The Natural Products Association (NPA), GNC, Vitamin Shoppe, Walmart and Whole Foods Market have launched the Supplement Safety and Compliance Initiative (SSCI), designed to reduce safety risks and recalls by delivering equivalence and convergence between effective management systems.
 
“This pioneering initiative sends a clear message to millions of consumers that they can have confidence in the safety and authenticity of the dietary supplements and natural products they use each and every day,” said Dan Fabricant, PhD, CEO and executive director of NPA. “Our industry is safe because of initiatives like SSCI and our commitment to consumer protection and quality control. NPA is thrilled to work with founding SSCI members GNC and Walmart and industry leaders Vitamin Shoppe and Whole Foods to develop a retailer driven and consumer focused Industry Leadership Group (ILG).”
 
SSCI focuses on the entire product life cycle and welcomes all scheme owners and certifying bodies to participate in future benchmarking. SSCI will set out to accomplish the following goals:
 

• Reduce supplement safety risks, recalls, and harms by delivering equivalence and convergence between effective supplement safety management systems.
• Develop core competencies and capacity building in supplement safety to create effective global systems.
• Drive global change through benchmarking of all standards, domestic and international.
• Provide unique stakeholder platform for collaboration, knowledge sharing and networking.
• Manage costs by eliminating redundancy in certification and improving operational efficiency.
• Increase the number of qualified auditors available to manufacturers, further increasing consumer safety.
• Address the myriad of standards available globally by allowing various schemes in the international community to benchmark their standard to one overarching standard.
• Design a tiered structure that accommodates the unique needs of small ingredient suppliers (i.e., organic, wild-crafted herbs), manufacturers and retailers. 

 
“Similar retailer driven initiatives have been developed for foods but never applied to dietary supplements until now. SSCI will continue to promote safety, and consumer confidence in each step of the supply chain from farm to store shelf,” added Dr. Fabricant.
 
SSCI will also strive to create global harmonization (domestic and international) through standard benchmarking. SSCI will include benchmarked standards for numerous scopes, including:
 

• International Benchmarking of Schemes
• Farmed Ingredients
• Feed Production
• Packaging
• Pre-Processing of Plants
• Production of (Bio) Chemicals
• Production of Packaging
• Processing of Plants Perishable Products
• Processing of Animals Perishable Products
• Storage & Distribution
• Wild-Crafted Herbs
• Matrices (liquid, powder, gummy, etc.)
• Supplements (processing of finished product)