The dietary supplements industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the world with some estimates valuing it at more than $55 billion in the U.S. alone. The popularity, and viability, of self-regulating one’s own health through holistic and integrated approaches that include dietary supplements and nutritional products has risen significantly in recent years.

And yet, despite the size and influence of the industry, it is at times and in places completely lacking in transparency. Inaccuracies, misrepresentations, and inconsistencies with regard to advertised ingredients and nutritional values are
too common.

Much of this can be attributed to the fact that supplements and natural products are largely untested by the FDA and other similar administrative bodies, which leaves the responsibility of transparency and honesty fully in the hands of the manufacturers, marketers, and distributors of these products. FDA is tasked with inspecting facilities for adherence to Good Manufacturing Practices but the resources dedicated to even that responsibility are lacking.

When you also consider that these products must go through a number of transactions along the production and supply chain in the journey from seed to shelf—with many of those steps along the way being handled by various different processors, manufacturers, and suppliers—the sheer amount of variance that must be managed is staggering.

All of this has added up to an industry which has a massive gap between consumers and the expertise and guidance they need to select the right product.

How is this Affecting Consumers?
Too often, consumers are left to their own devices to research the multitude of options on the market and determine which product is not only the best fit for their health needs, but also is of the best possible quality available on the market.

Is this the safest way for consumers to truly know what they are putting into their body?

Should it be left up to the consumer to determine if a supplement label truly represents its contents?

Many studies have found cases where product labels were inaccurate, and even instances of adulterated and tainted ingredients. With a portion of the industry operating in this irresponsible and frankly dangerous manner, how can the status quo be changed to increase transparency and accuracy and build better trust between consumers and the providers of the supplement products they rely on to manage their health?

One solution to this industry-wide issue could lie in a technology that has seen its adoption rates rise greatly in recent years, as it solves similar transparency problems in other industries: blockchain.

What is Blockchain?
In the simplest terms, blockchain is a fairly new area of technology that operates as a digital ledger and facilitates the recording of transactions in a series of records, called blocks. But what makes this stand out from any other digital ledger or record-keeping solution?

The most important feature of the blockchain is that a new block is recorded for every individual transaction that may occur along the production journey. Whether that be a grower selling product to the supplement manufacturer or the product passing a quality check, on that block is a record of the time stamp and transaction data.

Blockchain ensures that each and every stakeholder involved is aware of any transactions. Not only are each of these blocks visible by anyone with access to the blockchain, but these blocks cannot be deleted once they have been added to the chain and approved by other blockchain members.

At the very most, a new block could be added to amend the record of a previous block, but not without the express knowledge and approval of all parties involved.

This technology allows for a fully transparent and trackable sequence of transactions that can be leveraged to build trust, not only among key stakeholders along the production journey, but also as a means of proving quality and consistency to the consumer and building the trust that is needed between consumer and producer.

All of this can be achieved with a truly transparent supply chain built on the blockchain.

How Blockchain Helps the Supplements Industry?
As we circle back and look more directly at the dietary supplements industry and how the blockchain could support the industry’s specific requirements, it is important to outline exactly how consumers are expecting transparency to be built into the industry and what areas of the process have the greatest need for this increased sense of trust.

With such a long and complex supply chain as this industry tends to have, there exist many steps along the way that would be well served to include more traceability and transparency.

Beyond providing what many would see as the bare minimum—like an accurate ingredients list—many consumers now expect the companies they purchase their supplements from to also make publicly available the information behind the source/origin, quality, life cycle, and more for each and every one of their ingredients.

Although industry regulations do not yet require such transparency, this could change at some point in the future. Supplement manufacturers may want to get ahead of any potential regulatory issues now, rather than scrambling to catch up after the fact and incurring a massive operational complication.

Even without such potential regulatory changes, the pressure from consumers on their supplement brands to provide such transparency is growing every day, and this is likely to eventually force the hand of some of the bigger players on the market.

If this were to happen, it would create a new industry standard or benchmark that other supplement manufacturers will be forced to meet, lest they be abandoned by their consumers who choose to make their purchases from a company that can provide the transparency and accuracy they want and expect.

Very quickly, operating a more tightly run and transparent supply chain will become a necessity within the dietary supplement industry, rather than the “added bonus” it is regarded as now; and the work these companies must do to achieve future success within that new normal will need to be done eventually.

The Future of Transparency
For the many supplement manufacturers that would like to build that trust and transparency between themselves, their suppliers, and their consumers, they do not need to wait for any regulatory changes or for consumer pressure to build to the point that it cannot be ignored.

With blockchain being leveraged as a key technology, these manufacturers can be the catalyst for, and pioneers of, new standards within the industry and a new level of trust from their consumers.

And before too long, a time will come where this level of transparency and trust is the new requirement, all thanks to the manufacturers who chose to drive this positive and necessary transition to change an industry for the better.