Emerson Ecologics LLC, the leading distributor of more than 275 professional brands of vitamins, supplements and natural health products to health care practitioners, announced that it is raising the bar in its Emerson Quality Program(SM) (EQP). The key change to the program includes a revised assessment of every brand distributed by Emerson in order to demonstrate present compliance with current good manufacturing practices (cGMP). This assessment of all distributed brands assures that all dietary supplement products that practitioners select for their patients come from brands that adhere to the standards set forth by Emerson Ecologics, based on federal regulations regarding the manufacture of dietary supplements.

"By requiring all of the brands we carry to verify their compliance to current good manufacturing practices," said Andy Greenawalt, CEO, "we reinforce our commitment to our customers as their preferred source of safe, trustworthy and clinically effective products, while allowing the increasing number of brands that go beyond required quality processes to share their practices with our professional customers. The industry has come a long way in the last four years and it was time to update our program to reflect this progress." As a result of this new requirement, some brands have been discontinued for failure to verify their compliance. 

Additional changes to the Emerson Quality Program include elimination of the base EQP Partner level, further distinguishing the EQP Silver and EQP Gold Partners for going above and beyond the quality practices required by law. EQP Silver and EQP Gold Partners have all exceeded cGMP requirements, including the use of the most sensitive analytical testing methods for required ingredient and product testing and testing all at-risk materials for a full profile of contaminants and impurities. Emerson has also increased its own verification testing of finished products and will now include annual testing of multiple products for all EQP Silver and EQP Gold Partners. The verification activities of the EQP include an Emerson on-site audit for all EQP Silver and EQP Gold Partners.