Health & Body Care - Wedge Drafts Statement of Standard for Supplements

Over the years, the Wedge Co-op has emerged as a leader through its innovative and proactive approach to the issues and challenges facing the natural foods industry. Whether it's by becoming one of the first retail grocery stores in this country to receive organic retail certification, or by spearheading fair trade issues both locally and internationally, the Wedge has demonstrated its vision, integrity, and commitment to cooperative principles while enjoying considerable success in a very competitive marketplace. It may not be overstating the issue to conclude that the Wedge's determination to address these critical issues and educate its membership on their importance is the very reason for its continued success.

It is our intention at the Wedge to sell dietary supplements that are safe, effective, reasonably priced, and produced and packaged in an environmentally friendly manner under humane conditions. It is in this spirit that the Health and Body Care Department at the Wedge has drafted "The Wedge Co-op's Statement of Standards for Dietary Supplements." We feel it is imperative that we not be passive in the face of growing threats to this industry in the form of restrictive legislation, negative press, and international pressures such as the Codex regulations, forces that individually or collectively could conceivably shut this industry down. We believe that the best way for the dietary supplement industry to thwart these threats is to adhere to standards of integrity that truly reflect a commitment to the promotion of health. While some vendors and manufacturers have done an admirable job of this by maintaining the highest standards for their selection of raw materials, by supporting and encouraging efforts to foster sustainable, organic farming and processing practices whenever possible, and by adhering strictly to 100% label claims (with certificates of analysis to support those claims), too many in the industry are not living up to these standards, and this hurts all of us. While there will always be individuals and organizations that would like to see our industry shut down or under the aegis of the pharmaceutical industry, we do not help our cause when we do not uphold the very principles we espouse.

By and large, retailers have been passive partners in determining standards for dietary supplement quality and verifying that vendors with whom they conduct business comply with these standards. In most cases, retailers simply trust vendors to supply them with product without requiring independent verification that the product contains quality ingredients in the dosages stated on the label. Manufacturing and processing standards such as the NNFA's (National Nutritional Foods Association) current GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) program, touted by some in the industry as a benchmark, are insufficient in part because these standards currently do not address ingredient quality ("This seal certifies that the manufacturer of this product uses quality systems and procedures that comply with NNFA's Dietary Supplement GMP standards. The quality of individual ingredients, however, has not been certified." -Source: NNFA Website).

This difficulty for retailers in assessing the quality of dietary supplements behooves them to become more directly involved in the process of developing standards for the products they sell and verifying that those products do, in fact, meet those standards. As a retail store, we believe we are in a unique position to affect the kind of change we, and others who share our values, would like to see in our industry (see Retailers: Gatekeepers of the Industry by Danny Wells in NNFA Today, March 2001). Ultimately, we are the ones who sell product and educate consumers about the value of a particular supplement and the quality and integrity of a particular brand.

While we realize that the pursuit of quality is an ongoing process, it is our hope that standards such as the ones we are proposing, along with implementation of the new FDA GMP's for the dietary supplement industry, will ensure that we meet these goals.

Martin Kidwell works in the Health and Body Care Department at the Wedge. He is a licensed acupuncturist and practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine.