Supply chain considerations during COVID-19
Description The age-old story is ingredient booms lead to ingredient adulteration. The pandemic put strains on booming supplement botanical ingredients, particularly those for COVID-adjacent health concerns from immune support, stress and anxiety to sleep issues. (And weight management can’t be far behind.) Immune-specific herbal interests have whiplash—first a feast as consumers demanded immunity herbs like elderberry but then a famine as vaccines rolled out; consumer interest waned and supplies soured. Pity the supply chain! Brands have much to be concerned about in sourcing efficacious herbs and maintaining a solid supply chain.
This session will cover:
The valuable work future-thinking brands and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are doing to ensure a quality supply chain retains its integrity through strains in the system.
How labs can be a brand’s superpower in maintaining quality ingredients.
Real-time intel on pivoting products from immunity to vitality—the latest consumer desire.
AGENDA:
9:00 - 9:05 Opening Remarks
Emcee: Todd Runestad, Ingredients & Supplements Editor, Natural Products INSIDER
9:05 - 9:40am How to ensure a quality supply chain retains its integrity through strains in the system
Moderator: Fran Schoenwetter, Content Marketing Director, New Hope Network
Speakers: Mark Blumenthal, Founder & Executive Director, American Botanical Council
Art Rowe-Cerveny, VP Marketing, PharmaCare US
The pandemic opened up raw material supply chain issues and opportunism that have always existed, but became plainly more aggressive when demand outstripped supply for elderberry and several other botanicals. Did you see the supply scarcity coming? Did you have tools for combatting external forces driving adulteration? What happened to inventory and price parity when demand spiked—then tanked? And should you be shifting marketing strategies to address quality and adulteration concerns in messaging?
9:45 - 10:20am Emerging technologies to future-proof supply chains
Speaker: Kantha Shelke, Ph.D., Principal, Corvus Blue LLC
The US Food Safety Modernization Act is changing supply-chain management around the world by mandating digitization of antiquated and inadequate operations to meet consumer expectations of safety and quality. The real value of FSMA will be through deep analysis of data and benchmarking that can future-proof supply chains. This non-commercial presentation will trace opportunities emerging from the disruption created by the coronavirus pandemic across value chains in the food and supplement industries and present innovative technologies that are effectively and efficiently tracking how ingredients and foods are produced and distributed. Suppliers, manufacturers and retailers will be inspired to take advantage of opportunities emerging from current events by adopting simple and efficient technologies to manage inventory, audit compliance, and analytics. Real-world case studies reveal how simple digital forms can enhance data capture with translation, offline mode and error checks and result in better cost-savings, safety, quality and supply-chain control.
10:25 - 11:00am How labs can be your superpower in maintaining quality ingredients
Moderator: Fran Schoenwetter, Content Marketing Director, New Hope Network
Speakers: Elan Sudberg, CEO, Alkemist Labs
Charlotte Traas, Director of Education and Training, New Chapter
Supplements companies might spend 20 cents on the dollar of every bottle they sell on QA/QC testing in order to vouchsafe that what is on the label is in the bottle. With that much of a resource allocation, why is it kept in the dark? Why not bring Marketing into the conference room and shout to shoppers your commitment to excellence? Transparency sells, and radical transparency—revealing lab results and the “why”—should be part of your brand’s public identity. We have assembled a top-shelf lab and CPG brand to guide you in upping your quality and transparency game.