IPA manufacturing guidelines to drive probiotic companies towards 'optimal practices'
Speaking with NutraIngredients-USA during the recent Probiota Americas 2018 event in Miami, Kevin Mehring, CEO of UAS Labs and IPA’s vice president, explained that the manufacturing guidelines are intended to protect the industry by ensuring that quality products are made that are effective.
“As more and more entrants come into the market to manufacture powder-based probiotic supplements it’s important they’re following the guidelines that have been in existence and that good companies have been practicing on handling, processing, storing, and shipping probiotics, so that the end consumer gets a product that is going to do something for them,” he said.
The guidelines are close to completion, said Mehring. “We now have feedback from the IPA members on the initial draft of the guidelines, and we’ve incorporated that feedback. We plan to publish them around September. Once those are published and on the IPA website, we’ll start a tour to communicate this.”
The tour will involve one-on-one meetings with stakeholders or symposiums with regulatory bodies around the world, he added.
“The guidelines are not meant to replace cGMPs, which are critical. The probiotic guidelines are specific to probiotics that are over and above making a basic supplement. The guidelines are really mean to compliment cGMPs, and take it up another level.”
Auditing is planned to be part of the process, said Mehring, to give the guidelines teeth. We have two tracks: acceptable guidelines and optimal guidelines, and we try to move people towards the optimal guidelines.
Probiota Americas is produced by William Reed Business Media, NutraIngredients-USA’s parent company. The event was produced in association with the International Probiotics Association.
