Nutraceutical International Corporation, a Park City, UT-based dietary supplement manufacturer, reported yearly sales results that reflected the ongoing softness in the sector. The company reported sales growth in its fourth quarter and its fiscal year...
In designing a clinical trial strategy its important to keep end points in mind—and it’s not just avoiding disease endpoints we’re talking here. It’s vital to end up with information that can aid in the marketing of the product, experts say.
Protein fortification is a red hot trend in the market, but one formulation expert questions whether all of the information on the protein portions of those product labels is being reported correctly.
The need to get higher returns on investment capital that has lain idle is driving the ongoing consolidation in the sphere of analytical testing according to Dave Kliber, CEO of SF Analytical Laboratories, which was recently acquired by multinational...
Scilabs Nutraceuticals Inc., a California dietary supplement company, has been slapped with a permanent injunction after failing three rounds of FDA inspections and receiving a warning letter in 2013.
Warning letters are the regulatory tea leaves of the dietary supplements business and the Council for Responsible Nutrition has launched a new tool that will help industry read what they have to tell.
A new force has appeared on the contract manufacturing scene with the formation of Capstone Nutrition, which is an amalgamation of Integrity Nutraceuticals in Spring Hill, TN and Cornerstone Research & Development in Ogden, UT. Both companies were...
By Daniel Fabricant, PhD, CEO and Executive Director, Natural Products Association
While we should certainly take a second to pause and reflect in honor of the 20th anniversary of the passage of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA), it’s important to keep in mind that the industry as a beacon of growth must focus...
Leading chondroitin sulfate supplier Synutra Ingredients has announced the publication of the ‘most effective testing protocols for insuring the purity of chondroitin ingredients’, with the UNPA moving quickly to advise its members to adopt the method.
A recent study found that numerous recalled supplements lingered on the market for months or even years after their recall dates. The nature of recalls supplies part of the reason why this is the case. Getting products off the market via a recall is a...
Import refusals by the Food and Drug Administration are ramping up and are likely to become more common as some of the rules associated with the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) kick into gear in the coming year, said an executive with a labeling...
Michael McGuffin, president of the American Herbal Products Association, has a unique perspective on the 20th anniversary of DSHEA having started in the herbal products industry in 1974, twenty years before the law was passed. The law, as he sees it,...
The dietary supplement business has gone from fighting for its life to enjoying the fruits of an open, dynamic marketplace, and it’s all because of DSHEA, according to Loren Isrealsen, president of the United Natural Products Alliance.
The 20th anniversary of the Dietary Supplements Health and Education Act (DSHEA) is ‘monumental’, says Steve Mister from the CRN, but the industry shouldn’t rest on its laurels too long. ‘The important thing is to figure out what change is necessary to...
Reporting adverse events is something all dietary supplement companies must prepared to do to be in compliance with the law. But beyond that basic requirement, companies that fully embrace an AER system can use it to provide valuable market data, an...
The smallest tier of dietary supplement manufacturers still, as a class, lack comprehensive understanding of GMP requirements, according a digital solutions provider.
A recent study has found 1,3-dimethylbutylamine (DMBA), a synthetic stimulant similar to DMAA, in 12 of 14 dietary supplements tested. According to Dr Pieter Cohen, one of the study’s authors, no information exists on the safety and acceptable dosages...
Synutra Ingredients’s efforts to educate the industry about new adulterants in chondroitin are gaining traction, but the industry needs to apply effective testing methods and not just ‘pay it lip service’, says the company’s president.
Contract research organization KGK Synergize Inc. is broadening the scope of its expertise with the formation of a new company called GMP Auditing Partners and has named industry veteran Ed Wyszumiala as CEO.
Marketers of omega-3s talk a lot about freshness, but it’s not what the consumer understands with the term. It’s really about controlling oxidation and it can have a big impact on the sensory experience, experts say.
Algatechnologies Ltd. has announced an R&D deal with German company SCHOTT AG to boost the productivity of its closed-tube cultivation system at its plant in the Negev region of southern Israel.
Consumers are increasingly sensitive to where products are made, and this has helped drive NOW Foods’ expansion of its in-house manufacturing capacity, said CEO Jim Emme.
The presence of undeclared pharmaceutical ingredients in products purporting to be dietary supplements is garnering an increasing amount of attention and enforcement from the Food and Drug Administration, databases compiled by the American Herbal Products...
Pure Via labels will be amended, but 'natural' claim will stay
10 months after Cargill agreed to settle a class action lawsuit alleging it was misleading shoppers by marketing consumer products under the Truvia brand as ‘natural’, the firms behind rival stevia brand Pure Via have agreed to settle a similar lawsuit.
Bad news has acquired a long shelf life in the age of the Internet. Companies that are involved in regulatory actions, such as receiving FDA warning letters, need to develop a strategy to present their image going forward because the record of the warning...
As part of its ongoing effort to influence the implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act, the American Herbal Products Association has submitted 30 pages of comments on the way FSMA calls for mitigation strategies aimed at preventing intentional...
The GRAS process as it stands in the United States is vulnerable to criticism based on possible conflicts of interest and low-quality safety work, said Claire Kruger, PhD, president of Spherix Consulting, a division of ChromaDex.
The Vitamin Shoppe announced this week that it plans to have all of the labels on products sold in its stores to be submitted to the National Institutes of Health Dietary Supplement Label Database. The move was welcomed by Steve Mister, president and...
The submissions of New Dietary Ingredient notifications seems as fraught as ever, and part of the issue is that regulators are not as communicative as they could be, according to Alex Schauss, senior director of AIBMR Life Sciences.
The Council for Responsible Nutrition took its ‘tale of two industries’ to Capitol Hill this week for senior level meetings and briefings with key lawmakers, with steroids, weight loss products, and smart prevention featuring on the agenda.
A new e-newsletter from a consortium of nonprofit herbal advocacy and research organizations will provide information related to the prevention and detection of herbal adulteration, quality assurance challenges facing the global botanical products community.
The growth of the sports nutrition sector has boosted the demand for NSF’s Certified for Sport certification, says Lisa Thomas, the program’s director. But the reach of the program extends well beyond products meant just for athletes.
Botanical adulteration, like doping in sports, is a problem that can be controlled but never totally resolved, but what is being done about it? Here the world’s biggest botanical players debate their attacks on the problem.
A lack of good laboratory practices specific to dietary supplements may be a hindrance in terms of assuring quality across the labs, but could the supplement industry come together to write its own?
The practice of ‘dry labbing’ continues in the dietary supplement space, but could industry attempts to produce a ‘trusted list of labs’ help companies make better decisions and stay GMP compliant?
Dry labbing and lab shopping are problems that persist in the dietary supplements industry, according to Frank Jaksch, CEO of ChromaDex. It is still all too easy for a company to get the results it wants, he said at a recent conference.
The Dietary Supplements Health and Education Act has given rise to a thriving dietary supplements industry. Botanical ingredients have always been a part of that picture, but the concept of where they fit within that category has shifted over the years...
The Natural Products Association (NPA) announced this morning that Daniel Fabricant, PhD, will succeed John Shaw as chief executive officer of the organization effective immediately. Shaw had tendered his resignation several days ago, the organization...
The upcoming Oxford Conferenece on the Science of Botanicals will have broader scope this year as part of a retrospective on the 20th anniversary of the Dietary Supplement Health and Eduction Act, said Ikhlas Khan, PhD, one of the conference’s main organizers.
A long time critic of the dietary supplement industry, Dr Pieter Cohen, MD, has called for a premarket approval regime and a modified adverse event reporting system for dietary supplements in an article published today in the New England Journal of Medicine. Industry...
Emerson Ecologics, which distributes a wide range of dietary supplements in the practictioner channel, has altered its quality program in a way that the company hopes will up the GMP compliance ante for its participating suppliers.
A key new hire has enabled consulting firm Ingredient Identity to signficantly ramp up its capabilities. In line with that development, the company has formed four new divisions to better present the new capabilities to its customers, said Jim Lassiter,...
The big three issues for botanicals of identity, adulteration, and solvent residue can be eliminated by controlling the supply chain from seed to shelf, says Ric Scalzo, CEO of Gaia Herbs
Updated: USP outlines its improvements for ginkgo testing
A new, simple method can address the problem of identifying adulterants in ginkgo biloba extracts, claim the scientists from Southern Cross University and Integria Healthcare in Australia who developed it.
Sustainable sourcing is a big buzzword these days, and companies have different methods for achieving that goal. One way to boost a company’s sustainability profile is to tap into a hidden pool of talent, namely the people who actually buy the stuff:...
The dietary supplements and functioanl foods industries have grown tremendously in the two decades since the passage of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994. After a period in which the industry split into various interest group segments,...
The Food and Drug Administration has agreed to new deadlines for final rules detailing the implementaiton of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). The agreement comes as part of a settlement in a lawsuit brought by advocacy groups claiming that FDA...
Three quarters of samples of Pharma Labs Inc's bodybuilding food supplement Esto Suppress have been shown to contain the breast cancer drug, tamoxifen, according to researchers.
Recent negative reports about the safety and efficacy of dietary supplements aren’t just a black eye on the industry. They represent a groundswell of public sentiment that could lead to the significant alteration of the Dietary Supplement Health and...
Organic claims and non GMO status can be challenging subjects for dietary supplement manufacturers. One aspect of that equation might have become a little simpler with the introduction of what the manufacturer believes to be the first organic clear coating...
