news & trends: 02/2005

NNFA Plans Annual Lobby Day for April

“A new Congress presents a great opportunity for the industry to increase its base of support among lawmakers,” said David Seckman, executive director and chief executive officer of NNFA (www.nnfa.org). “Legislators want to know what their constituents value, and with a solid turnout at this year’s event we’ll be able to make a strong and lasting impression.”

Registration for Natural Foods Day is free, and all congressional meetings are prearranged for attendees by NNFA. The event includes a morning briefing session and breakfast, afternoon meetings on Capitol Hill and an evening reception honoring 2005’s Congressional Champions.

Healthnotes Launches New Software

“As consumers become more interested in healthy living, it creates an opportunity for retailers to provide relevant and accurate information to help educate their shoppers and drive sales,” said Skye Lininger, president and chief executive officer of HNI (www.healthnotes.com). HNI updates its kiosk software products via CD at least twice annually; information is also available for use on retail Web sites.

BioCalth Receives New Patent

OrderDog Expands Web Site

“By listening to our retailers’ wants and needs, OrderDog has created an open forum for future input and we will continue to work with them to optimize all aspects of their inventory management,” said Richard MacKillop, chief executive officer and co-founder of OrderDog (www.orderdog.com). “Our new Web site features enable retailers to quickly search through over half a million products, while finding them at the best possible price.”

Heavy Metals Found in Indian Ayurvedic Products

In a media release from JAMA (www.jama.ama-assn.org), lead researcher Robert B. Saper, M.D., and colleagues said the findings should lead public health and community organizations to issue advisories to current or past users of such products to undergo screening for heavy metal exposure. In addition, they wrote, “Our findings support calls for reform of DSHEA [Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act] that would require mandatory testing of all imported dietary supplements for toxic heavy metals.”

Herbal industry associations, including the American Botanical Council (ABC) and American Herbal Products Association (AHPA), took the journal and the study’s findings to task. Both noted the presence of heavy metals at levels found by the researchers cause dietary supplements and/or foods to be adulterated under DSHEA and additional federal regulations. Mark Blumenthal, ABC’s executive director, noted the implementation of federal GMPs (good manufacturing practices) for dietary supplements would also help prevent these types of problems.

Marketers of finished Ayurvedic dietary supplements in the natural products industry were quick to respond to the paper. Ayurceutics, the finished product arm of Renaissance Herbs, issued a press release and letter to its retailers assuring them of the quality of the Ayurceutics products. “Our herbal extracts are produced at our own state-of-the-art manufacturing facility,” said Ken Seguine, national sales manager. “Every aspect of our products is carefully supervised and products are rigorously tested to ensure that levels of heavy metals strictly comply with all GMP guidelines. The test results are then verified by independent laboratories.”

Himalaya USA, a supplier of herbal remedies from India’s The Himalaya Drug Co., noted its products are not strictly Ayurvedic and are backed by scientific research. “Himalaya adheres to stringent pharmaceutical GMPs as established by the World Health Organization (WHO) and carries an ISO 9001 certification for excellence in manufacturing,” the company replied in response to HSR’s queries on the situation. “Himalaya controls manufacturing of products from ‘seed-toshelf’ and uses chromatic fingerprinting techniques to ensure consistency and potency of every bottle. Upon arrival in the United States, Himalaya products are selected at random and sent to a third party company for heavy metal toxicity testing. Himalaya has always supported the enforcement of strict regulations regarding importing products into the United States.”

Nature’s Formulary, a supplier of Ayurvedic products manufactured and packaged in the United States, noted the product samples were taken from Indian ethnic stores and included several products that were formulated to contain lead, silver and mercury. “In our opinion, the study smacks of a bias from a credentialed team that we would think rise above this,” the company stated. “Taking a small sample of products from Indian stores and implying that all Ayurvedic formulations are toxic and that DSHEA is not working is not fair.”

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