serrano J, Sherker AH, Stolz A, Talwalkar J, Vega M, Vuppalanchi R (2014). Liver injury from herbals and dietary supplements in the U.S. Drug-Induced Liver Injury Network. Hepatology 60(4):1399-1408 — PubMed PMID: 25043597
  6. Cohen PA, Bloszies C, Yee C, Gerona R (2016). An amphetamine isomer whose efficacy and safety in humans has never been studied, β-methylphenylethylamine (BMPEA), is found in multiple dietary supplements. Drug Testing and Analysis 8(3-4):328-333 — PubMed PMID: 25847603
  7. Cohen PA, Travis JC, Keizers PHJ, Deuster P, Venhuis BJ (2018). Four experimental stimulants found in sports and weight loss supplements: 2-amino-6-methylheptane (octodrine), 1,4-dimethylamylamine (1,4-DMAA), 1,3-dimethylamylamine (1,3-DMAA) and 1,3-dimethylbutylamine (1,3-DMBA). Clinical Toxicology 56(6):421-426 — PubMed PMID: 29115866

The first three papers study supplements after FDA warnings or recalls, which are among the actions the directory links to. The fourth and fifth are U.S. surveillance studies of harms reported with dietary supplements (emergency-department visits and liver injury). The last two report stimulants, including BMPEA, DMAA and DMBA, that appear in the directory under categories 3 and 7.

PubMed Topic Searches

  1. PubMed: dietary supplements and FDA warning letters
  2. PubMed: adulterated dietary supplements
  3. PubMed: dietary supplement regulation in the United States

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Connections

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