NPA Adds New Committees, Companies Offer Educational Opportunities

The Natural Products Association (NPA) announced its 2015 committees and work groups this week, which will help further the organization’s mission to ensure consumer access to natural products while protecting retailers’ and suppliers’ right to do business. Companies such as OmniActive and Natoli also announced their upcoming educational opportunities, such as national campaigns and a manufacturing training course.

NPA’s committees include the newly formed Next Generation Leadership Committee, the Natural Food Work Group and the Sustainable Standard Work Group. Each NPA committee is responsible for facilitating progress on association goals and initiatives. The Next Generation Leadership Committee will focus on reaching millennial consumers and industry stakeholders, providing perspective, knowledge and expertise on this new generation and how to better bring them into the natural products industry fold. The Natural Food Work Group and the Sustainable Standard Work Group will operate under ComPLI. The Natural Food Work Group will collaborate to develop an association definition of natural for foods, much like NPA did when it established the natural definition for personal care products and home care products. The Sustainable Standard Work Group has been created to formulate a standard of sustainability for all natural products.

To raise awareness of the importance of joint health, Osteo Bi-Flex® launched a national education campaign that will encourage consumers of all ages to start paying attention to their knees, ankles and other joints. The campaign will provide U.S. consumers with steps they can take to help strengthen and support their joints throughout their lives. The brand has retained MWW, one of the top five global independent public relations firms, to engage the effort. The national education campaign will include insights linking joint health to a range of health issues including fitness, weight management and heart health, discussion of key ingredients for proper joint nutrition and joint health wellness tips from medical experts.

OmniActive Health Technologies will also celebrate the second anniversary of its education campaign Lutein for Every Age™ at Expo West/Engredea from March 5 to 8, 2015, in Anaheim, California. Engredea/Expo attendees are invited on Friday, March 6, at 9:45 am (Grand Plaza), 10:15 am (ACC Lobby) and 10:35 am at OmniActive’s booth (530) to experience what everyone at the show will be talking about. Aimed at natural products industry members, health care professionals and consumers, Lutein For Every Age raises awareness surrounding the importance of early and consistent lutein supplementation for helping maintain proper health over a lifetime. During the past year, OmniActive has enlisted a team of key opinion leaders and scientific experts, supported a variety of studies on the macular carotenoids, and launched two interactive, consumer websites (LuteinForEveryAge.org for the United States and VisionVitalize.eu for Europe).

Adding to upcoming educational opportunities, Natoli Engineering Company scheduled its first training course of 2015. The company’s technical services and training experts will present “Basics of Tablet Manufacturing and Troubleshooting" on March 24 to 26 at Natoli’s Technical Training Center near St. Louis, Missouri. The course will focus on best practices for successful tableting with a heavy emphasis on tips and tricks to avoid common manufacturing problems. Course attendees will learn the basics of tablet shapes and designs, tablet press setup and operation, tooling options and steel types, tool inspection, and tool reworking and polishing. The course includes hands-on experience with tablet manufacturing and maintenance equipment that goes beyond what is available from textbooks or webinars.