Quality

The Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA) released the following statement today in response to Aylstock, Witkin, Kreis & Overholtz, PLLC filing a Citizen Petition with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), requesting the Agency “recall and suspend sales of benzoyl peroxide (BPO) from the US Market due to the presence of benzene.”

Today, Élan Sudberg, CEO of Alkemist Labs, joins CHPA's Duffy MacKay for an in depth discussion of herbs and botanical testing. Herbs are an important and growing category for dietary supplements, foods, and even cosmetics. When herbs are further processed into botanical dietary supplements, they can be complex products that require extra care in sourcing, manufacturing, and testing.

Herbs and spices have been part of commerce for thousands and thousands of years, and so have bad actors that substitute less expensive plant material for authentic plants. This practice known as botanical adulteration, has impacted the dietary supplement supply chain. But an industry initiative led by three leading nonprofits has developed a large scale program to reduce ingredient and product adulteration.

CHPA’s SVP of Dietary Supplements, Duffy MacKay, responds to reporting on a recent research letter published in JAMA finding that 22 out of 25 melatonin products analyzed were mislabeled, containing variable amounts of the ingredient:

If you are in the consumer healthcare industry, you probably know about GMPs, or Good Manufacturing Practices. But what do they specifically mean when it comes to dietary supplements, and how do VMS companies prepare for an FDA inspection?