Lessons learned from the history of the dietary supplement industry can be applied to the hemp world, and the blitzkrieg-like pace of the industry means we’ll know in short order who’s getting the message and who isn’t. It will also put pressure on regulators...
New Jersey-based contract manufacturer Vitaquest International received food safety standards certification by global certifying body DNV GL Business Assurance.
Presentations at the recent FDA meeting on CBD outlined the concerns some academics in the field have about the quality and safety of the products that are on the market.
A joint webinar put on by Global Organization of EPA and DHA Omega 3s (GOED) and the United Natural Products Alliance (UNPA) will help companies understand the intentional adulteration provisions of FSMA.
There’s a finite supply of ingredients in the natural products industry, a challenge that one pharma ‘track and trace’ expert wanted to tackle head-on by starting the blockchain company TagOne.
The main purpose of the Botanical Safety Consortium, a public-private effort bringing together stakeholders in the botanical supplements space, is “advancing the science of botanical safety evaluation, [and is] not involved in regulatory decisions or...
A study published recently has found a level of liver toxicity for CBD, putting up a big caveat to the notion within the hemp/CBD world that its products have nothing in the way of safety concerns.
New Jersey-based Vitaquest, a firm that develops and manufactures nutraceutical products, has launched an initiative to highlight the procedures the company follows to assure its quality.
New benchmarking standards developed by the Supplement Safety and Compliance Initiative (SSCI) are being widely welcomed by dietary supplements stakeholders, with the initiative coming up for discussion this week during a key ANSI meeting.
FDA’s new Acting Commissioner of Food and Drugs, Norman Sharpless, promised last week that he will pick up where outgoing Commissioner Scott Gottlieb left off in strengthening nutrition policy and regulation to improve the public’s health and implementing...
Growth in the demand for dietary supplement formulation services has created opportunity for equipment suppliers, including GEMCO, a longtime manufacturer of blenders and vacuum drying equipment based in Middlesex, NJ.
While much of the focus around DSHEA was on Capitol Hill and the machinations of government, an important behind-the-scenes contribution came from the short lived Natural Products Quality Assurance Alliance. But what was NPQAA and how did it help?
Setting firm commodity prices will be one brick in the wall of a fully legitimized hemp industry. One company has set about doing so with a proprietary trading platform.
FDA has reiterated its enforcment stance on CBD and hemp products, has updated a Q&A document on the subject and has specified what kind of information it is seeking in the runup to a public meeting on the subject in May, all as part of documents...
FDA has sent three companies marketing CBD products warning letters over disease claims. The warnings are the first issued under FDA’s de facto ‘enforcement discretion’ policy, which will be discussed at a meeting on CBD set for the end of May.
The new Supplement Safety and Compliance Initiative standards were formally unveiled by late last week at a meeting hosted by Walmart. The standards now go into a 30-day comment period.
A paper published by a group of medicinal biochemistry researchers provides a comprehensive look at the challenges of selecting well characterized materials for testing, including a list of recommendations for best practices.
The world of hemp and CBD products sits at a critical moment in its history, much as the dietary supplement industry did a quarter century ago, according to one of the experts who was there at the birth of the industry.
The splits in the organic movement have given birth to a new initiative to regain the soul of the concept, according to an executive with a major retailer.
Manufacturers can now get a gap assessment as to where they stand under the new GRMA standards, which apply to dietary supplements and other product categories.
By FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK: Confusion in the certification game
Do certifications within the supplement industry provide meaningful information to consumers? Or are they just a way to make a confusing market even more impenetrable?
Bodybuilding.com’s John Venardos shares some of his ideas to improve the regulation of the dietary supplements industry, from better transparency to greater FDA staff accountability, and how to level the playing field.
Alkemist also announces reduction in turnaround time for routine tests
Third party botanical ID test results from Alkemist Labs are now available at ingredientsonline.com for select botanicals, as the online ingredient platform continues to push the transparency envelope.
On Monday FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb put forward some ideas about where the regulation of dietary supplements should go in the coming years. This is an opportunity that should not be missed. What should be tops on the industry’s wish list?
Serious adverse events represented only a tiny fraction of overall reports in a detailed look at data from two major dietary supplement manufacturers, according to a recent study.
CBD products are all the rage in the pet supplement world. But these products occupy a similar legal limbo in this realm as they do in supplements meant for humans, experts say.
Nuritas and Pharmavite have entered into a partnership that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to discover bioactive peptides that promise a more targeted approach to dietary supplementation.
The Food and Drug Administration has announced a regulatory framework for precertifying medical device software to streamline the way in which these devices are brought to market.
The supplement industry has an opportunity to make a powerful case about its self regulatory capabilities during the interregnum of federal regulatory authority imposed by the budget impasse.
The federal government shutdown has thrown a wrench into the works of the Food and Drug Administration. While food safety might not have been compromised, many of the agency’s more routine assignments are on hold and it may take months to catch up.
By George Paraskevakos, Executive Director, International Probiotics Association (IPA)
As I celebrated three years at IPA in April, I couldn’t help but reflect on the shape the industry has taken. Going from being sparingly mentioned in the press and fast forward to today and it is almost every other week we see probiotics in the headlines....
By Steve Mister, president/CEO of the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN)
Unless you’ve been living in a tree, most stakeholders in the dietary supplement industry have heard of the Supplement OWL. Please pardon the pun, but “hoo” hasn’t?
Counter to the chatter aroused by a recent report, the State of New York has not ‘banned’ CBD, according to an expert on the legality of hemp products. The state did however put some boundaries around a pilot agricultural program.
By Ellen Schutt, Executive Director, GOED (Global Organization for EPA & DHA Omega-3)
New science, developments in contaminant regulations, a new conversation around micro- and nanoplastics, and challenges on the regulatory front: In this guest article, Ellen Schutt, Executive Director of GOED, looks back on a very busy 2018 in the omega-3...
One player in the cannabinoid product space is seeking to differentiate itself based on its ‘compliance.’ An official at BBB Labs, based in Boulder, CO, uses this term to refer to the company’s GMP compliant manufacturing operation.
Most dietary supplement consumers expect a product to have scientific backing, so putting science at the forefront of a marketing or branding campaign just comes off as ‘noise,’ said one branding expert.
A recent call by a formidable team of researchers for a publicly accessible NMR database was met with approval by experts in the natural products industry.
The sports nutrition category has undergone significant change in recent years, as many new non-core consumers are seeking out the products. This has coincided with increased regulatory scrutiny and calls for greater transparency, says the COO of ProSupps.
By Dr. Kristy Appelhans, MS, NMD Senior Director, Global Consumer Safety, Herbalife Nutrition
Herbalife Nutrition, a world leader in dietary supplements, has developed a rigorous methodology for tracking the safety of its products in the many countries in which the company operates.
Consensus-based standards for dietary supplements developed by the Global Retailer and Manufacturer Alliance (GRMA) will be published very soon, says the alliance’s president.
Stuart Tomc, vice president of human nutrition for CBD purveyor CV Sciences, said his company welcomes increased scrutiny of the controversial ingredient category.
An industry inititave launched last week with the intent to help the marketers of encapsulated and tablet products meet the challenges of a clean label positioning.
Herbal supplement specialist Gaia Herbs joins growing number of supplement companies certified as a B Corporation, describing it as a sign of the company’s contribution “to build a more inclusive and sustainable economy.”
FDA’s draft guidance on the labeling of products containing live microorganisms is a step in the right direction but does not go far enough, stakeholders say.
