The Natural Products Association (NPA) and UL have announced that they will partner to certify dietary supplement makers are following federal guidelines and regulations—Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP)—that are an essential part of the government’s oversight of the industry.
As part of this collaboration, UL’s auditors will be trained in the NPA GMP standard, as they will administer the certification program, the audit function and the final decision on whether the product meets the standard to achieve compliance.
Furthermore, NPA and UL have developed a co-branded, dietary supplement-specific badge logo program for use in product labeling, such as marketing materials, websites and social media for dietary supplements. The use of both the NPA and UL marks in its co-branded partnership will only be available for companies certified under the NPA GMP standard with audits conducted by UL. NPA is also allowing the use of the NPA mark on product labels for the first time. NPA’s partnership with UL also will open up new avenues for the industry to have its products tested for meeting label claims and absence of adulterants by a well-recognized and venerable dietary supplement and sports nutrition testing organization.
Since 1999, NPA has provided GMP certification and education to dietary supplement manufacturers. Through its premier education program, NPA has trained more than 1,000 industry stakeholders. Last December, NPA and UL announced a partnership between the two organizations intended to bring increased educational opportunities to industry members. The education alliance combines NPA’s foremost regulatory and compliance seminars, web-based education and personalized, on-site training with outstanding training modules from EduNeering, the online regulatory training division of UL.
“This new certification partnership will leverage UL’s rich history of quality and safety and NPA’s industry-first standard to transform the industry and bring it into a new world of best practices,” said NPA Executive Director and CEO Daniel Fabricant, PhD. “This has been in the works for some time but it is especially timely today, because consumers should have confidence that their vitamins and supplements are safe and high quality. All they have to do is check for the NPA and UL marks, and they’ll know that the product was made the right way, in accordance with federal guidelines and regulations. NPA and UL are the leaders in helping to ensure quality, and this new joint venture will help raise retailer and consumer confidence in the industry’s products.”
For more information, visit www.npainfo.org or http://industries.ul.com/dietary-supplements/the-clearview-online-marketplace.
