According to paragraph 4 “third-party” literature is written

Question

The Facts: Nutrition Quackery

1) Whether athletic or sedentary, the individual on a well-balanced diet does not benefit from special foods, phosphate, alkaline salts, choline, lecithin, wheat germ, honey, gelatin, aspartates, brewer’s yeast, or royal jelly unless prescribed for medical purposes by a physician. Because these products do not produce the special benefits claimed for them, their use and/or sale can be considered nutritional quackery.
2) The Dietary Supplements Health and Education Act was passed in 1994. It was considered by many experts to be a compromise between health-food manufacturers who wanted no regulation of dietary supplements (such as vitamins, minerals, proteins, and herbs) and those who wanted strict control of these substances. Many nutrition experts now feel that the Act is responsible for an explosion in sales of products that have not been proven to be effective.
3) The passage of the 1994 Act shifted the burden of providing assurances of product effectiveness from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to the food supplement industry, which really means it shifted to you – the consumer. Food supplements are typically not considered to be drugs, so they are not regulated. Unlike drugs and medicines, food supplements need not be proven effective or even safe to be sold in stores. To be removed from stores, they must be proven ineffective or unsafe. This leaves consumers vulnerable to false claims. Many experts suggest that quackery has increased significantly since the Act was passed.
4) The Act had at least one positive effect. Food supplement labeling must now be truthful and nonmisleading. Claims concerning disease prevention, treatment, or diagnosis must be substantiated in order to appear on the product. Unfortunately, the act did not limit false claims if they are not on the product label. The result has been the removal of claims from labels in favor of claims on separate literature often called “third-party” literature. The seller provides claims in literature by other people (third party). The literature is distributed separately from the product, thus allowing sellers to make unsubstantiated claims for products. Also the law does not prohibit unproven verbal claims by sales people. It is now up to the consumer to make decisions about the safety and effectiveness of food supplements so it is especially important to be well-informed.
5) Experts indicate that the recent increase in food supplement sales ($8 billion a year in 1994 and $12 billion in 1997 and $16 billion currently) has resulted in more than a few cases of serious illnesses including lead poisoning, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abnormal heart rhythms, impotence, and lethargy. As a result, the increased sales of such products as St. John’s Wart, Ginseng, Ginkgo, and Saw Palmetto has received considerable media attention. A series of reports in a recent medical journal address the topic of food supplements that are unregulated suggesting that “alternative treatments should be subjected to scientific testing no less rigorous than that required for advocating unproven and potentially harmful treatments.” One of the reports indicates that nearly one-third of the samples of one herbal product tested in California contained dangerous chemicals and drugs not listed on the label. These reports show the importance of asking questions before buying or taking any supplements.

a. by the company that produces the product.
b. by people other than the company that produces the product.
c. by the Food and Drug Administration.
d. directly on the label of the container.

Answer 1

b. by people other than the company that produces the product.