2021 Annual Report: STRENGTHENING | Council for Responsible Nutrition

CRN strengthened self-regulation to show the maturity and integrity of the industry and help companies operate at their best.

CRN's Board of Directors unanimously approved updates clarifying the intent and enforceability of CRN’s Code of Ethics. The Code of Ethics highlights CRN's and our members' shared commitment to improving public health through nutrition, including the appropriate use of dietary supplements and functional food.

CRN is an active participant in the Dietary Supplement Quality Collaborative (DSQC), which is pursuing legislative action from Congress to better protect consumers and to monitor industry practices that increase transparency in the supplement marketplace. As of 2022, CRN President & CEO Steve Mister is serving as DSQC's vice chair, with Liz Richardson of the Pew Charitable Trusts as chair.

CRN is engaging with private equity firms to acclimate growing companies to the supplement space. During the past five years, private equity firms have purchased a long list of supplement brands. With the dietary supplement market estimated to have grown nearly 12% in 2020 and poised to grow, on average, nearly 5% each year through 2025, this attraction is expected to increase. CRN membership is like an insurance policy on the value of private equity firms’ investments and a critical tool for improving valuation. Private equity owners often don’t know or appreciate the potential pitfalls for supplement marketers. Access to CRN staff’s preventive advice and proactive programming helps firms avoid costly recalls, lawsuits, and marketing mishaps that could potentially be a black eye on the entire industry.

The Supplement OWL—CRN’s registry of supplement labels serving as a model of self-regulation for the industry and a template for future mandatory listing by FDA—re-launched with a new website. The updated site prioritizes user experience, broadens the registry audience to supplement users and regulators, and enables fuller industry participation in the voluntary product listing. The OWL also rolled out new features for business users including the product documents tab, which allows companies with products in the OWL to provide additional information on quality certifications, certificates of analysis, non-GMO/bioengineered status, environmental/social responsibility, and more.

CRN launched the Retailer Standards Working Group to address the burden of retailer requirements being imposed that are duplicative, and sometimes inconsistent, to harmonize those programs around universally accepted quality standards. CRN established regular communication with Amazon and increased collaboration with industry on standards development.

The Health Care Practitioners Forum also was formed in 2021 to provide unique programming and networking that complements CRN’s Retailer Relations Forum, which caters to products primarily sold through traditional chain drug, grocery, mass, and club channels. The group provided opportunities for senior executives of member companies to stay updated on marketing, scientific, regulatory, legislative, sector developments, and practitioner requirements and expectations that will impact their business as well as issues specific to this channel.

CRN urged its members to engage with the new USP Dietary Supplements Sector to assure a strong industry presence and influence on the direction of the group. CRN will continue to actively participate in the sector's meetings.

CRN conducted its first toxicology workshop, exclusively for senior toxicologists in our member companies. Members shared approaches to addressing safety, comparing pathways for GRAS submissions and NDI notifications, and exchanged best practices for both pathways that will serve as a member resource.

CRN’s newly reinvigorated Sports Nutrition Working Group continued to build momentum. The group held two members-only webinars on the safety and benefits of supplementation for Olympic athletes, and another discussing the safety and efficacy of leading lipotropic and thermogenic sports nutrition ingredients, including evidence for their use.

If you’re not yet a member of CRN, now’s the time to join. Get started today at crnusa.org/join or by contacting Carl Hyland, CRN’s vice president of membership, at chyland@crnusa.org.