Dr Rob Wildman on NDI submissions, implementing MPL
The conference featured several key influencers and thought leaders in the sports nutrition and supplement world, including Robert Wildman, PhD, RD, FISSN, CEO of TYM Athletic Performance. NutraIngredients-USA spoke with Wildman about New Dietary Ingredients (NDIs) and Mandatory Product Listings (MPLs)—two hot topics in the industry.
Under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 or DSHEA, a manufacturer of a New Dietary Ingredient (i.e. one that was not marketed as a dietary ingredient prior to Oct. 15, 1994) is required to file a notification with FDA 75 days prior to putting the ingredient on the market.
FDA asserts it has received only about 1,200 NDI notifications since the passage of DSHEA — representing a fraction of the total NDIs launched on the market over that time. FDA estimates the number of notifications that should have been submitted should be closer to 4,600.
“There have been NDI submissions, it's still a little bit generally confusing to a lot of brands, many feel that it's really on the supplier side that if they're going to provide, supply and market an ingredient, it has to already be a DSHEA dietary ingredient or if it's a new dietary ingredient then they've already gone through the process. So I think there's a lot of learning that still needs to be done. But there's been a lot of good work that's been done to date,” said Wildman.
Implementing an MPL has been part of ‘DSHEA 2.0’ discussions for a number of years, with industry stakeholders continuing to debate whether it can still be a good idea for industry.
Wildman explained that when you zoom out and consider the MPL concept, more transparency and accessibility is not a bad thing. “But when you look at what's being asked for through the mandatory product listing platform, a lot of it is already there at the retailer level for brands that are already doing what they do in a compliant nature. There's a lot of manpower that would be involved, there's a lot of expense that would be involved.”
Wildman said the most common questions he hears regarding MPL is how it would be used, monitored, and perhaps most importantly—effectively utilized.
