New standards now available
The Global Retailer and Manufacturer Alliance recently published the NSF/ANSI 455 documents, a set of consensus-based GMP auditing standards for manufacturers of dietary supplements (455-2: Dietary Supplements), cosmetics and personal care products (455-3: Cosmetics/Personal Care Products) and over-the-counter drugs (455-4: OTC Drugs).
According to Casey Coy, senior manager of training and consulting for health sciences at NSF International, the new standards are aimed at reducing the number of audits and the associated costs of auditing to multiple independent standards. The new standards will help manufacturers centralize their efforts in continuous improvement and industry best practices while giving consumers greater confidence in the products they choose.
“Retailers were frustrated with the current state of certification, or better put, lack thereof, in these product categories,” Coy told NutraIngredients-USA.
“In the wake of the New York Attorney General affair, they wanted something similar to GFSI. They wanted to create some credibility that all these private standards do not,” she said.
Gap assessments
Coy said NSF will now be offering gap audits for manufacturers to see where they stand vis a vis the new GRMA standard. She said NSF International auditors were recently trained by the GRMA as part of NSF’s effort to become an ANSI-accredited certifier of the GRMA standards. While waiting for official accreditation, the GRMA is allowing NSF International to conduct interim gap audits.
“Eventually, the GRMA will require ANSI accreditation to the standard for any certifying body that audits to these standards, but for now it is accepting unaccredited audits by approved certifying bodies for up to one year in order to get these standards implemented quickly,” said Coy. “NSF International is already working toward achieving ANSI accreditation for certification to these standards and we are currently able to provide interim gap audits.”
In addition to providing interim gap assessment and eventually certification to the GRMA manufacturing quality system standards, NSF will continue providing product certification to the only American National Standard (NSF/ANSI 173) that verifies the health and safety of dietary supplements.
The GRMA is a global nonprofit with members from most major retailers, manufacturers, trade associations and certification bodies. The alliance was formed to develop an auditing scheme that utilizes consensus-based quality system standards for Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) in several non-food related industries in the same way the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) audit process was developed within the food industry.
