Quality Manufacturing: Establish Rules

Last week’s Memos were about supplements that were tainted with pharmaceuticals. What can manufacturers do to insure their products are not tainted? Mistakes can always happen, but what can be done to get those errors as close to zero as possible? That’s what we’ll cover this week.

Let’s begin with this premise: no manufacturer of dietary supplements grows every plant they use or makes every vitamin in their supplements. There’s nothing wrong with that because the growth and production of supplements is so complex. However, there are two things that a manufacturer can require from their vendors.

First, that they follow specific guidelines in the growth of plants: what type of seeds, what type of organic herbicides, how the plants must be harvested, and on and on. Following guidelines would also be required of outside companies who make vitamins and process minerals.

Second, all vendors’ products would be tested for contaminants upon arrival before any final products are made. If they do not meet the guidelines, the shipment is rejected.

Monitoring the quality of ingredients is the first step in making sure a dietary supplement contains untainted ingredients. I’ll cover another in Thursday’s Memo.

What are you prepared to do today?

Dr. Chet