The National Animal Supplement Council (NASC) has initiated a third-party quality assurance program specifically for raw material suppliers and contract manufacturers. As an extension of the organization’s current NASC Quality Seal Program for finished products in the animal health supplement industry, raw material suppliers and contract manufacturers can now apply for a NASC Quality Supply Chain Partner Seal.

"In our industry, companies have historically relied on a supplier’s certificate of analysis as the sole means of verifying the identity of a material and as a basis for formulating products," said Bill Bookout, president of NASC, the nonprofit industry trade association leading the charge for national regulation of supplements for companion animals and horses. "However, due to recent issues involving potential contaminants in ingredients we felt it necessary to launch a program for supply chain partners to help further ensure NASC members deliver quality products to their customers."

Similar to the NASC Quality Seal, the new seal for supply chain members will be introduced to help recognize that the supplier has successfully completed a verification process and that the information provided on the ingredient’s certificate of analysis is accurate and credible.

To qualify, the raw material supplier must submit the ingredient to three independent U.S. testing laboratories specified and approved by NASC. All raw materials will be tested using specific methodology that follows current established recommendations of the United States Pharmacopeia, Association of Official Analytical Chemists and other recognized testing authorities, published monographs, or other published testing methods