Expanded education program at SupplySide West

Virgo Publishing has revealed details of the expanded Education Program to be offered at SupplySide West 1-3 October in Las Vegas. Features are to include talks from various researchers, top government officials and industry leaders.

Representatives of the six Dietary Supplement Research Centers funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will present sessions on their research, findings and activities on October 1.

Presentations include a wide variety of issues ranging from 'the role of phytoestrogens in prostate cancer treatment' to 'Echinacea and hypericum' and 'herbal approaches to cancer' to 'plant polyphenols and the possible benefits for age-related disease'.

The 1 October session will also reveal details of the NIH research and development grant program. The NIH has more than $550 million in grant money available for businesses developing innovative health products, services and programs.

Set to take place from 12 - 12.50 pm, Shan S. Wong, program officer at the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, will describe how companies can apply for this money through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs.

Loren Israelsen, president of LDI Group and executive director of the Utah Natural Products Alliance, will lead a panel discussion on the effects of federal bioterrorism regulations on the industry. All food and dietary supplement companies are required to register with the FDA by December 12, 2003, so that they can continue to import ingredients into the United States. Imported food and dietary supplements will also be subject to a 'prior notification' requirement as of that date.

Cantox's Dr Nestmann will review approaches to evaluating safety, including an overview of safety data useful in supporting a New Dietary Ingredient (NDI) notification. Reference will be made to current dietary supplement safety issues and the standards of safety that are applied to ensure that a dietary supplement product is reasonably expected to be safe in compliance with the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act.

Steve French of the Natural Marketing Institute (NMI) will unveil new data from The NMI Health & Wellness Trends Database (HWTD), which now has five years of consumer health and wellness trends. Titled 'New Consumer Research: The Hottest Trends in the Nutritional Marketplace,' the session will focus on nutritional opportunities relating to functional, fortified and natural products, including the analysis of specific ingredients, dietary supplements, foods/beverages and personal care products.

Gina Nick from consulting firm Longevity Through Prevention will examine distribution challenges and what is needed to penetrate the health care practitioner channel in a session titled 'Capturing the Practitioner Market'.

Meanwhile on October 3, leading industry associations are to provide industry updates with representatives of the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA), the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) and the National Nutritional Foods Association (NNFA) in two panel discussions. Subjects to be addressed include Good Manufacturing Practices, legislative threats to DSHEA, and key issues affecting botanicals in the first discussion, with the EU Food Supplement Directive, CODEX and other issues affecting the industry in Europe in the second.

Finally two leading vitamin E researchers, Andreas Papas and Robert Acuff from the College of Medicine at East Tennessee State University, will explore the benefits of vitamin E compounds in addition to alpha tocopherol that are being used in new formulations.

The three day education program, sponsored by Cognis Nutrition and Health begins one day earlier than at past SupplySide West shows.

More information about SupplySide West 2003, including a complete seminar schedule and registration information, is available from the exhibition website​.