New benchmarking standards for nutritional supplements were discussed during the American National Standards Institute’s (ANSI) recent Dietary Supplements Standardization Coordination Meeting. Dadrion Gaston, senior director, corporate ethics & compliance for Walmart led a panel discussion on the Supplement Safety and Compliance Initiative (SSCI), which includes new benchmarking guidance that is being onboarded by the world’s largest retailers. 
 
“We’re proud to bring together the best experts from the leading supplement companies to examine everything from auditor training, qualification, and the way audits are conducted,” said Gaston. 
 
“Every certification body and standard owner should benchmark their standard. There is no reason not to,” said Daniel Fabricant, PhD, president and CEO of NPA.
 
Gaston was joined by Randy Slikkers, Global Retailer and Manufacturer Alliance (GRMA) CEO, and Michael Finamore, president, GRMA Governance Board and CEO of Gemini Pharmaceuticals, Inc. The event also featured stakeholders from the Federal Trade Commission, Walgreens, Pew Charitable Trusts, and the Global Food Safety Initiative.   
 
“SSCI is the only comprehensive program to provide end-to-end transparency in the natural products supply chain,” said Fabricant. “We created a system understanding that the FDA can’t solve all our problems. We set out to demonstrate to consumers and regulators that they can have confidence in the industry, and SSCI is the way we are going to achieve that.” 
 
ANSI hosted the panel to identify opportunities to advance safety, quality, and trust in the dietary supplement supply chain, particularly through voluntary consensus standards and related conformity assessment programs.
 
Key objectives for SSCI include:
 

• Create effective global systems to ensure traceability, transparency, and quality in the supply chain
• Reduce risks by ensuring equivalence between safety management systems
• Drive global change through benchmarking of domestic and international standards
• Eliminate redundancy in certification, improve operational efficiency and costs 
• Provide a unique stakeholder platform for collaboration, knowledge sharing and networking

 
 
SSCI is an industry-driven initiative led by retailers to provide a harmonized benchmark to recognize various safety standards throughout the entire dietary supplement supply chain. SSCI is a step forward in providing quality assurance from harvest to retailer shelf. Dietary supplements must meet or exceed the SSCI benchmark to be accepted in major retailers, all with the goal of providing quality products and increasing consumer confidence.