CARROLLTON – Law enforcement officers with the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) carried out a search and seizure warrant on a business on the Carrollton Square Tuesday.
According to Carroll County Sheriff Clint Walker, federal agents with the FDA executed a search warrant on Humaworm, located at 609 Lexington Street in Carrollton. He said the warrant was issued by the U.S. District Court for Mississippi’s Northern District, and agents used the Carroll County Sheriff’s Department to interview witnesses during the day Tuesday.
No arrests were made, Walker said.
The FDA did not make a statement on Tuesday’s events.
Humaworm is owned by Dr. Reba Bailey, a naturopathic doctor who moved her business and her family to Carrollton approximately seven years ago. Humaworm is the manufacturer of dietary supplements sold on the company’s website and are shipped all over the world, according to Bailey.
Bailey said Tuesday’s search warrant was a complete surprise to her and her staff.
“The warrant stated that [agents] were looking for illegal drug activity, adulteration of products, and mislabeling of products,” Bailey said, Wednesday. “My office cooperated completely with the agents.”
Bailey said she has been manufacturing dietary supplements since 2006, and she gets inspected by the FDA every two years to verify she is following the agency’s rules and regulations.
“Obviously, this is the first time [a warrant was executed],” Bailey said. “I am not manufacturing illegal drugs. The products I make are made with what I say they are made with, and the labels state what the products are made with.”
Bailey said in 2016, the FDA changed its labeling regulations, and she had to relabel her products based on those new regulations. In addition, she was required to send products to the Nashville office of the FDA to have those products analyzed. If the FDA finds the products outside its regulations, Bailey said she would be contacted.
“You are supposed to comply within 15 days,” Bailey said. “I don’t mislabel my products. I’m not selling dirt and telling people it is [a dietary supplement.]”
Bailey said she purchases all of her herbal ingredients from a California-based company and all of those ingredients come with a certificate of analysis stating the herb’s purity.
Bailey said the FDA seized all inventory related to the manufacture of Humaworm’s dietary supplements, her files, and her computers.
“They will take all of the herbs and test them to make sure that is what they are supposed to be,” Bailey said. “That can take several months. Until then, my business is closed.”
