SSCI releases benchmarking guidance documents and opens public comment period

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The Supplement Safety and Compliance Initiative (SSCI) released its new general and technical benchmarking guidance documents today, and opened up a 30-day public comment period for the documents. Retailers that are participating in SSCI and expecting supplements sold in their stores to comply with these guidelines, include Walmart and GNC.

“Manufacturing practices vary widely across the dietary supplement industry. Although all of our private label – aka store brand – suppliers must have a third-party audit and certification, SSCI will ensure they meet our stringent expectations and recognized benchmarking guidance documents through the supply chain,” said Dadrion Gaston R.Ph, senior director, corporate ethics & compliance for Walmart, in a press release. “SSCI brings together the best experts from the leading supplement companies to examine everything from auditor training, qualification, and the way audits are conducted. We look forward to having additional retailers and others in the industry join our mission to enhance the safety of dietary supplements and promote quality and safety for consumers everywhere.”

Modeled after Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), SSCI provides a voluntary pathway to supplement safety certification of the entire supply chain through a harmonized benchmarking process that sets a minimum standard of equivalence that another standard is held to. “SSCI is the only comprehensive program to provide end-to-end transparency in the natural products supply chain,” said Daniel Fabricant, PhD, president and CEO of NPA, in a press release. “We created a system understanding that the FDA can’t solve all our problems. We set out to demonstrate to consumers and regulators that they can have confidence in the industry, and SSCI is the way we are going to achieve that.”

“We received tremendous feedback on our new benchmarking guidance, and we are excited to join the leading supplement retailers in the world on this project,” added Mark LeDoux, SSCI Board Member, in a press release. “Our Benchmarking guidance documents for finished products were developed from a broad range of input from manufacturers, retailers, and a national accreditation board, and we are happy to say the results have been excellent.”  

Comments can be submitted to info@ssciglobal.org no later than May 1st, 2019.