Past Editions—Need to Know Archives
Harmonizing third-party certification standards crucial as consumers demand increased transparency in the supplement marketplace
Third-party certifications can help manufacturers promote the quality and safety of their products – and help retailers assess these products before putting them on their shelves. However, third-party certifiers have created a complicated patchwork of standards over the years for retailers, auditors and manufacturers to navigate. CRN is working to learn more about the various certification schemes and persuade retailers to move toward existing harmonized standards.
Groups like the Global Retailer and Manufacturer Alliance (GRMA) are leading industry initiatives to help manufacturers and retailers streamline the audit process to ensure that each product manufactured to these obligations goes to market meeting the strict expectations of regulators, retailers and consumers.
Learn more about what CRN is doing to harmonize certification programs and increase transparency for consumers below.
Read and watch latest CRN educational content on retail certification standards
To promote CRN’s support for unified certification standards among retailers, CRN has provided educational content for several trade publications.
- “2020: The Year We Woke Up to Our Interdependence with Retailers,” Nutrition Industry Executive
- “CRN: Quality Is the Price of Entry – Not a Point of Difference,” NutraIngredients-USA
- “Amazon Tightens Requirements for Supplements – Here’s What You Should Know,” Netrush
CRN's Steve Mister spoke with Chain Drug Review about CRN’s recent actions to help retailers better navigate the category, along with the dietary supplement industry's performance during the COVID-19 pandemic, consumer attitudes about dietary supplements, and more.
Save the date for CRN’s ‘Understanding Retail Certification Programs’ webinar
CRN will host a webinar for CRN members only on Tuesday, Jan. 26, starting at 1:00 pm EST, to examine the increasing concerns about retailer-imposed certification programs for dietary supplements. CRN staff have been in contact with several retailers about their programs to learn more and to open a dialogue about harmonized standards, such as those developed by the GRMA. Mark your calendars and stay tuned for more information.
Although the webinar is being developed for a closed audience of CRN members, retailers who register in advance may tune in to learn how harmonized standards can benefit everyone. Please contact CRN’s Maya English to get registered.
ICYMI: Pilot accreditation program under GRMA works to streamline auditing standards
In 2020, the ANSI National Accreditation Board (ANAB) launched a new pilot accreditation program under the GRMA certifications scheme, which incorporates the NSF/ANSI 455-2-2018 standard, Good Manufacturing Practices for Dietary Supplements. This allows third-party auditing firms to become accredited certifying bodies using the same standard to conduct their facility audits. Read more in CRN's September 2020 Need to Know. GRMA is now exploring similar harmonized standards for product testing as well.
Stay updated on CRN's resources for retailers
New upgrades to the Supplement OWL streamlines process for adding product information to the dietary supplement registry
The Supplement OWL is a self-regulatory initiative of CRN that provides a resource for regulators, retailers, and industry to identify dietary supplements, their ingredients and the companies who market them. CRN recently announced a series of upgrades to the Supplement OWL making it easier for marketers to upload their product labels, especially bulk uploads and multiple versions of similar products.
The Supplement OWL also provides retailers with an authoritative database to examine and evaluate labels of products. The initiative gives retailers an additional opportunity to increase transparency among their consumers. Retailers have the ability to incorporate a requirement that vendors list labels in the Supplement OWL along with their other certification requirements. For more information, contact CRN’s Luke Huber.
CRN launches retail education program on probiotics
In December, CRN launched a new retailer education initiative to inform retailers about the intricacies of probiotics products, with the goal to aid them in assuring only high quality probiotics make it to their shelves. One of the core deliverables of the initiative is a “Retail Buyer’s Guide to Probiotics” that provides educational materials on probiotic labeling, storage and handling practices, the importance of strain identification, various benefits of probiotics, consumer usage, and other need-to-know information.
The initiative will also seek to educate retail dietitians, pharmacists, sales associates and other stakeholders on probiotics to help them curate their offerings, improve their handling of these products, and better educate their customers of the benefits of probiotics. In additional to the Buyer’s Guide, the initiative will also feature a short video, microsite and infographic to inform the retail community about the unique properties of probiotic supplements.
All campaign deliverables will be available early this year and updates will be located on the initiative's microsite.
Interested in learning more about probiotics? Check out a short video from CRN's Dr. Andrea Wong explaining 4 key facts about probiotics and how these live organisms are different from other dietary supplements.