Online Resources for Assessing the Quality and Safety of Dietary Supplements

Abstract

Vol. 43, No. 4 July/August 2003 Journal of the American Pharmacists Association (www.japha.org) 543 ent labeling, and proper manufacturing practices. Products that pass will be awarded the program’s certification mark. Along with USP, other nonprofit groups, such as Consumer Labs (CL), the National Nutritional Foods Association (NNFA), and NSF International, have established certification programs. A recent review of these initiatives is available at www.supplementquality.com/ testing/Quality_ seals.html. CL (www.consumerlabs. com) provides independent testing of health, wellness, and nutrition products and publishes the results online. To bear the CL Seal of Approval, a product must pass a voluntary certification program. While manufacturers must pay a fee to become certified, test samples are purchased independently from retailers, and blinded tests are conducted at academic or commercial laboratories selected for their analytic expertise. Both NNFA (www.nnfa. org/services/science/gmp.htm) and NSF International (www. nsf.org/dietary) have established GMP guidelines and standards for quality control and assurance, cleanliness, checking the identity and potency of ingredients, and testing of final products for potency, purity, and bioavailability. NNFA’s TrueLabel program is a dietary supplement label registration program required for all NNFA supplier members. Products must be registered in order to be displayed at the annual NNFA Marketplace trade show. Products are subject to random testing by independent laboratories, and companies whose products fail to comply with the association’s standards are excluded from membership. NNFA plans to publish lists of products that fail in its newsletters. Although NNFA’s GMP Certification Program is open only to NNFA members, any company can apply to have their products certified by NSF International. Both groups have similar standards, developed in collaboration with several other industry trade organizations. Lists of certified manufacturers, distributors, and products are available online at the organizations’ respective Web sites. The adoption and implementation of all these initiatives and programs would help ensure documented safety and efficacy, uniform testing standards, GMPs, and professional oversight for dietary supplements and herbal resources.