AER System Aids Soy Flour Recall

VALLEY CENTER, Calif.Hours after FDA issues a recall alert for Thumb Oilseeds soy flour ingredient due to salmonella contamination, the National Animal Supplement Council (NASC) used its member-populated NASC Adverse-Event Reporting System (NAERS) to scan more than 5,000 products containing more than 1,400 individual ingredients.  NASC was able to identify 27 products containing the soy flour ingredient and notified eight companies selling the products with specific instructions on how to check the ingredient with raw material suppliers.  NASC received responses from all eight companies with updates and planned actions within the same day.  

Entering products and ingredients into NAERS is required for all NASC members, says Bill Bookout, president of NASC, the nonprofit industry trade association that represents 90 percent of the animal health supplement industry, dedicated to improving the health and welfare of horses, dogs, cats and other companion animals.  All member products are entered into the system so both products and ingredients can be specifically tracked to individual companies.  If there is an issue, we can help specifically identify potential problems directly to the individual product SKUs.  

He explained the group is not required by the government to have such a comprehensive AER system, but NASC decided the not having the data was the higher risk. Bookout and his team had NAERS up and running after just two years of launching NASC, and after three years had established GMPs (good manufacturing practices), working cooperatively with state, federal and international government officials.  In contrast, it has taken 14 years and millions of dollars to establish GMPs for the human dietary supplement industry.

Its a huge accomplishment for the animal health supplement industry, but its also one of our most important achievements, says Bookout.  At NASC we believe we should embrace a philosophy of continuous improvement and we constantly strive to improve the quality of animal health supplements sold to consumers for the benefit of their companion animals.