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ABC ADVISORY

BAPP SOP Receives ‘Industry Initiative of the Year’ Award from NutraIngredients-USA

Best Practices SOP called a ‘gamechanger’ and ‘monumental achievement’ by NIU editors

AUSTIN, Texas (July 18, 2023) — NutraIngredients-USA (NIU), a leading online trade publication for the dietary supplement industry in the United States, announced that BAPP’s “Best Practices Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the Disposal/Destruction of Irreparably Defective Articles” is the recipient of its “Editors Award for Industry Initiative of the Year.” 

The award, determined by NIU’s editorial team, celebrates the best industry initiatives aimed at improving quality, transparency, consumer confidence, and trust in the dietary supplement industry.

The BAPP Best Practices SOP, which was released in October 2022, is available for download on the American Botanical Council’s (ABC’s) website after registration. BAPP is the acronym of the ABC-AHP-NCNPR Botanical Adulterants Prevention Program, a leading research and educational consortium of three nonprofit organizations: ABC, the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia (AHP), and the National Center for Natural Product Research (NCNPR) at the University of Mississippi.

“The BAPP best practices SOP for the disposal destruction of irreparably defective articles truly does change the game,” noted Stephen Daniells, PhD, editor-in-chief, North and South America for NIU, in an email. This is a momentous achievement that will have wide ranging benefits for the dietary supplement supply chain, botanicals, and others.   

“We salute the BAPP team for their years of work to make the SOP a reality,“ he added.

BAPP’s mission is to educate industry members about plant- and fungus-derived ingredient adulteration and to help industry members properly authenticate herbal ingredients, thereby helping to ensure that only authentic ingredients are used globally in consumer health products. BAPP conducts research on how parties in the herb, dietary supplement, and natural products industries can better detect and establish appropriate botanical ingredient authenticity specifications for natural health products made from plants and fungi.

In response to concerns of adulterated ingredients sometimes being returned to suppliers, only to be resold into commerce, BAPP focused on crafting a solution to this global supply chain problem. This voluntary, flexible, and carefully crafted BAPP Best Practices SOP creates a new regulatory term: “irreparably defective articles” (IDAs). The SOP stipulates that when buyer and supplier agree — through appropriate third-party analytical lab testing — that an article is irreparably defective and cannot be lawfully remediated for any human or animal use anywhere, it will be destroyed.

Unlike BAPP’s original (and continuing) focus on economically motivated adulteration (EMA) of botanicals (which evidence indicates rarely presents a safety risk), the scope of the BAPP SOP applies to all forms of adulteration and food fraud found in ingredients, components, and products intended for human and/or animal use, which sometimes might represent a safety risk. These materials include articles that are irreparably defective due to reasons other than EMA, such as accidental chemical contamination, biological contamination, intentional “spiking” with undeclared prescription drugs, and other potentially harmful forms of fraud which have been found in foods, dietary supplements, dietary ingredients, over-the-counter drugs, and cosmetics.

“On behalf of all of us here at BAPP and ABC, we thank Dr. Stephen Daniells and his colleagues at NutraIngredients-USA for their recognition of our unique and much-needed nonprofit research and educational work to help ensure that consumers are able to enjoy the health benefits of natural products made with authentic ingredients,” said Mark Blumenthal, founder and executive director of ABC and founder of BAPP. 

“I also thank the BAPP team, particularly Michael D. Levin, for their work on producing the BAPP SOP, as well as the many responsible members of the herb industry in the US and internationally who have underwritten BAPP’s efforts for almost 13 years to help its educational mission to ensure authenticity and provide information on how to detect adulteration and fraud in the global botanical ingredients supply network. Further, it’s very important to recognize that there are many ethical, responsible, high-quality suppliers and manufacturers in the US and global herb and dietary supplement industry who are strongly committed to ensuring the authenticity and quality of their ingredients and products,” Blumenthal added.

Levin, the founder of Health Business Strategies, a health care and natural product consulting company focusing on regulatory and quality issues, is the principal SOP consultant to BAPP and primary author of the SOP.

Stefan Gafner, PhD, chief science officer of ABC and director of BAPP, said: “I am very pleased that the BAPP Best Practices SOP for the Disposal/Destruction of Irreparably Defective Articles has been recognized by NIU with this award. It is a testimony to the good work of Michael Levin, Mark Blumenthal, and all the legal and regulatory consultants who put so much volunteer effort into crafting this very useful document and have helped to fill a gap in regulations and current purchasing agreements. Adoption of this SOP by industry members will lead to continued improvement of the quality of dietary supplements on the market.”

The BAPP SOP is being endorsed by herb and dietary supplement companies, trade associations, and professional medical organizations that serve millions of consumers and patients in the United States and internationally.

Industry members can endorse the BAPP SOP by downloading a form that is available on ABC’s website. Completed forms can be sent to BAPPSOP@herbalgram.org.  

This is the second time that NIU has recognized BAPP for its unique nonprofit research and educational work. In 2019, the NIU editors recognized BAPP for its leadership in the herb and dietary supplement industry. The editors of NIU noted that “BAPP is an exemplary educational resource about adulteration in the botanical supply chain, with its growing body of peer-reviewed literature, laboratory guidance documents, bulletins, and newsletters,” according to ABC’s 2019 press release about the award.

The NIU video news release and interview with Mark Blumenthal and Michael Levin discussing the BAPP SOP can be viewed here.

About the ABC-AHP-NCNPR Botanical Adulterants Prevention Program

The ABC (American Botanical Council)-AHP (American Herbal Pharmacopoeia)-NCNPR (National Center for Natural Products Research at the University of Mississippi) Botanical Adulterants Prevention Program is an international consortium of nonprofit professional organizations, analytical laboratories, research centers, industry trade associations, industry members, and other parties with interest in herbs and medicinal plants. The program advises industry, researchers, health professionals, government agencies, the media, and the public about various challenges related to adulterated botanical ingredients sold in commerce.

To date, more than 200 US and international parties have financially supported or otherwise endorsed the program. BAPP has published 82 peer-reviewed publications, all of which are freely available online (registration required).