American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) President Michael McGuffin discussed development of good agricultural and collection practices (GACP) and good manufacturing practice (GMP) in the herbal ingredient supply chain on June 28 at the American Conference Institute's (ACI's) fourth annual Legal, Regulatory, and Compliance Forum on Dietary Supplements in New York City.

McGuffin provided an overview of an industry consensus process for creation of these self-regulatory initiatives during a roundtable discussion titled, "Efforts by Dietary Supplement Manufacturers to Promote Transparency and Integrity in the Face Public and Private Scrutiny."

McGuffin noted that the GACP element of this guidance will detail best practices for seed-to-harvest and post-harvest handling operations, while the related GMP document will outline steps for operations engaged in activities from post-harvest handling to the point of receipt of herbal ingredients by finished product manufacturers.

"The herbal products industry continues to innovate practices and technology to meet the ever-increasing consumer demand for quality and transparency," McGuffin said. "Expanding global supply chains for herbal products present new opportunities and challenges for the industry and AHPA's initiatives will help members and the industry identify and meet emerging challenges and capitalize on opportunities."

AHPA is receiving input from companies directly involved in agriculture and wild crafting of herbal ingredients to provide expertise for development of the GACP guidance, and will gather comments from companies that distribute herbal raw materials and manufacture herbal extracts to develop the GMP guidance.

Download McGuffin's presentation slides >>