Washington, D.C., December 1, 2020–The Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), the leading trade association for the dietary supplement and functional food industry, today announced upgrades to the Supplement OWL (Online Wellness Library), the dietary supplement industry’s self-regulatory product listing. Companies looking to participate in the Supplement OWL now have additional support options to upload their dietary supplement product information into this important industry initiative.
“Serving as a resource for regulators, retailers, industry, and consumers since 2017, the Supplement OWL continues to help create a rich and more complete picture of the dietary supplement marketplace,” says Luke Huber, ND, MBA, vice president, scientific & regulatory affairs, CRN. “After evaluating company feedback on the registry, CRN worked to make uploading dietary supplement labels into the OWL registry easier than ever.”
The Supplement OWL has undergone a series of upgrades to ease entry of product information and improve overall user experience, including adding a self-service portal and developing new tools within the registry to add, edit and remove products more easily, as well as a bulk upload feature for adding groups of products more conveniently. Other enhancements include multi-factor authentication for participants to add more security for participating companies; a multi-version component to help companies efficiently enter product information for multiple versions of the same product in circulation; and a supplier feature for brand owners to designate their contract manufacturers as business user with administrative capabilities on their behalf. CRN has also developed additional educational resources to help participants learn about the Supplement OWL’s new features, including a “Business User Guide” and demo video to explain how to use the registry and answer common questions.
“CRN members and other responsible industry players recognize the importance of broad industry participation in the Supplement OWL to create a more transparent marketplace,” said Dr. Huber. “Extensive registry participation is critical as this self-regulatory initiative also serves as a model for mandatory product listing proposed by FDA and supported by CRN and other industry stakeholders. The Supplement OWL helps regulators keep bad actors off the market, provides a tool for retailers to list their current product offerings, and promotes industry’s accountability to consumers, regulators and the broader industry.”
Participating in the Supplement OWL is a requirement of CRN membership for companies that market finished dietary supplements in the U.S. CRN encourages all dietary supplement companies who participate in the registry to follow certain best practices for updates to the Supplement OWL registry. This includes updating product information in the Supplement OWL at least twice annually (every 6 months) and removing products from the registry when products are discontinued and all existing production in the marketplace has expired. For more information about the Supplement OWL, visit www.supplementowl.org or reach out to SupplementOWL@crnusa.org with questions.
Note to Editor: The Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), founded in 1973, is a Washington, D.C.-based trade association representing 180+ dietary supplement and functional food manufacturers, ingredient suppliers, and companies providing services to those manufacturers and suppliers. In addition to complying with a host of federal and state regulations governing dietary supplements and food in the areas of manufacturing, marketing, quality control and safety, our manufacturer and supplier members also agree to adhere to additional voluntary guidelines as well as to CRN’s Code of Ethics. Visit www.crnusa.org. Follow us on Twitter @CRN_Supplements, and LinkedIn.