SupplySide recommends exhibitors and attendees adopt Botanical Adulterants Prevention Program

I am pleased to report SupplySide has formally added the Botanical Adulterants Prevention Program (BAPP) to the SupplySide Compliance Program as a recommendation for all companies participating in the show. This is the latest evolution of a long-standing commitment to quality and integrity at our events and in our industry. 

If you are not familiar with BAPP, it is an industry-wide effort to address adulteration in the supply chain. The most recent development is the release of the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the Disposal / Destruction of Irreparably Defective Articles, or as some have described it, “burn it; don’t return it.” 

I believe that every company buying or selling ingredients should endorse and implement this program. I am not aware of any reason why a company in the legitimate trade would choose otherwise. My rationale is below. 

The SOP is intended only to remove “irreparably defective articles” from the supply chain. It is not applicable to any ingredient that simply does not meet a specification or is deemed unacceptable by the buyer. This is a key point to understand. To be “irreparably defective,” the ingredient must be “unable to be lawfully remediated for any use, anywhere, as determined by both the buyer and seller.”  

Examples of irreparably defective articles could include biological contamination, chemical contamination, or economically motivated adulteration, such as spiking with pharmaceutical drugs. 

These materials have no place in the supply chain under any circumstances. Responsible buyers and suppliers recognized that any occurrence of these materials in the supply chain represents a possible risk to consumer safety, industry reputation, fair competition, and our market’s future. If you do not support the industry-wide implementation of this standard, I must ask you, why? 

In addition to the SOP, the BAPP offers vast, free resources to companies who want to prevent adulteration from entering their supply chain, such as: 

The BAPP program has been led by American Botanical Council (ABC), American Herbal Pharmacopoeia (AHP) and the National Center for Natural Products Research (NCNPR) at the University of Mississippi, with financial and scientific support from more than 100 leading ingredient suppliers and consumer brands and many analytical labs, academic institutions and trade associations. The work has undergone extensive peer review and, as it concerns the SOP, extensive open comment periods to invite input from all stakeholders.  

At Informa, we have been involved and supportive from the beginning of BAPP in 2011, hosting regular meetings and working groups at our SupplySide, Natural Products Expo and NBJ Summit events, providing financial support, and promoting awareness via our digital and event channels. The addition of the BAPP SOP to our SupplySide Compliance Program is the latest in this effort. 

At SupplySide West & Food ingredients North America, we will be presenting a live panel discussion about the BAPP SOP on our SupplySide Stage. The session will take place on Oct. 31 from 11:15 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. I will be moderating with guests from ABC, and leading consumer brands and ingredient suppliers. The session is free to anyone attending the show, and I invite you to come learn about this important effort and how you can be an early adopter and industry leader.