Natural Products Industry News Beat 4130

New group to promote EPA and DHA
Major omega-3 suppliers have established a multinational trade association to further the cause of eicosapentaenoic acid- and docosahexaenoic acid-containing products and differentiate them from other omega-3 fatty acids such as alpha-linolenic acid.

The Salt Lake City-based Global Organization for EPA and DHA Omega-3 replaces the Council for Responsible Nutrition's omega-3 working group and met for the first time at Natural Products Expo East in Baltimore on Oct. 6.

In a statement, GOED Omega-3 said it was "committed to increasing the market and regulatory approvals for products based on EPA and DHA, developing EPA and DHA consumer awareness and education strategies, and implementing quality standards and other measures that will protect the EPA/DHA category."

It is a common source of discontent among DHA and EPA suppliers that consumers often perceive ALA as a comparable source of omega-3 fatty acids to EPA and DHA when clinical studies have shown that ALA has less bioavailability, according to the group.

The founding member companies are Cargill, Ceres Consulting, Croda, Denomega, DSM Nutritional Products, EPAX, Lipid Nutrition, Lonza/Nutrinova, Marine Nutraceuticals, Martek Biosciences, Napro Pharma AS, Ocean Nutrition Canada, OmegaPure and Sifar Ilaclari. The association also counts health care professionals, educators and researchers among its members.

—Shane Starling

New Hope purchases online resource
NPIcenter, an international online information company that serves the nutraceutical, nutritional, supplement, cosmetic and food industries, was acquired by Penton Media Inc.'s New Hope Natural Media, the parent company of The Natural Foods Merchandiser and producer of the Natural Products Expos.

NPIcenter.com features natural product industry news; a products, services and vendors database; interviews with executives; discussion forums; and job listings. NPIcenter also produces two e-newsletters, NPI Daily and NPIWatch.

"We are excited about a bigger platform and the ability to take our community-building approach to its full potential," said Len Monheit, NPIcenter's president and editor. "We now have the ability to serve [our clients and viewers] better. This means more content, being able to interact with and serve viewers globally, and the potential for an even larger audience than the 10,000-plus viewers a day who currently interact with the site."

—L.P.

Natural Foods Merchandiser volume XXVII/number 11/p. 9