Name: NSF Product Certifications Webinar
Uploaded: 2025-08-20T05:01:43.971Z
Duration: 1 h 2 min 31 s
Description: NSF Product Certifications Webinar

Transcript for "NSF Product Certifications Webinar": So I will start with NSF introduction. NSF is an independent, not for profit, nongovernment organization headquartered at Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. It got incorporated into 1944 and now is dedicated to improve human and planet health. We have a team of microbiologists, toxicologists, chemists, engineers, environmental, public health professionals driving this mission now. NSF originally started as a standard writing body, and now we have 160 plus standards that are actively adopted and active across the globe. Right? We develop standards for food, drinking water, indoor air, dietary supplements, consumer goods, and environment safety. And with demand from the clients and consumers, we started getting into testing, certification, and auditing. That's how we expanded our services to the industry. In in addition to writing standards, we got into testing, certification, auditing. And then with request from the industry, we started getting into consulting and training. However, we have a clear distinguished verticals across the globe, and we have kept separate testing certification auditing and consulting and training to prevent any conflict of interest. Incorporated before eighty one years, we have, as I mentioned, 160 plus standards and protocols that are active now. We have 657,000 products certified active now. We audit 300,000 plus audits every year, and those are at 40 plus client 40,000 plus client sites in 110 countries. And these standards today are developed with 1,000 plus industry members. As we said, we are present across the globe, 110 countries with 40 plus offices, 40,000 clients across the globe. How are we able to deliver these services? These deliver these services are delivered with different focus sectors. The first one is food and beverage. As I mentioned, I was in food and beverage, sector for almost three years. And nutrition and wellness is the new sector that I got into at January. So this is what NSF has been delivering. And at the January 2025, both these divisions have merged to become food and nutrition division. So we cater to the food industry, like QSR restaurants, food manufacturing companies, to, fishery, to agriculture industry, to meat and processing, everything included in the food and beverage division, whereas nutrition and wellness focuses on, dietary supplements, cosmetics, and OTC. We do have other division which is water system, which Adrian was into before, and this caters to the any the components that touch water, which means pipes, conduits, faucets, water treatment, water filtration plants. We have another division for life science that caters to pharmaceutical and medical devices. Our transport division is where it is under evolving is a evolving division now for NSF. Now we focus on the statistics of nutrition and wellness division. We have been in this business for almost now twenty years focusing on functional foods, dietary supplements, cosmetics, and OTC. Currently, we are auditing facilities in 37 countries. And two thirty eight auditors, 25 of them are in in, North America, eight in China. We have four auditors dedicated to this industry in Asia Pacific. Currently, we have 1,300 plus sites manufacturing facilities that are GMP certified by NSF. We have 2,000 plus clients globally. We have 2,800 plus products certified, products, for dietary supplement and functional foods. Right? So this is what how the statistics of dietary supplement or the nutrition wellness business looks like globally. We are associated with very well known brands in the food industry as well as in the nutraceuticals and, nutrition and wellness. So you can see top two lines of logos are from the nutrition and wellness business, and the bottom part is from the food industry. We thought, many of you have participated in the in the webinar one, which was HACSA and NSF webinar one that was focusing on dietary supplement export to USA, converting the dream to reality. But I thought we thought many of the participants would be new, and hence, we thought of recapping this, some components of this since it is a prerequisite for entering into the current webinar, which is dietary supplements. So let let me recap on what we discussed during our webinar one, which was focusing on good manufacturing practices. If you look at the rectangle at the top right, it is a kind of a snapshot of a circular from the US FDA website. Right? It says that if any product that is manufactured in a manufacturing facility, which is not CGMP certified, it is termed as adulterated. Please understand this. And this is the where we thought that it is very important for the manufacturers to understand the importance of g and p. And if they want to get exported, if they want intend to export to US, then they need to have c g m p certification. That's where we thought the relevance of covering c g m p certification as a part of first webinar with HRSA. It was definitely a good turnout with 250 plus participants, and we are happy to help many of them now getting the cGMP certification. Many of them are in the process of getting cGMP certification. And at this time, we felt relevant that we should cover any webinar too about the product certification, so we'll come to that. NSF cGMP certification for the dietary supplement industry has been designed and accredited to ANSI, American National Standard Institute, and it has been derived with the health support from industry representatives, public health officials, regulators, consumer interest groups. And once the certification is taken, it encompasses regulatory requirements, retailer quality requirements, and industry best practices. The certification process requires companies to establish robust systems that help companies identify and address potential issues before they escalate and reduce the risk of costly recalls and product failures. So this is reason why we thought c g m p is very important to help manufacturer support with these achievements. A quick glance on the process steps, a normal application form is to be filled for NSF. NSF uses this application form to generate the proposal in the form of contract, which when it is acknowledged and signed, audit is scheduled. The audit comes out with the audit report, which might have corrective actions to be taken. So the facility gets opportunity to take corrective actions. Once they are corrected and accepted by the technical review team, that's when the certification is issued. And then there are monitoring audits subsequently. What are the benefits of cGMP certification? As you can read, there are many, and I'm not going through the each and every one. We'll be sharing this presentation, after the webinar, so you can go through them. But the most important one is highlighted. The NSF product certification has a mandatory prerequisite, which is NSF CGMP certification. Hence, it is one more reason why we should be looking at NSF product certification's prerequisite, which is CGMP certification. Now I would request if we can have a quick photograph of all of us. So I will stop sharing my screen. Everyone of us can put the camera on, and then we'll take a quick photograph. After that, we will be starting with the technical presentation. So may I request everyone if everyone can put the camera on, please? All participants please send May I request all the participants to please put the camera on so we can take a quick picture? I mean, you cannot able to see the participants, I guess. I think, miss Prema, you are kind of pinned as focus. If you can remove that, then we'll be able to see the participants. Okay. I think we are having some technical challenge. So what we will do is we'll resolve the photograph till the end, and we'll start with the technical presentation. Right? So I'll be sharing my screen again. Okay. So we'll start with the webinar, and I would like to invite Adrian, to take you over from here. Adrian, over to you. Thanks, Paresh. Alright. So we'll get into the product certification and the the why certification question. There's a couple of key points here, consumer trust, competitive landscape, retailer adoption, quality commitment. So this is the why, you test products, the why you get a CMG GMP certification. It's really to boost your visibility to consumers, the competitive landscape of, you know, to maintain a competitive advantage over your competition that maybe doesn't have certification and what retailers, globally might adopt certification and have that quality commitment on your part. Next slide. So we did a survey here in The US, with consumers. 86% of consumers advocate for national chain stores, pharmacies, to have a quality system in place and a major a measure of safety in place, which that's exactly what certification represents. A lot of people are buying online supplements these days, and independent certifications are easily differentiated or compared, to non certified by consumers. And 71% of the respondents would switch brands if they found an equivalent supplement or product type, that has received an independent certification or validation. Next slide. Top consumers or top concerns that buyers have, with uncertified health supplements. Is it authentic? Are the ingredients, exactly the right percentages? Are they, are they acceptable ingredients? What's the quality behind it? Are there any contaminants in it? What's the safety of the product? That that's kind of the same answer, but slightly different. Safety is a big concern to consumers. They want a a quality of life, but they also want a quality of product. 95% of consumers trust the product claims of supplements that have independently been certified. 78% of consumers actively research product claims. This is one of these product categories where, consumers take an active role in understanding the quality level of products. So if, you know, if they're comparing something that has no consumer trust program behind them to something that does, chances are they're gonna pick the one that does. Next slide. Consumers want an independent source to certify, inspect, and test. Ninety five percent of consumers have concerns about quality and safety of dietary supplements, personal care products, and OTC. It's not just, what they ingest, but is is, in a lot of cases, what they apply to to their bodies, what they, put in their eyes for eye drops, things like that. So the the the product categories are actually kind of broad. Sixty two percent said independent certification from a health and safety organization is important to them. 61% said made in a facility that has been inspected for good manufacturing process practices. 44% said lab testing by the retailer. Next slide. While 85% of consumers want retailers to test health and wellness products they they sell, only 32% think retailers actually do. I think that's probably a little bit higher as we'll get into some of what the retailers are are doing and saying. 81% of the consumers say that trust is is a deal breaker or deciding factor in their buying decisions. More than 75 73% of consumers consider transparency more important than price. Price is always a concern for most consumers these days, but, price is relative. Closing the awareness gap. All of the products are certified and tested by NSF, bear the NSF mark. Is easily the most recognizable, mark to consumers. And, I think we differentiate in that in that way. Next slide. What's the competitive landscape look like? Retailers are raising the bar on quality, partly out of, you know, a variety of things. The FDA has, elevated their scrutiny on retailers and made them, more responsible or at least as equally responsible as manufacturers and brands. The rationale is good quality insurance, consumer trust, competing national gummies already certified, by NSF, would be Ollie and Sportingpants. There's a lot of private labeling that goes on, and that can be transferred from one brand to the next. And there's all all kinds of new vendor requirements, onboarding requirements by retailers. Here's an example of an asset mark on a product label. It is, under our certified for sport program. Ronnie will get into this a little more in detail, but you can see that that is the NSF certified for sport mark, which is, kind of a hierarchy. Here's another certified for sport product. It's a dietary supplement or it's actually a a a creatine. Sorry. Thor does make many, many, dietary supplements, and you're welcome to look through our listings on our website too to see all of the brands that work with us. The six best children's vitamins is Smarty Pants here in The US. They're they're in, a high category. I think that's the that's the takeaway from this slide is that the best products typically, do get certified and wanna talk about that. It's just, expanding on the smarty pants study finds. They also talk about this in their literature, on their website that it's third party lab tested. It's not just them claiming that it's their product is great. They're backing that through through our third party, lab testing. Here's a couple of, two pre workout brands on Amazon, c four and, gold standard. There's a high commitment on the part of athletes here in in The US. Major League Baseball requires a a lot of, products that they give to their athletes to be certified. So a lot of, online retailers are hike are highlighting that and showcasing that. Amazon has a pretty big push right now in every product category for nutrition wellness, to, have all of them tested and and certified and the GMPs in place. Retailer adoption. Several retailers, have, trust programs, and there's some variance, between them. But the common factor is most of them, subscribe to, at least part or in in all, the NSF criteria within standard one seventy three and four fifty five. Some of the clients that we work with are Amazon, Walgreens, CVS, Wegmans. We do also kinda bundle, some of our services with, food retailers, wholesalers, club stores. We do like to be kind of a one stop shop to cover more than one program and issue all inclusive quotes. These are just some of the brands that that work with us, Garden of Life, Alcon, GSK, Erwin Naturals, New Chapter. What's the quality commitment? NSF holds a lot of, accreditations and a lot of, what we call joint committees, and those joint committees are are comprised of of users of public health officials and government regulatory agencies. We are ANSI accredited. We do a lot of work with Health Canada and FDA as well and the Michigan Public School of Health. NSF to satisfy retailer trust programs. As I kind of alluded to before, a a lot of you can opt into a very complex set of test requirements and try to understand a retailer's test requirements or GMP requirements, but most of them will take a certificate that's born, with the NSF mark. It and and it overlaps. So one requirement might be slightly different at Walgreens and Wegmans and Amazon, but the NSF certification typically harmonizes most of those efforts. So why NSF certification? Close the trust gap for consumers, competitive landscape, Amazon, and online retailers are raising the bar. They're not just allowing anybody to sell whatever they want, whenever they want, and say whatever they want. Influencers, typically endorse certified product, and there is a proven ROI to certification. So, after all, we're we're all in business to to at least, make a profit on some level, and, your certification should help you do that. There's definitely a retailer growing acceptance of the NSF mark and the r ROI is a direct correlation to what retailers are doing. And NSF is the one and done approach, the harmonization I was speaking to. Only one in one only industry standard. So that's that's what NSF represents, and and we're here to help you and and guide you through that process. Thank you. So before we move on to the next section where what what is NSF certification? And Ronnie will take us through the technical part of it. But before that, I would like to post a question to the participants, and I would request you to please put your answers in the chat. Do you think you as manufacturers of nutraceutical products or cosmetics or OTC drugs, do you aspire to be on these retailer shelves? The brands that we saw, Wegmans, Walmart, Tesco, Target. Do you think you would like to have your products placed on the shelf of these retailers? If you have NSF certification, which means if your product is certified and if you have a logo of NSF on your product, there is very high possibility that you will be on the shelf of these products, and you will have a competitive advantage over other brands that are present on the shelf. Right? I would request for your answers. Do you think your brand should be there on the shelf of these retailers or on the platform of Amazon? Okay. I will love your time to answer this. By the time I'll hand over to Roni. Roni, over to you. Well, thank you, Prash. Well, now we're gonna shift focus a little bit and talk more about the process of actually certifying a product. So that's really the most important step of all of this is understanding how do we move from point a to point b. How do I certify my product? And then, you know, that kind of pulls in this bigger question of what is NSF certification. So just to give a quick, you know, thirty second what is certification, the way that we look at our program is more or less as a third party testing program that also allows you to certify your product and place one of these many different marks on your packaging or on your labeling. So it helps consumers know that your products are not just third party tested, but NSF certified. And, something that I like to call out as well, just looking at the certification program as a whole in terms of what it does, it verifies that a product has undergone rigorous testing, rigorous measures to make sure that the product is safe for consumption while also verifying that the label is accurate. So any claims that you're calling out on your label are accurate and also making sure that the quality ingredients are, you know, up to the standard as well as, making sure that there are no harmful contaminants in the product that could potentially harm someone. So looking at the pyramid here, this is the way that we illustrate or like to, think of of the way that our program is structured is more or less as a three step process. So looking at the base of the pyramid or the first step, that would cover everything that Paresh had spoke about earlier in the webinar and also in the previous webinar. This is our GMP program, which is imperative to enter the product certification program. So it's very, very important to understand that products that are made at NSF certified facilities are eligible for product certification. If the products are not made in the NSF certified facility, you will not be able to enter the certification program. So it's very, very important to remember this first step pretty much allows you into the program entirely. So it is a prerequisite so you can move up to step two or step three. And we'll get into more detail on step two and step three in the next few slides, but just a high level overview. Our second tier here or the step second step of the process is our content certification program. And then at the top of the pyramid or the third step would be the NSF certified for sport program. Next slide, please. So with that in mind, keeping that pyramid in mind, you know, thinking of all the three steps and all the different certifications that we offer, these are the different schemes that we can certify to. So looking at the NSF ANSI one seventy three program, which is specifically tailored to dietary supplements, that particular program will allow you to certify a product that has a supplement fact panel. Moving over to the NSF two two nine program, that particular program is tailored to functional foods and beverages to allow you to certify a product that has a nutrition fact panel. So think like a protein powder, electrolyte drink mix, you know, certain products that may be classified as a supplement but can also live in the food category. That's where that certification will come into play. NSF five two seven will cover cosmetics and personal care products as well as OTC topicals as well. So we can certify OTC topicals, think like a muscle relief cream, you know, anti inflammatory cream. Things like that can also be certified under our program through our five two seven, standard. And then at the end, NSF three zero six or certified for sport can be built on top of any of these three first level content certification, whether it be for dietary supplements, functional foods, or for the personal care products or OTC products. So NSF can be built on top of that. So the next few slides are gonna go into much more detail about each of those three different content certified categories, whether it be from the supplements, you know, functional foods and beverages, and the cosmetics. So I'll give the high level overview. I won't go through, you know, each and every, bullet point here. But, really, the best way to look at this particular program, speaking about our NSF ANSI one seventy three program, is, again, to certify a dietary supplement. So there are a few different steps to certify a supplement aside from just sample requesting a sample for testing. Before we can start requesting samples for testing, we do go through a thorough review of the product label and also the product, information like a formulation sheet and raw materials. So we do request certain documents upfront to complete our technical review process before we start, testing or requesting samples for testing. So just something to keep in mind as the manufacturer, you will play a support function in the product certification process for your customers who either do contract manufacturing with you or maybe even for yourself if you manufacture for your own brand. So aside from just requesting samples, we will work with you if you, you know, manufacture the product yourself, to gather certain information about the products to make sure they are eligible for certification. But just looking through, you know, some of the key highlights of this program specifically for dietary supplements, it is a globally recognized and accredited third party certification program. It's accepted by a growing range of retailers, which Adrian had spoke about a few slides ago. You could think Amazon, Target, HEB, Kroger, Wegmans. You know, a handful of different grocers and retailers have different testing requirements or different product requirements to allow their products in or allow your products into their stores, and our certification meets the requirements for most or all of them. So it is a good way to look at us as a one stop shop. You certify your product once with us, and you no longer have to test for each unique retailer that's asking you to complete a different testing process. So not only will it save you time from, you know, having to do repetitive testing for multiple different retailers, but it also will save you money as well. You pay once for us to certify a product, and you don't have to pay for each unique retailer's testing requirement. So just something to keep in mind. You know, it is very useful if you are gonna be selling products or trying to sell products in certain retail settings. And then something to keep in mind again, just a highlight that I always call out, for this program specifically, it is mandatory that the manufacturer has an NSF ANSI four five five dash two GMP certification. Without that certification, we cannot proceed with content certification. So it's very important, that the manufacturer has the right certification. Now moving over to two two nine, the process is gonna be exactly the same as the previous step for dietary supplements. This program would just allow us to certify a product that has a nutrition fact panel. So we still have to do a technical review. We still have to request formulation sheets, raw materials, c of a's, everything that we just discussed. But now this is just gonna be when speaking to a different type of product, one that would have a nutrition fact panel. So I won't go through each bullet point again since they're very similar to the last slide, but just something I wanna call out for 229. We will accept an NSF 455 dash 2 GMP certification to enter this program, but we will also accept a GFSI benchmark food safety certificate to certify products that have a nutrition fact panel. So if you do make food products and you have an SQF or a BRCGS for food or an FSSC 22,000, that will meet the requirement for that first level GMP to allow those types of products into our program. So just something to keep in mind, if you do make products that have nutrition fact panels, you aren't mandated to have the four five five dash two, although it would be accepted. You could also provide a GFSI certificate, to allow you into this program. Thank you, Roni. I'm sorry to interrupt here. Participants, if you have any questions, please feel free to put your questions in the q and a part, and we will be trying to answer those questions during our q and a section. Perfect. And then rounding out the three levels of content certification that we offer, this last program, the NSF five two seven program, again, is tailored to cosmetics and personal care products as well as OTC drugs that are topicals. So, really, any sort of topical product, or anything that can be used on the skin, would fit in this particular program. It is slightly different than the last two, content certifications that we discussed just because we do test for, a handful of different chemicals that would be in this particular program that we wouldn't test for necessarily for a dietary supplement or a functional food. Again, since these products are not ingested, they're used topically. There are different chemicals that we screen for to make sure that they're safe to put on your skin, to avoid allergic reactions or or any sort of adverse event. So just something to keep in mind. Testing protocols will still follow a similar structure. They are all an annual certification. So, you know, one test per year to make sure that all the label claims and all the ingredients are meeting the specification of the product. And then from there, for this particular program, we do have a different GMP certification that is required, which would be the NSF ANSI four five five dash three certification. I'm not sure if everyone is familiar with that particular certification, but it is tailored to cosmetics and personal care products. And it is based on ISO two two seven one six. And with that being said, we also one factor in that. Sure. Let's say you have multiple products that you're manufacturing. So a topical and a dietary supplement, we can combine the dash two and the dash three audit within the same audit schedule. Bundled program. Yes. Yes. So if you are a manufacturer of supplements and cosmetics, we do have the ability to bundle, the two different GMP certifications that you would need. So that way, you only have one audit completed once per year at your facility, and you would work with a single auditor who would complete the certification process, not just for the supplements, but also for cosmetics to certify the facility. So a really good call out just because that will save you time and money as well instead of scheduling two separate audits to complete, two separate certifications. You know, this would be a lot more cost effective and would save your time or save your team a lot of time going through the audit, just once with one auditor for two certifications. And then just to round out the top of the pyramid, the NSF certified for sport program, like I mentioned earlier, this particular program is built on top of our content certification. So if you are looking to have the certified for sport mark on your product or claim that your product is certified for sport, you will need to move through the second step of the pyramid. We can't skip from one to step three. You have to make sure that you first meet the requirement for our content certification before we can explore the option of certified for sport. And, you know, just something to keep in mind that each of those tiers that you see on our pyramid, they do serve as a prerequisite to one another. So without one, you can't get to two. Without two, you can't get to three. So just something to think about. If you are considering going to certified for sport, we can't just test for banned substances on our own. You will have to go through content certification first. But this particular program is really tailored to, professional athletes or really athletes of any sort that may be subjected to a drug test for performance enhancing drugs or banned substances. This particular program will test products in addition to the label claim and ingredients and, you know, heavy metals and contaminants, specifically to test for banned substances that would be, you know, pretty much an issue for any of the major league sports organizations here in The States and also globally. But some of the the biggest advocates of NSF, happen to be Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, the National Football League, even the NCAA, which is a collegiate sports organization here in The United States. They're also an advocate of this program. And although not all will require it, it is recommended, by all. And, that would pretty much round out the full pyramid again starting with the GMP program that Paresh had talked through, the different content certifications that we offer for supplements, cosmetics, and also, the functional foods and beverages, and then moving up to the top of the pyramid for certified for sport, which is an optional certification. And just one thing that I would like to mention as well, for anyone that's thinking about testing frequency, I do wanna call out that our content certification is an annual certification program. So just something to keep in mind, you only have to test your product once per year if you would like your products to be NSF content certified to meet the needs of some of those retailers like we have mentioned, whether it be Amazon or Target. And then for certified for sport, the testing frequency is a little bit more frequent. We do require lot by lot testing or batch by batch testing for this particular program. So you will see, you know, the the test for athletic band substances will be done on a more frequent basis depending on production volume, but just something I wanted to call out as well. And this just gives the overview of the full process from start to finish, starting with the application process, moving through the, submit submittal of product documentation, starting our technical review, moving forward with testing, all the way through certification. So for anyone that's considering certifying a product, this is the process that you will follow. The application process would most likely be supported by Paresh. He would help gather, you know, copies of product labels for each of the products that you would like to certify, to make sure that we know how much it will cost to certify the product since that is dependent on the number of ingredients that are in the product, since that's what needs to be tested. And then from there, once we have the application submitted to our team, you'll be introduced to an account manager who would help pick up the rest of the process. So they would work with you to gather the raw material CFA's, the formulation sheet, which will be part of the product documentation gathering. From there, our technical team will review all the documents to make sure there's a high likelihood that you will pass our certification or pass the testing. And then at that point, they would request samples for testing, which will take somewhere between thirty to forty five days to test. And then from there, you receive your official certification, as long as everything meets our requirements. And just to cap off on, you know, again, tying into what Adrian mentioned, some of the benefits of certification, marketing your certification by far is the biggest way that you're gonna get the return on your investment. So looking at, you know, some of the different, options that we offer and services that we offer, And we do have a core marketing portal that has a ton of different literature about benefits of NSF certification depending on which level of certification you look to apply for. So we always encourage people to use, the literature that we've developed or work with our marketing team to develop your own literature, to talk about your NSF certification. That way consumers know that your product is certified because that's the best way for you to re receive that return on investment. And, of course, using the NSF mark would be a big one as well. So we showed a few examples in the webinar on on the slides, some of the different marks that you can use on your packaging or labeling. That's a great way to help your product stand out on shelf or even online as long as you display the mark on the packaging. That way consumers know this product has been tested and certified by NSF, which means it's safe. It's safe for me to consume. And then aside from that, we also can help, design graphics, text. We can help with LinkedIn posts, you know, updating your website to have, you know, certain marks used on the website. A lot of great things here that we do in conjunction with our marketing and communications team. And then, again, this is just speaking to the benefits of product certification. It truly verifies that your product has been tested, so all the ingredients are identified and quantified. That way someone picking up a product off shelf knows they are getting what they pay for. This product contains everything that it's supposed to contain based off what's on the label. And then from there, the contaminants is the second piece of the puzzle just to make sure that there aren't unacceptable amounts of heavy metals or, contaminants in the product that could be harmful to anyone. And then from there, your certified products will be listed on our website as well. So anyone can, you know, go to our website to verify your certification, which again just speaks volumes to your dedication to quality and, your commitment to making safe products. And then the last slide here, just looking over, you know, what makes your products unique. Again, using the mark. Putting the mark on your products, this shows all the different marks that you would be able to use if you were to proceed with certification. And, again, each of these marks can be used on your packaging, on your labeling, on your website, on your Amazon landing page, in your email signatures, wherever you would like to use it. Once your product is is officially certified, you will be given access to these marks to use them in your, in multiple different ways to help, you know, boost that brand awareness and the recognition of your certification. And, again, this tells a consumer that product can be trusted, that's tested and verified, and that everything is truthful based on the label claims. Perfect. So now I'll stop sharing my screen, and let's look at the questions that the participants have. So we have Mahoon here, who is from our marketing team, and she will help consolidating the questions that we have from the participants. Hey, O. So I I I can see that we have couple of questions that actually, answered in the text by Adrian, but I will just read it out so that everyone can see them. So we have, couple of questions about how can recipients be NSF certified and if you have any requirements for that. So excipients meaning other ingredients like microcrystalline, cellulose, silicon dioxide, excipients as in the other ingredients? Correct. So bulk ingredients, we can certify bulk ingredients, but, really, the the benefit of certifying a finished product outweighs the ingredient itself. Because if you have a certified excipient, that doesn't necessarily mean that a product is certified. It just means a component of the product has been certified. So if you were to go that route, we would allow you to put the NSF content certified mark or certified for sport mark on a raw material CFA. So if you're a raw material supplier, you could ship your raw materials, to any supplier that would need it or any manufacturer that would need it, and they would know that you went through the process of testing your raw material and certifying your raw material with us. But, just something I always mention is that by having a single component certified within a product does not mean that the product is certified. Not only will you have to pay for the certification for your raw material, but the brand would still have to work with us to certify their finished product. Would have to go through this process as well. I would like to add anything we can help with. I would like to add here. So I would say answer it in a slightly different manner. So if someone who is manufacturing a finished good and intends to get NSF certification, he would definitely prefer to buy a material or an ingredient which is already NSF certified. This will build his confidence that the quality of the ingredients will lead to the quality of the finished good. So if I'm as a finished good manufacturer intending to get certification of NSF, and if I'm using an ingredient which is NSF certified, that my confidence level is very high that my my, finished good will pass the tests that are required by NSF. So, this definitely helps getting exposure, getting higher preference towards the ingredient. Say, there are different manufacturers of ingredients that if one is certified versus other is not, then if someone who really intends to get into quality would prefer the ingredient which is NSF certified versus not. Right? I I understand. From a marketing standpoint, definitely will support your efforts in making sure that your materials are purchased over another raw material supplier. So if we have the same exact ingredient, one is coming from supplier a and one is coming from supplier b, but our ingredient is certified and theirs is not, there is a higher likelihood that somebody will choose to purchase that material from you because you went through the process of getting your ingredient certified. But just something to keep in mind, if the customer says, well, the ingredient is certified, that means my product is certified, We it's best to mention that they will have to speak with us to certify their product as well. But if you're looking to differentiate yourself and really market the raw materials, we do have a program that supports that as well. Thank you, Roni. And thank you, Perish. And we have another question about actually, it's more about the NSF certified auditor. So, there was question asking about what will be the requirements to become NSF certified auditor, and where can we get the certification from? I think we will handle this question offline because the subject of this webinar is focusing on product certification, its benefits, and requirements. So we will handle this question separately. Please make a note of the speaker, and we'll revert to them accordingly for the benefit of everyone. Yes, Kaushik, sir. Yeah. I have a question. Please. From right from the starting of an application of a product to getting a certificate, how much time it takes on an average for a product? Or a group of are you certifying group of products or individual products? It will depend on whether or not the products are similar to one another. If we're gonna be offering what we call bracketing. So let's say, for example, you make a product that comes in many different package sizes and you want to apply for certification, that particular product under our content certification program would just be considered one product. So if you have a, let's say, a vitamin c capsule and a 30 count, 60 count, 90 count, that would just be one product with us, so they would be pulled together as a product family. Now let's say you make an electrolyte drink mix that comes in three different flavors, we would still be able to bracket those three products together as long as the formulas are identical, and the only difference is the flavoring and sweeteners. So we would need to review the product labels to really understand, can these products be brought together as a family, or do they need to be treated as their own product? And it really depends on the differences in the formulations. So Paresh and I would be the one to help, you know, figure out, is this something that can be bracketed and maybe we just do one test and that certifies multiple products that are identical with minor differences from one product to the next, or do they need to be treated separately? But, going back to the timeline, I would say forty five to sixty days would be enough time to certify a product. So the technical review process that I explained where we gather raw materials to your base and we request a formulation sheet for review, that usually takes about fifteen days to review. So gathering all the documents and reviewing all the documents would take about fifteen days. And then from there, it usually takes about thirty days to test the products. So forty five days would be the quickest, I would say, and then sixty days would be probably on the longer end. If it's taking longer than sixty days to certify a product, there's some sort of delay somewhere. Maybe the manufacturer hasn't supplied the right information that we need. Maybe we got stuck doing an ingredient assessment or something for a material that we've never used before or seen before. So, I usually say plan on forty five to sixty days, and that should be pretty safe. Thank you. In in in the chat, I, put a link to our listings on our website in chat. That gives you kind of an example where we we bracketed several different products. All of the products have a a listing on our website, but we may have only tested one or two of those products and bracketed them together in in one test. I'm moving on to another question. So what would be the validity of certifications? I'm sorry. Could you just repeat that, the first part? Yeah. So, the validity of certifications or, like, each certification, like, how long can it last? So the content certification will be an annual certification, so that should last twelve months. But sometimes the lifespan of your initial certification can be a little bit shorter since, you know, in 2026. So let's say we certified the product now. It's July 2025. And then in 2026, we reach out to you to tell us to send us a new sample for your 2026 testing. We will ask for you to send us a sample based on your first production run in the calendar year of 2026. So if you were to apply for certification now and it's July and your next production run doesn't take place until July 2026, that would truly be a twelve month expiration. Otherwise, if you're making your products, let's say, 01/01/2026, we would ask you to send us a sample from that first production run, which could cut the initial lifespan a little bit shorter than the twelve month mark. So just something to keep in mind, your subsequent tests for annual recertification will be requested based on your first production run of the new calendar year. So your initial certification could potentially last longer than twelve months if you're not going to run another production run until maybe the 2026 or maybe even beyond that. But if you are planning on doing a production run now and then running another, batch, let's say, in January 2026, then your lifespan would maybe only be five or six months for the initial certification. But, generally, we would just call it an annual certification since we just have to test the product once per year. And once we have that single test done, you will be allowed to use the NSF content certified mark for the entire year. For NSF, though, since that does require lot by lot testing or batch by batch testing, that would be handled a a little bit differently. We still need to do the annual test for the content certification, but the NSF testing may be done a little bit more frequently, depending on the production volume, for the particular product that's being certified. Thank you very much, Ronnie. I think that was the last question that we have in our hand. Do we have any other questions? If there is any other question from any participant, please feel free to put in the chat. So for the just now, we have another question, adding to the previous answer. So does it require for every batch? For NSF certification only. So our content certification is just an annual certification. So it would just be one test once per year, and that would certify the product for the entire year. But for NSF for sport testing, that's where we do require the batch by batch, samples to be sent to us or lot by lot samples to be sent to us to specifically test for the athletic band substances. So we're not going to verify the label claims and the contaminants and heavy metals on every single batch. That just needs to be tested once per year. But if you do want to have the NSF for Sportmark on the packaging or on the labeling, that's where we need to test every single lot that you produce to make sure that there aren't any sort of, athletic banned substances in any of the batches that are produced. Thank you, Ronnie. Do we have any other questions on this? There's a feedback form link in the chat to request all the participants to fill the feedback form. This will help us improve for the guys' coming webinars. Any other question from anyone? So adding to the previous answer, is it for active ingredients as well? So the certification will only test for the active ingredients. We won't test for the excipients or other ingredients. So let's say, for example, you make a protein powder that has a few different nutrient cleans and one source of protein, but there's maybe six or seven other ingredients that are used for flavoring and sweetening and, maybe even for, like, fillers and flow agents. The excipients and the flow agents will not need to be tested. We would only verify the nutritional claims, so maybe the calories, fat, carbohydrates, protein content, and then also verify the source of protein. So if it's a pea protein, a whey protein, we would verify that through testing. But, we would only focus on the active ingredients for the most part, with regard to, you know, what ingredients need to be tested, and those would be called out either within a supplement fact panel or within the nutrition fact panel. But other ingredients are not counted towards that total. So if it's a single ingredient, fish oil soft gel, let's say that we're certifying, we would just test for the fish oil, not for, you know, glycine or water or anything else that might be used in the production process. Thank you. So we have one more question. So what are what are the requirements of manufacturers and facilities for cosmetic product registration with the US FDA? So currently, based off of the requirements for FDA that are really tied into a pro or a process called MOCRA, which is the modernization, cosmetic or modernization of cosmetic and regulatory act. I believe that's the acronym. You do need to have a GMP certification at this point that is required by FDA. So if you are manufacturing, cosmetic products, they are now requiring facilities to register with FDA and then also, obtain a GMP certification. So at this point, we have our own, NSF ANSI four zero five dash three certification that's an accredited standard that's based on ISO two two seven one six, which are the international standards for cosmetic manufacturing. That would be the certification that FDA would look towards to see, are you following good manufacturing practices? That's the best way to demonstrate your compliance to their requirements. But at this point in time, FDA does not have a specific, code of federal regulation like we see for supplements where you have 21 CFR one eleven and one seventeen. There are not written code of federal regulations for cosmetic manufacturing at this point in time. We anticipate that coming in the near future as part of the MOCRA requirements. But at this point, most of the industry is referencing ISO 22,716, which are the international standards again for, manufacturing cosmetics. So at this point, as a manufacturer of a cosmetic product, first things first, you wanna register your facility with FDA if you're gonna be importing or exporting to and from The United States. I believe there's a portal through the FDA website to register your facility. So that would be step one. And then from there, once you do that, there is the opportunity for FDA to visit your facility. It's not guaranteed that they will come, but just like food or or dietary supplements, they just show up whenever they want. It's on and outs audits. They just show up. And at that point, that's where, if you have a GMP certification with us or or any other organization, it should give you that peace of mind that you will perform well on an FDA inspection. So that's really where the benefit comes in of having a third party certification. It'll prepare you for your FDA inspections and hopefully reduce any sort of 40 threes or nonperformances during that inspection. And I would like to add here, Ronnie, since since we are discussing about USFDA registration of facility on USFDA, So as an added service, NSF offers in Asia Pacific this service of registering facility on US FDA also. Right? So this service is available from NSF. We provide you with that. And in case in in some of the, sort of, registrations, you are required to provide a mandatory information of US agent as per the US FDA, registration requirement. It does not have anything to do with sales agent, but US agent is, representative, which is having local US, address and telephone number whom US FDA can reach out to, and NSF can be US agent. So for application or or for application of US FDA registration for either dietary supplements or cosmetics or or OTC. NSF can help you registering your facility on USFDA, and NSF can be your US agent. So this is the kind of additional service that we provide. I'll go further a step further. Like, as as as Ronnie mentioned that look at the broad certification, NSF CGMP certification is a mandatory prerequisite. Now there might be a situation where facilities do not have confidence whether they can jump onto the certification directly. In that case, NSF offers something called pre assessment service. So which means the requirements of the certification are, reviewed as a pre assessment or pre certification audit by NSF, and we can help you understand where you stand versus where you need to be to go for certification. So, you know, beforehand, what is the situation of your facility, and you if you need to take some corrective actions, you can take them proactively and then invite NSF for doing the certification. So NSF has completely different divisions globally. One is called the certification division, which takes care of the c g n p certification and the product certification that we discussed today. And the separate division is consultancy division, which helps you with US FDA registration service, which helps you pre assessment service, which will tell you where you stand versus where you need to be. And going a step further, assume that you after going through the pre assessment, you realize that there are three to four action points that need to be taken without which you cannot move forward to the certification and you need someone to support you at your site, hand hold you, train your team, implement the processor for SOPs documentation, NSF can provide that service also under the consultancy part of service. So just to give you an information that NSF is there to support you from end to end service, where today you have an ambition to go to US and sell your product with product certification, where you you do not have anything in place today other than the manufacturing facility. We can help you every other step, which can help you reaching, on the shelf with the confidence that your product will be getting getting consumer preference. Right? Yes, sir. Okay. Maybe a last question. Does this NSF certification audit or a pre assessment involve the process safety of the product? Because not many, safety others are around. It only takes care of GMP or also includes process safety for manufacturing of that product? Yes. So the GMP program will not focus primarily on products. That's more of a process based certification that oversees the manufacturing process of a specific product. But it's not going to involve, like, reviewing batch records or, looking at a product specifically to see how is it being manufactured and if it's manufactured accurately. That's where our product certification program, really comes into play. Okay. Thank you. So the GMP is that overarching, you know, we make products in a safe environment. We follow good manufacturing practices. So that's the overview of making the product that's being covered. Whereas if you're concerned that the product is not meeting specification, that's where you'd wanna do either third party testing or a certification. Okay. Thank you. I think there are no questions then we can conclude. Sure. And what we will do is we will share the last slide where there are contact details. Yes. So in case if there are any questions, any queries, please feel free to write an email. Feel free to call me. I'll be sharing the mobile number and email ID on that slide. So that will be the last step that we will do. Before that, over to you, mister Parikh. No. We will also share while sharing the presentation, the contact details of the NSF, in India and the mail ID so that the coordinates can be, assessed through the participants, and, they can always come back to you. Perfect. Yes, Prema. You can take over. Thank you, sir. So on behalf of HRSA, I would like to extend a warm heartfelt vote of thanks. First and foremost, sincere thank you to our esteemed speakers today, Ronald, Adrianne, and Parej, for sharing your deep expertise and global perspectives on product certification. Your presentations are not only engaging, but truly informative, and we are grateful for the time and effort you put in that, into delivering such clarity on this crucial subject. Also, a participant, I'm sure, have had the opportunity to get valuable insights on the importance of product certification, the processes and standards, and the benefits of obtaining a mix of product certification, including enhanced brand credibility, market access, and consumer confidence. We also extend our gratitude to NSF for the collaboration in making this webinar possible. This is the second time that, we are doing this collaboration, and you are also very supportive during the conference as well. And we look forward for continued support. Thank you, mister Ajay Singh, our president of HRSA, for setting the tone by emphasizing the growing importance of consumer trust in the nutraceutical and dietary supplements industry and highlighting on how certifications, especially those from globally recognized bodies like NSF, play a vital role in ensuring transparency, safety, and quality. For, Kaushik sir, as secretary general of HRSA for welcoming the speakers and participants and for giving a brief about HRSA. Together, missus Ajay Singh and Kaushik, Desai, the words reflected Hatsa's ongoing dedication in advancing industry credibility, fostering global best practices, and supporting stakeholders through initiatives like today's webinar. A big thank you to all the participants who have joined today, all the attendees. Your participation, drives the success of such knowledge sharing initiatives. Last but not the least, a special mention to the organizing team of HRSA and ACT, for your behind the scenes coordination to ensure the smooth execution of this webinar. Thank you once again, everyone, and we are looking forward to welcoming you in our future sessions. Thank you. Thank you very much. Here are the contact details. In case if anyone wants to take the pick, you can please please feel free to take this. And I also suggest if you can make a brief summary of this presentation, then we can put it in our newsletter for the benefit of all the receive members and others. Sure, sir. We will do that. Alright. So we'll be sharing the presentation with everyone by email. Participants, please fill the feedback form. That is very helpful for us. Yeah. That will also ensure that you get participation certificate. Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you, everyone. Thank you, everyone. We can close the webinar. Yeah. You can close the webinar. Thank you. Thank you, Rajeshi, sir. Thank you, Kashi, sir. Thank you, Roni. Thank you, Adrian. Bye. Thank you all the participants. Bye.