Non-GMO Supplements: The Story Beyond the Seal

An Interview with MegaFood CEO, Robert U. Craven

We know you MegaFoodies are smart. You’ve likely landed upon this article because you’re the kind of consumer who wants to know what’s in your food, and where it’s coming from. Chances are, your shopping http://www.nongmoproject...cart usually contains some certified organic items, as well as products boasting theVerified seal, as you see here.

As you are probably well aware, products boasting this seal are nearly free of genetically modified ingredients… queue the applause! But, when it comes to supplements, obtaining this seal is a wee bit more complex than one might realize. To get into the nitty gritty of why supplement companies in the Natural Foods channel have their work cut out for them regarding Non-GMO labeling, we spent some time with our own CEO, Robert U. Craven.

In the following interview, Robert explains why there’s so much more to the story than just the seal, and shares how he helped spearhead the association that is working to redefine Non-GMO verification in the natural supplement market.

MegaFood:

So, starting at a broad level, what exactly does it mean for a food product to be Non-GMO Verified? How does that translate for a supplement?

Robert:

Non-GMO typically means not made with any Genetically Modified Organisms, orG.M.O.s. There are a whole variety of standards that verify the absence of GMOs in a product, one being the Non-GMO Project (NGP). The Project’s seal has become an icon in the Natural Foods Industry, coming out of nowhere in the last few years and serving as the standard with which consumers now identify. In regards to the food industry it was created for, it’s a highly valuable labeling initiative. Take your basic bag of corn chips, for example. There’s roughly three ingredients in corn chips- literally. Corn, salt and water. Corn’s arguably the biggest danger crop for GMOs, so getting that non-GMO confirmation for your chips is huge; it means something.

Now, let’s look at one of MegaFood’s supplements: Women’s One Daily. Each small tablet is made up of a good 40 ingredients. In order for MegaFood to get the NGP verification seal on the bottle, each supplier of each ingredient has to be able to verify for us not only that GM material isn’t in the finished good, but that it never came in contact with the ingredient in the first place. Perhaps out of those 40 ingredients, we end up with one little micro-ingredient missing the proof that it didn’t make contact with X, Y and Z along the supply chain.

All MegaFood products are Non-GMO Self-Verified with this seal.

If that one micro-ingredient means that a product cannot receive the seal, and everyone says “Aw, well, no thanks,” was the inability to verify that one micro-ingredient truly worth it? We have to ask ourselves: What is the objective? For me, it’s to make sure everyone understands the benefit of labeling, people want to make an educated choice about what they’re putting into their bodies. We at MegaFood have been using a standard based on European methods for several years, and we’ve been using our own seal long before the NGP. It’s our self-verification, meaning that we can say in confidence: “Our product is not produced with GMO material.” We self-certify ALL of our products, but, it’s not the seal folks are tuned into. So, we’ve spent the time, effort and money to get as many of our products validated by the NGP as possible, and the vast majority of our products display the Project’s seal.

MegaFood:

Wow, even at the broad level, Non-GMO verification from a consumer’s perspective seems quite complex to decypher.

Robert:

Complex is right.These little seals only go so far as what one can prove. That’s why we try so hard to be fully transparent about our process. The big issue for us is that the NGP Verification is a food standard, not a supplement standard. As they revise their certification process every year, it’s getting more and more difficult for our industry to deliver. That’s where the Coalition for Supplement Sustainability comes in.

MegaFood:

Which leads us to the next question. What can the Supplement Industry do to define its GMO-Free products to consumers? Tell us about the trade association that you helped form around this issue.

Robert:

In late 2012, I met with the certifying body for the Non-GMO Project standard, called Food Chain ID. Their CEO, an amazing woman named Sandy, helped me to understand the complexity behind the supplement standard. Sandy made it very clear to us that this broad issue touched all supplement companies, and standardizing to the NGP was clearly an obstacle for each and every one.

Blessed in having been involved with this industry for a long time, I picked up the phone and invited everyone I knew to convene during an industry event in Anaheim, CA, where we could come together to discuss this issue in depth. In March of ‘13, retailers, manufacturers, suppliers, media, natural industry associations and notably, our direct competition all came to deliberate. There were more than 20 companies represented at the first meeting of what has since been formalized as the Coalition for Supplement Sustainability .

MegaFood:

Isn’t it challenging to work directly with your biggest competitors?

Robert:

All of us are very unique, and we still compete on that regard. We tell our stories in different ways, and we focus on different products through different approaches. Yet we all agree that Non-GMO is important, and there’s a shared awareness that we stand to benefit by approaching standardization obstacles together – as an industry. Also, it’s not just about picking the right standard, but how to deliver consumer education on that standard. The commonality is that we all know strength in numbers is the way to go.

MegaFood:

What’s the Coalition’s ultimate goal?

Robert:

First and foremost, we’ll be continuing the discussion with NGP. Ideally, we all want the same thing, so finding and defining common ground with them is what it’s all about. After that, our objectives are centered on a clean supply chain, transparency and sustainability. There are many cutting edge techniques out there when it comes to means of Non-GMO evaluation, yet we all make our supplements differently. Of course, the coalition cannot be its own certifier, so the short-term goal is to hire a consultant and a couple key industry experts to guide us. The long term goal is the creation of a high standard that everyone feels good about, but meets the supplement requirement in an obtainable, yet still very credible, way.

There will always be issues in our industry, so even beyond reaching the ultimate goal, I think of this association as a long term partnership. It’s about supplement company standards and processes. If one of us is having trouble with an ingredient or supplier issue, we can help each other out. I’m proud to be part of an industry where that type of cooperative effort is possible.

MegaFood:

Any advice for passionate MegaFoodies (and consumers in general) on the best way to get involved to support Non-GMO efforts?

Robert:

The easy answer would be to look for a seal, yet I think the difficulty with that is the seal’s popularity. Most natural products manufacturing is done by a contractor, not by the companies themselves. Those contractors have catalogs full of NGP verified ingredients that they can pull right together. Getting NGP is harder for us, because we do it ourselves, in-house.

Don’t just bank on the seal. Instead, know your brand. To me that’s the deeper story underlying the product. Who makes it? Where do they make it? How do they make it? Do they really have control of their supply chain? Are they testing this stuff inside and out? The “Good Guys” will be happy to share the answers with you.

The seals help. and that’s why MegaFood has them, but there’s so much more to the story than just the seal.