As I opened the Sunday New York Times before heading to my Bikram yoga class yesterday, I was greeted by a story on the front page (below the fold, but still) titled "Dessert, Laid-Back and Legal." (Click here to check it out online.)  The article discusses the inclusion of melatonin in a variety of baked goods designed to "promote relaxation" and sold through convenience stores, smoke shops and even bars.

While the consumers quoted in the article seem pleased with the products' effects, and the marketers rightly suggest many Americans are dealing with excess stress and also looking for something more natural than Lunesta, this tactic seems to be outside legal boundaries. In fact, Rakesh Amin blogged on this topic for INSIDER last year, when Drank received an FDA warning letter about the use of melatonin in a beverage, as the ingredient is not considered GRAS or a food additive (click here for that blog).

Personally, I'd consider a brownie enhanced with various nutritional ingredients to be a functional food, not a supplement. But these lines seem to be blurring, and regulators don't have the resources, and possibly lack the inclination, to work with industry to come up with some solid guidelines to allow the sale of effective functional foods and supplements with appropriate marketing and usage guidelines that don't make the products drugs. Interestingly, the NY Times also featured a huge article on functional foods on the cover of its Sunday Business section; no mention of the melatonin brownies though. Doug Peckenpaugh will be tackling that issue in the food & beverage community later today.