March 10, 2015
Leading Association for Natural Products Partners with Prominent Global Independent Safety Science Leader in New Effort to Help Consumers and Manufacturers
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Natural Products Association (NPA), the nation’s largest trade organization representing natural products, and UL, a global safety science leader, announced today that they will partner to certify dietary supplement makers are following federal guidelines and regulations – Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) – that are an essential part of the government’s oversight of the industry.
As part of this collaboration, UL’s auditors will be trained in the NPA GMP standard, as they will administer the certification program, the audit function and the final decision on whether the product meets the standard to achieve compliance.
Furthermore, NPA and UL have developed a co-branded, dietary supplement-specific badge logo program for use in product labeling, such as marketing materials, websites and social media for dietary supplements. The use of both the NPA and UL marks in its co-branded partnership will only be available for companies certified under the NPA GMP standard with audits conducted by UL. NPA is also allowing the use of the NPA mark on product labels for the first time. NPA’s partnership with UL also will open up new avenues for the industry to have its products tested for meeting label claims and absence of adulterants by a well-recognized and venerable dietary supplement and sports nutrition testing organization.
Since 1999, NPA has provided GMP certification and education to dietary supplement manufacturers. Through its premier education program, NPA has trained more than 1,000 industry stakeholders. Last December, NPA and UL announced a partnership between the two organizations intended to bring increased educational opportunities to industry members. The education alliance combines NPA’s foremost regulatory and compliance seminars, web-based education and personalized, on-site training with outstanding training modules from EduNeering, the online regulatory training division of UL.
“This new certification partnership will leverage UL’s rich history of quality and safety and NPA’s industry-first standard to transform the industry and bring it into a new world of best practices,” said NPA Executive Director and CEO Daniel Fabricant, Ph.D. “This has been in the works for some time but it is especially timely today, because consumers should have confidence that their vitamins and supplements are safe and high quality. All they have to do is check for the NPA and UL marks, and they’ll know that the product was made the right way, in accordance with federal guidelines and regulations. NPA and UL are the leaders in helping to ensure quality, and this new joint venture will help raise retailer and consumer confidence in the industry’s products.”
“NPA was the first organization to offer a third-party GMP certification program for the manufacturing of dietary supplements and dietary ingredients. The association’s standard has set the bar for the industry. UL is honored and excited to be able to move forward with NPA into the next stage of its prestigious program,” said Mike O’Hara, general manager of Global Nutraceuticals for UL. “The opportunity to unite UL’s long tradition of consumer safety with NPA’s unmatched expertise in the dietary supplement industry is one that UL greatly welcomes and views as beneficial for all who make, sell and consume supplements.”
NPA and UL will also collaborate on a new webinar series exploring a variety of vital topics for the industry. The series kicks off Thursday, April 2, when the organizations will provide an in-depth look at their new partnership.
For more on the GMP certification program and educational offerings, please visit NPA online, UL's Supply Chain Certification.