USP Launches Dietary Supplement Certification Program

Donna Young

The United States Pharmacopeia (USP) launched the Dietary Supplement Verification Program (DSVP) last November to evaluate and confirm the contents of dietary supplement products, the manufacturing processes of firms, and their compliance with purity standards. DSVP does not address health or other claims offered by the manufacturer. The USP is now making the DSVP certification mark available to manufacturers to place on container labels, which will help assure consumers, healthcare professionals, and retail distributors that the product contains the ingredients—including the amount and strength—declared on the product's label. Manufacturers are responsible for establishing guidelines to ensure that dietary supplement products are safe and contain the ingredients listed on the labels. The verification mark will be issued to companies that submit their products for evaluations based on laboratory testing of product samples and regular monitoring, audits of manufacturer's quality systems, and quality control and reviews of manufacturing data. To read the entire article, go to http://www.ashp.org/public/news/breaking/ShowArticle.cfm?id=2792. This article also appeared in AJHP Feb 1, 2002. Return to Top