The Importance of Dietary Supplement Verification

Media Contact:
Anne Bell
(301) 998-6785
adb@usp.org

Rockville, MD, April 27, 2018 — USP introduced its national advertising campaign entitled “Trust in Quality” to educate consumers about the importance of identifying quality dietary supplements. The campaign, launched nation-wide in March, aims to raise awareness among consumers, pharmacists and nutritionists about the importance of choosing dietary supplements with the USP Verified Mark in order to have confidence in the quality of their supplement choices.

The ad campaign is running nationally across print, TV and online outlets through June 2018. The 15-second television commercial is airing on cable networks including Bravo, Food Network, HGTV, and Lifetime. The print ad will run in Pharmacy Times, U.S. Pharmacist, Today’s Dietician, Drug Topic and Chain Drug Review, and digital ads will appear on Pharmacy Times, Medscape, BravoTV.com, FoodNetwork.com, HGTV.com,TravelChannel.com and E! Online.

The “Trust in Quality” campaign explains to viewers that the USP Verified Mark on a product means the supplement:

  • Contains the ingredients listed on the label, in the declared strengths and amounts
  • Does not contain harmful levels of specified contaminants
  • Will deliver ingredients into the body within a specific amount of time
  • Has been made in a facility that follows FDA and USP Good Manufacturing Practices

More than half of all Americans take some form of dietary supplements, which are regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as foods, not drugs. To help consumers and supplement manufacturers ensure quality, USP developed the USP Dietary Supplement Verification Program.

USP uses a rigorous auditing and testing process to evaluate products submitted voluntarily by manufacturers for quality, identity, purity, potency, and performance characteristics, as well as FDA Current Good Manufacturing Practices. Products that meet the program’s stringent requirements are able to display the USP Verified Mark, providing consumers with assurance that what is listed on the label is, in fact, in the bottle.

“For more than 200 years, USP has set standards for drugs, and more recently for dietary supplements and food ingredients, to help safeguard the health of consumers,” said Nurisha Rush, senior director of marketing for dietary supplements and herbal medicines at USP. “Launching the national ad campaign was a natural step for our organization because the USP Verified Mark makes quality visible and educating the public helps consumers choose a dietary supplement with confidence.”

Consumers can learn more at Quality-supplements.org. Dietary supplement manufacturers can learn more about participating in the Dietary Supplement Verification program at USP.org, which includes tools, services, good manufacturing resources and webinars.


About USP

USP is an independent non-profit organization that collaborates with the world’s top health and science experts to develop high-quality standards that set the bar for manufacturing and distributing safe and effective medicines, supplements and food around the globe. Two billion people world-wide have access to quality medicines, dietary supplements and food as a result of USP’s standards, advocacy and education.