The leading trade associations for the nutritional supplement industry launched the voluntary industry-wide protocol—Standardized Information on Dietary Ingredients (SIDI)—October 18, 2006, to facilitate the efficient exchange of information between ingredient suppliers and finished product manufacturers.
The SIDI protocol includes three standardized information sheets:
- Product Information Data Sheet—This document includes separate sub-sections for non-botanical and botanical ingredients, and product-specific physical, manufacturing, and regulatory information.
- Site Quality Overview—This part of the protocol is designed to evaluate the fundamental site-specific manufacturing practices and quality systems of suppliers.
- Supply Chain Security Overview—This last SIDI document provides an overview of a supplier’s plans to protect ingredient and supply continuity while preserving proprietary details of security controls.
The SIDI protocol is designed to:
- Help eliminate inconsistent and inaccurate information, reduce mistakes, and speed information exchange;
- Help provide a framework for suppliers to develop their own dietary ingredient information package, which would be proactively sent to manufacturers, eliminating the need to rely on questionnaires; and
- Benefit the industry as a whole, with significant monetary and human resource cost reductions.
The SIDI initiative is a cooperative effort between CHPA and the American Herbal Products Association, the Council for Responsible Nutrition, and the Natural Products Association. It is housed on all four associations’ web sites.
To review the voluntary SIDI protocol, click here.