To rebuild consumer trust, the natural products industry must exhibit compliance and transparency.
The issue of compliance has affected many aspects of the natural products industry.
Nutrition Industry Executive (NIE) magazine asked those schooled on the subject to discuss this topic, and offer their thoughts on what the industry can do to make safe products, comply with government regulations and gain the confidence of consumers. Below is an extension of the article.
The participants are:
• Daniel Fabricant, PhD, Executive Director & CEO of Natural Products Association (NPA), Washington, DC, www.npainfo.org
• Michael McGuffin, President of American Herbal Products Association (AHPA), Silver Spring, MD, www.ahpa.org
• Mimi Potocnjak, President of Herbally Yours, Inc., Gilbert, AZ, (480) 892-8220
• Richard Soltero, PhD, President of InstantGMP, Inc., Cary, NC, (919) 657-0714
• Elan M. Sudberg, CEO & Microscopist of Alkemist Labs, Costa Mesa, CA, (714) 754-4372
• Lisa Thomas, General Manager, Dietary Supplement Programs of NSF International, Ann Arbor, MI, www.nsf.org
NIE: What are your thoughts on recent actions by New York State Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman?
McGuffin: AHPA and its members share New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s goal of ensuring consumer access to high-quality supplements. While Schneiderman’s goal is commendable, the test methodology employed to assess the quality of products he investigated was not appropriate or scientifically valid and ultimately sparked a host of misinformation and an inaccurate portrayal of the herbal supplements industry. The regulated herbal products industry is continuously looking for ways to improve and welcomes inquiry from regulators; however, industry also requests that appropriate test methods are used during an investigation to ensure the results are accurate.
Potocnjak: Our industry is lacking in educated, informative media response to the sensation hungry media and general public. We allow inexperienced people to create factitious conclusions about our industry without providing our voice of reason and confidence.
Sudberg: Claims were made, decisions were changed, the New York Times colluded, and the industry lost the confidence of the ultimate rainmakers, the consumers. Then, when experts that included industry critics informed the self appointed leader (for the week) of the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration), Eric Schneiderman, that his team employed bad science that dishonored an entire industry, no retraction nor retest using the appropriate suite of testing was performed. For that reason, I think his actions were careless and nonsensical. He used the wrong test methods to test the wrong materials and made a mockery of all of us. To find some light in this darkness, I know the fruit of all this is a globally heightened sense of awareness of quality from the consumers all the way through the industry; quality has moved one step closer to the most important value proposition standing.
Soltero: It was unfortunate that an ill-informed, non-scientific process received so much media attention. Any self-respecting scientist would have been ashamed to be associated with what was apparently just raw political ambition presenting itself. Several respectable chain stores and their suppliers were needlessly subjected to political pressure that jeopardized their reputations. It was further unfortunate that the backlash against the publicized reports by the attorney general did not get commensurate media attention.
Thomas: Dietary supplement companies are striving to restore and maintain brand integrity by demonstrating their commitment to producing safer products for their customers. This is why NSF International dietary supplement certification has played such an important role in the last few months. When consumers see over 400 companies and over 700 products passing the strict requirements of the NSF Dietary Supplement auditing and testing programs, they are confident that industry is improving and verifying the quality and safety of their products.
What is important to understand is that NSF International certification can help consumers and retailers identify safer supplements that have been analytically tested to confirm the label contents. We have been working closely with our customers, regulatory agencies, industry trade organizations, media and the public to educate consumers about how NSF International Dietary Supplement certification can help them find supplements with confirmed label content.
Fabricant: I think it was unscientific on so many levels. I think it was purely political, and it is unfortunate. But what it does show us that we have some perception challenges and we need to address those. As bad as his study was, and it was of really little value, there is some part of the marketplace that has this perception that we are doing these things routinely and I think that that’s something that we need to be concerned with on a global scale and we are looking at ways to move past that.
NIE: Is there anything else you would like to add?
McGuffin: The herbal supplement industry has been working hard to comply with the comprehensive and complex current good manufacturing practice (cGMP) requirements, but this is only the first step. The industry needs to better educate consumers; the media and policymakers about the steps manufacturers must take to be in compliance. This will help bolster the industry’s reputation and help ensure consumer purchasing decisions, media coverage and policy development are all based on accurate information.
Fabricant: When people are looking at certifications or education, they really have to look at the credentials of the people, and look at the transparency of the program. I think that those are the critical things. I think that once upon a time certifications were just there for marketing show, but now they mean a lot more. You have firms that use them repeatedly to qualify their suppliers, so I think that’s an incredible important part to your business and how can you risk it to some who can maybe doesn’t necessarily do things in the certification sense in the most transparent way, or is predicated largely on marketing, not the quality of the auditor. I think that those are important things for people to consider.
