Speaking with NutraIngredients at the recent Sports & Active Nutrition Summit in San Diego, Dr. MacKay shared that one of the first messages his organization has been feeding back to lawmakers and the powers-that-be at HHS and FDA is that “a successful industry that serves a consumer does need a strong regulator” and to make sure that governments doesn’t “lose sight of the key things, like inspections, getting NDINs reviewed, enforcement on bad actors.”
“Those are things we’re just really hopeful we don’t see that we lose momentum on,” he said, adding that with the speed at which changes are happening at the federal level, CHPA is focused on ensuring its members are accessing the most accurate information.
“One of the themes that’s come up with CHPA is really expect the unexpected. We have a lot of DC insiders and think tanks, people that were in the government, people that are in past administrations, helping us understand what does some of these shocking headline-grabbing kind of comments actually mean in policy changes? How long will it take?”
Dr. MacKay said that the biggest concerns for CHPA members are in the areas of tariffs and the banning of certain ingredients, “because those things can really hit you at your bottom line if you got to reformulate, re-label, those types of things.”
Tapping into the resilience built during COVID
An underlying assumption for a Republican-dominated government is that it should be pro business, Dr. MacKay said, and many CHPA members are “cautiously hopeful, because they know that some of these things may impact them, impact the cost of their materials, and those are all big deal situations.”
The industry has already lived through similar challenges during the COVID pandemic.
“I think there’s some resilience that was built through that, and people are starting to tap into that resilience,” Dr. MacKay said.