GNC, Walmart founding members of Supplement Safety and Compliance Initiative

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Natural Products Association on Wednesday formed the Supplement Safety and Compliance Initiative, bringing together some of the largest retailers of natural products and supplements, including GNC and Walmart, on self-regulating the sale of VMS products.



“This pioneering initiative sends a clear message to millions of consumers that they can have confidence in the safety and authenticity of the dietary supplements and natural products they use each and every day,” stated Dan Fabricant, CEO and executive director of NPA. “Our industry is safe because of initiatives like SSCI and our commitment to consumer protection and quality control. NPA is thrilled to work with founding SSCI members GNC and Walmart and industry leaders Vitamin Shoppe and Whole Foods to develop a retailer driven and consumer focused Industry Leadership Group."

 

SSCI focuses on the entire product life cycle and welcomes all certifying bodies to participate in future benchmarking.  

 

SSCI will set out to accomplish the following goals:

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  Reduce supplement safety risks, recalls and harms by delivering equivalence and convergence between effective supplement safety management systems;


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  Develop core competencies and capacity building in supplement safety to create effective global systems;


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  Drive global change through benchmarking of all standards, domestic and international;


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  Provide unique stakeholder platform for collaboration, knowledge sharing and networking;


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  Manage costs by eliminating redundancy in certification and improving operational efficiency;


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  Increase the number of qualified auditors available to manufacturers, further increasing consumer safety;


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  Address the myriad of standards available globally by allowing various schemes in the international community to benchmark their standard to one overarching standard; and


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  Design a tiered structure that accommodates the unique needs of small ingredient suppliers (i.e. organic, wild-crafted herbs), manufacturers and retailers.

 

“Similar retailer driven initiatives have been developed for foods but never applied to dietary supplements until now. SSCI will continue to promote safety, and consumer confidence in each step of the supply chain from farm to store shelf,” Fabricant said.