Taiwan’s FDA Ends Blood Pressure Tests on Animals After Hearing From PETA

The Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (TFDA) has finalized a regulation that removes animal testing recommendations and requirements for companies wanting to make blood pressure health marketing claims about their food and beverage products. The testing included feeding foods of interest for at least eight weeks to rats bred to develop hypertension and measuring their blood pressure response using the stress-inducing tail-cuff method. The TFDA will now require only safe and effective human tests for this purpose. This follows pressure from PETA that included the submission of a detailed scientific critique at the agency’s request and e-mails to agency officials from more than 50,000 supporters opposing animal experiments.