Take a tour inside supplement quality king Bluebonnet Nutrition
![Take a tour inside supplement quality king Bluebonnet Nutrition Take a tour inside supplement quality king Bluebonnet Nutrition](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt09e5e63517a16184/bltb317bf32ff888fc2/64ff21ebdbba8e2fe375a13b/IMG_0205_1.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Bluebonnet was founded by Joyce Barrows and one of her sons, Gary. The father, Bob, and Bob Jr. (pictured here with Mom), joined in 1999. The entire family still runs the privately held company, along with 180 employees and another 51 in sales, in two buildings filling out 105,000 square feet of space, including 70,000 square feet of warehouse.
Bluebonnet is undergoing a label redesign--fewer flowers traded out for more space for seals and certifications indicating product quality, from non-GMO to vegan to even kosher. The company has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in certifications and millions on their facility to ensure it is GMP-compliant (NSF visits twice annually to inspect the facility for quality, always without incident). “Bluebonnet is the state flower, and we’re proud Texas boys,” said Bob Barrows, VP of sales and marketing and a second-generation Barrows of this family-owned company. “Certifications and quality are important for us as a brand.” Its most popular products are vitamin D, amino acids and protein powder (it was the first in the industry to come out with a whey protein isolate).
“The QC lab is the gatekeeper of the brand,” Barrows said. Quality lab scientist Yash Patel is one of 12 employees in quality control. Here, they ready material for HPLC (high-performance liquid chromatography) analysis to ensure quality, purity and potency of ingredients.
Control supervisor Tracy Vu tests samples for E. coli, Staph and other contaminants, and tests air and water quality--both when raw materials come into the facility and again before they leave.
Vu in front of a disintegration apparatus, which ensures tablets dissolve in a timely manner. Ideally, tablets should dissolve within 30 minutes. Here, they are analyzing fenugreek and two different types of calcium.
This is the high-dollar HPLC (high-performance liquid chromatography) lab. The company has four HPLC machines, which are considered the most powerful tools in analytical chemistry used to separate, identify and quantify each component in a mixture. It is often used to quantify compounds as well as adulterants at very low concentrations. Today they were testing botanicals and B vitamins to ensure the ingredients are what they are supposed to be. Barrows said the company has many longstanding relationships with suppliers who are familiar with the Bluebonnet way, such that rarely will the company have to reject any incoming ingredients because of adulteration, contamination or other quality concerns. “Most of our ingredients are branded ingredients,” said Barrows. “We pick the best ingredients and then negotiate on price afterward.”
In a roomful of what looks like industrial refrigerators are the stability chambers. These vaults are used to mock temperature and humidity in order to test expiration dates. Different dates are used for different products--some products have ingredients that remain more stable than others on store shelves. Instead of waiting for 6 to 18 months to elapse to ensure products remain viable and of high quality, the stability chambers create conditions that can simulate the effects of time in a small fraction of real time. Still, Bluebonnet keeps products in real-time conditions and tests that as well.
The rule of thumb when abiding by Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) is that if it isn’t written down on paper, it didn’t happen. Within this stack of papers are results of testing for heavy metals, microbials, identity, purity and strength of formulations. After ingredients are made into pills, Bluebonnet tests them again to ensure it conforms to label claim. The paper trail is important for third-party GMP testing agency NSF, as well as the FDA (which audits the company roughly every two years), even the local rabbi who vouchsafes the kosher certifications. Paper files are housed within the company, and backup digital files are on the cloud.
Bluebonnet tests every lot and every batch. Depending on sales, the companies goes through a lot of calcium/magnesium every week, and multivitamins every two months, while lesser products might take six months to go through a lot. “Rejecting material is not a huge problem for us,” said Barrows. “We test every lot. There’s a reason we’ve never had a recall.”
The company manufacturers about 80 percent of its own products--everything except softgels and liquids. Three bottling and labeling lines keep the company going and blowing. It is looking to grow to a fourth line.
The new label designs will highlight the certifications: USDA organic, non-GMO, vegan, Pareve, soy-free, gluten-free, no sugar added. The Choice line highlights the farm-to-table look – the new labeling, with the same formulas inside the caplets, have led to a sales boom of the Choice line. Who says you can’t judge a book by its cover?
Uncompromising kosher standards not only validate Bluebonnet's quality, integrity and purity, but they're also the mark of trust for millions of kKosher consumers around the world. Barrows said that in the company's Middle East sales, Arab consumers appreciate the certification, even though it's a Jewish thing, because they can trust the seal. The kosher certification process involves thorough inspection and supervision of Bluebonnet's ingredients (all the way back to the source), warehouse design and layout, equipment, processing and packaging. KOF-K, the kosher certification agency, makes random and unannounced monthly inspections to make sure the kosher status is, well, kosher. For example, kosher-certified ingredients and machinery cannot come in contact with non-kosher items. As Barrows is fond of saying, Bluebonnet staff has a local rabbi's phone number on speed dial.
Bluebonnet treats its retail partners right. Participating retailers can expect 25th anniversary floor mats to welcome customers into their stores in time for the company’s 25th year in business in 2016.
Bluebonnet treats its retail partners right. Participating retailers can expect 25th anniversary floor mats to welcome customers into their stores in time for the company’s 25th year in business in 2016.
Bluebonnet Nutrition, based in Sugar Land, Texas, turns 25 years old in 2016. It is the last of the full-line supplement manufacturers, currently with about 700 SKUs. We toured this high-quality “trade-up” brand to see how supplement quality is done right.
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