In 2021, the global personalized nutrition market was valued at USD $9 billion and is expected to reach an astounding USD 20.14 billion by the year 2029. We continue to see an ever-increasing trend toward healthier foods, and consumers are leveraging science and technology to make more educated choices to select the right food that supports their overall health and wellness goals.
Although much of this growth has been driven by an increase in consumer demand for health and wellness products, historically there have been other forces – such as legislation, innovation, and technology – that helped shape the nutrition industry by improving consumer safety.
For more than 40 years, our company has been helping people live healthier lives through nutrition and we’ve pioneered quality processes by taking a leadership role, making great investments in scientific development, technology, analytical science, and manufacturing.
I am truly amazed when I look back and see how far the nutrition industry has come in terms of building consumer trust.
1980 – The Birth of Quality Management
Quality management as a concept was born partially in response to unforeseen crises and partially because of developments in analytical and manufacturing technology. Some of the milestones of this decade were:
- Smart cameras were developed and manufacturers began using machine vision systems to identify characters and dates and conduct code verification.
- In 1982, to protect consumers, the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) issued tamper-resistant packing regulations to prevent poisonings. This lead to the Federal Anti-Tampering Act, approved by Congress in 1983, making it a crime to tamper with packaged consumer products.
1990 – Building Consumer Awareness and Education
The 1990s saw some of the greatest advancements on regulations that aimed to help consumers make better-educated choices when it came to nutrition:
- The Nutrition Labeling and Education Act was signed into law in 1990, requiring that all packaged foods bared nutrition labeling and all health claims for foods were consistent with terms defined by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. As part of the act, food ingredient labels, serving sizes, and terms such as “low fat” and “light” were standardized.
- In 1994, the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) established specific labeling requirements, provided a regulatory framework, and authorized FDA to promulgate good manufacturing practice regulations for the industry. This act defined “dietary supplements” and classified them as a subset of foods.
- In 1997, the Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act was passed. It amended the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act from 1938, recognizing the changes in the way the FDA would be operating in the 21st century. The Modernization Act acknowledges the advancement of technological, trade, and public health complexities.
2000 – The Era of Good Manufacturing Practices Begins
As the new millennium rolled around, the impact of the previous decade’s regulations helped build a foundation for consumer trust as companies continued to beef up their quality assurance processes. Government agencies continued to refine rules and regulations to help protect and educate:
- In 2006, the Dietary Supplement and Nonprescription Drug Consumer Protection Act was signed into law. For the first time in US regulatory history, the nutrition industry would be held accountable for safety surveillance and mandatory serious adverse event reporting to the FDA.
- In 2007, the FDA issued the Dietary Supplement Current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP). The cGMP required that the proper controls be in place for dietary products during manufacturing, packaging, labeling, and holding operations.
- With a clear desire to lead the industry in quality, Herbalife Nutrition invested more than $300 million into scientific development, manufacturing facilities and technology, and by 2009 we established our second innovation and manufacturing facility in Lake Forest, California.
2010 – The Rise of Industry 4.0
This most recent decade has paved the way for the industry to develop more comprehensive and standardized practices for ensuring consumer safety and product quality, both critical components for building consumer trust and regulatory partnerships for good stewardship:
- In 2011, the FDA introduced one of the most sweeping regulations: 21 CFR Part 117. This regulation, also known as the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), provided the FDA with new enforcement authorities related to food and food safety standards, also giving them the tools to hold imported foods to the same standards as domestic foods, and directing FDA to build an integrated national food safety system in partnership with state and local authorities.
- Herbalife Nutrition has continued to make significant investments in technology, purchasing advanced testing equipment that was not currently being used by the industry, including a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), mass spectrometry high-performance liquid chromatography equipment (LCMS), next-generation sequencing (NGS) equipment, and other cutting-edge technologies.
- Our recent investment in these sequencing technologies has diversified the company’s Genomic/DNA laboratory to improve DNA analytical techniques for processed botanicals, including extracts, making it one of the only nutrition companies in the world to have its own comprehensive program to completely characterize botanical ingredients.
2020 – Raising the Bar for Quality Standards
As a global leader in the nutrition industry, we’ll continue to invest in creating an atmosphere of transparency and earned consumer trust, providing high-quality, science-backed products that deliver results. To achieve that goal, we are engaging in partnerships that will raise the bar for quality standards in the nutrition industry.
Regulations and legislation are not the sole reason why the industry needs to improve food quality and food safety. It is imperative that companies, academia, and government partner up for the greater good and the benefit of the consumer. Those who can have an obligation to the industry and consumers to commit to scientific research, transparency, and accountability.
Gary SwansonMSc – Sr. Vice President of Global Quality Assurance and Control
Gary Swanson is senior vice president of Global Quality Assurance and Control. He is responsible for all corporate and regional quality assurance teams as well as the testing laboratories and quality operations at Herbalife Nutrition.
He has grown and diversified the Herbalife Nutrition Quality group to include Analytical Method Development, Audit Compliance, Process Validation, Metrology, QMS, Botanical Science and Plant Genomics. Swanson has a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and Biology from Laurentian University in Sudbury in Ontario and a Master of Science in Neurophysiology from the University of Guelph in Guelph, Ontario. He lives a healthy, active lifestyle by playing golf and enjoying his favorite Herbalife Nutrition products, Herbalife Nutrition Formula 1 Healthy Meal Nutritional Shake Mix Mint Chocolate, MemoryArmor, and Herbalife24 ACHIEVE Protein Bar Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.