SupplySide Stage: The white mulberry feeding frenzy: Warning for the supplement industry about opposition

Veterans of the responsible dietary supplement industry have seen this scenario play out before. Isolated incidents involving non-pharmaceutical ingredients make a sudden, negative splash in the news, then lawmakers and policy groups use the situation like a cudgel to discredit responsible supplement and health and wellness companies, pushing a new regulatory agenda in the process. The latest, and still unfolding, version of this story has ordinary white mulberry in the spotlight, after it publicly and perhaps erroneously was connected to a woman’s death. This session will examine how the episode is just the latest illustration of a rush to judgement by an eager consumer press, the forces aligned by their criticism of the supplement industry and the power unified industry messaging can have in helping to blunt the impact.