Newsbriefs: May 2010

The Natural Products Association (NPA), based in Washington, D.C., and NaTrue (a Belgium-based international natural and organic cosmetics association) will create a mutual recognition agreement for “high-level standards for natural personal care.” The end result would mean products in compliance with NPA or NaTrue standards would be recognized by the other group, too.

In other news, the NPA said it will close its NPA West and NPA Rocky Mountains regional offices, but will ensure that states no longer belonging to a regional NPA division will create state government relations positions to handle local advocacy efforts.

NSF International of Ann Arbor, MI, has been approved by the Standards Council of Canada to offer dietary and sports supplement screening for nutritional products.

Los Angeles, CA-based Jarrow Formulas, Inc. launched the Jarrow Nutrition News video program. Filmed in “man on the street” style, these programs feature Jarrow Formulas staff, retailers and loyal customers. According to the company, “Jarrow Nutrition News is a unique approach to building meaningful retail relationships with stores of all sizes and to provide an interactive platform for both enhanced branding and increased store exposure.” It also can serve as educational and marketing material for retailers. Jarrow Nutrition News can be accessed at www.Jarrow.com/JNN.

Several winners were announced as 2010 Best of Expo winners on www.bestofexpo.com, including A.C. Grace’s Unique E moisturizer in the health and beauty care category; Nutrition Now’s Adult Gummy Calcium, Redd Remedies’ Adult Sinus Support Line and Essential Formulas’ Dr. Ohhira’s Propolis Plus in the supplement category; and Enzymedica’s MemoryCell in the anti-aging category.

The natural products industry has a new distributor: National Eco Wholesale (NEW), based in Boulder, CO, and established by Steve Savage, founder of Eco-Products. NEW will soon serve retailers nationally.

Tree of Life, of St. Augustine, FL, will replace its MSI ordering units with handheld units based on patented ordering technology from Living Naturally of Sarasota, FL. The system, called EasyTree, will let retailers access the Tree of Life catalog data and create orders at the shelf that can be submitted electronically.

Valensa International of Eustis, FL and UAS Laboratories of Eden Prairie, MN entered into agreement that lets UAS use Valensa’s Cran-Gyn ingredient in its new Cran-Gyn DDS women’s health product.

ESM Technologies of Carthage, MO filed a lawsuit against Biova of Johnston, IA because ESM believes the company infringed on its patented production method of its Natural Eggshell Membrane. Two BIOVA staff members were previously employed at ESM, which alleges that they misappropriated trade secrets and are engaging in unfair competition. When contacted for comment, Dennis Casey, president and CEO of Biova, LLC, stated, “Our counsel has reviewed ESM Technologies filing. We believe it is totally without merit , we have so informed ESM, and we will vigorously defend our right to market our water soluble eggshell membrane product.”