Pet-Oriented Trade Association Offers Support for Quality Control Initiative
AUSTIN, Texas (June 15, 2016) The National Animal Supplement Council (NASC), an industry trade association of suppliers, manufacturers, and marketers of dietary ingredients and supplements for the pet market, has endorsed the ABC-AHP-NCNPR Botanical Adulterants Program.
The Botanical Adulterants Program is an international consortium of more than 175 US and international nonprofit organizations, analytical laboratories, professional scientists, health care practitioners, industry members, and others that educates and provides advice about the various challenges related to adulterated herbs, botanical extracts, and other botanical ingredients in commerce.
Founded in 2001 by President and Chair of the Board of Directors Bill Bookout, the NASC is dedicated to protecting and enhancing the health of companion animals (e.g., cats, dogs, horses) throughout the United States. NASC members include manufacturers, raw material suppliers, distributors, veterinarians, retailers, and pet professionals. Through its innovative Preferred Suppliers Program, suppliers, manufacturers, and testing laboratories can submit documentation to verify consistent quality of raw materials and finished products along every step of the supply chain.
Bookout notified Mark Blumenthal, founder and executive director of ABC and director of the Botanical Adulterants Program, of NASC’s endorsement of the Program in a letter dated June 7, 2016. “We applaud [the Program’s] efforts to proactively address the issues surrounding quality and adulteration of these important raw materials….[H]aving trust, radical transparency, and verification in the supply chain is arguably the most important issue facing the human or animal supplement industries today.”
The Botanical Adulterants Program is a coalition of three nonprofit groups: the American Botanical Council (ABC), the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia (AHP), and the University of Mississippi’s National Center for Natural Products Research (NCNPR). Adulteration refers to the accidental or intentional substitution or dilution of a material with an undisclosed lower-cost ingredient, which creates a false sense of value to the buyer.
NASC joins other leading natural products industry and professional associations that have already underwritten and endorsed the Botanical Adulterants Program, including the Council for Responsible Nutrition, the Natural Products Association, and the United Natural Products Alliance. The Adulterants Program is also supported by numerous professional research societies, trade associations, and research centers in the United States, Canada, Europe, and other parts of the world.
“We are grateful to welcome the members of NASC to our growing ranks of organizations and other responsible parties that are involved with the use of botanical ingredients for their myriad health benefits,” said Blumenthal.
“This is the first organization that focuses on animal health that has endorsed our educational efforts to try to prevent and reduce fraud in the sale of botanical raw materials and extracts used in the manufacture of dietary supplements, foods, cosmetics and other consumer, and now, animal, products,” he added.
The ABC-AHP-NCNPR Botanical Adulterants Program publishes a quarterly newsletter, “The Botanical Adulterants Monitor,” which highlights new scientific publications related to botanical authenticity and analysis to detect possible adulteration, recent regulatory actions, and Program news. Issue 7 of the Monitor, released in June 2016, contains updates regarding detection of ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) adulteration and maca (Lepidium meyenii) authentication in China, among others. These open-access articles are available on the Program’s webpage. (Registration is required.)
Also available is the Program’s series of Laboratory Guidance Documents (LGDs), which help industry and third-party analytical laboratories determine the most effective analytical methods for detecting adulteration and authenticating botanical raw materials and extracts. The Program also publishes extensively peer-reviewed Bulletins and in-depth articles on adulterated herbs in the global marketplace.
