Nutricap Labs (Farmingdale, NY) recently announced its placement on the 2009 Inc. 5,000 list. Ranked the 42nd fastest-growing company in America by Inc. Magazine, the company boosted revenues from $542,000 in 2005 to $16.3 million in 2008. Nutricap Labs was also ranked the fourth fastest-growing private company in the New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA area and was ranked the third fastest-growing company in the health industry.

The Inc. 5,000 is an expansion of the Inc. 500, a list introduced by the small business magazine in 1982. The list is compiled according to percentage revenue growth over a four-year period. Companies must be independent, privately held and based in the United States in order to qualify for selection.

“To be named to this exclusive list and for us to be considered one of America’s fastest-growing companies is truly an honor,” said Jason Provenzano, executive vice president of sales and operations for Nutricap Labs. “When we founded Nutricap Labs nearly a decade ago, we knew that the breadth of services we offered our customers would make us a successful and profitable organization. Never in our wildest dreams though did we expect it to happen so quickly. We are extremely proud of this accomplishment and we are looking forward to enjoying many more years of continued growth.”

For more information, call (800) 494-6154 or visit www.nutricaplabs.com.

The Socially Responsible Business Awards (SRBA) breakfast, originally scheduled for September 24 at Natural Products Expo East in Boston, has been canceled. The SRBA board made the announcement due to several unforeseen technical issues that the board thought would compromise the integrity of this highly respected annual event. The breakfast is planned to resume in the fall of 2010.

The SBRA board wishes to thank the companies that pledged to sponsor this year’s awards: UNFI, Herbalist & Alchemist, Clif Bar, Aubrey Organics, White Wave and the annual main sponsor, Golden Temple.

For information about the 2010 SRBA awards, sign up to be included in future communications at the SRBA website, www.sociallyresponsibleawards.org, or send an email to jill@jillettinger.com.

InterMed Discovery (IMD, Dortmund, Germany), a natural product lead-discovery company, recently announced the acquisition of unique microbial omega-3 fatty acid production strains and related know-how from the University of Saarland. This microbial source has the potential to produce omega-3 more sustainably and reliably compared to established sources.

The two fatty acids EPA and DHA are particularly important and the concentrations of both and their ratios are directly related to the utility of omega-3 in different therapeutic settings, IMD said. At present, omega-3 fatty acids, particularly those with high levels of EPA, are derived from fish. However, with dwindling fish populations and rising demand for omega-3, the search for more sustainable alternatives has been on for the company. In addition, according to IMD, fish is an unreliable source since the omega-3 concentration can exhibit significant batch variation. This is also a problem with potential alternative sources such as algae, which generate mainly DHA while the yields for EPA are very low or even none at all.

The microbial strains that IMD has acquired are sustainable sources that generate reliably high yields of omega-3 fatty acids, which significantly out-perform current sources. This source also offers a more favorable ratio between the fatty acids DHA and EPA. This is, in turn, expected to lead to the development of enhanced omega-3 formulations allowing for outstanding and new product applications for the pharma, food and dietary supplement industries.

IMD will lead the collaborative research and development project with the team at the University of Saarland.

For more information, visit www.intermed-discovery.com.

The American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) recently filed comments with the US Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Program (NOP) expressing support for its draft guidance document recognizing that the Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA) allows for the certification and labeling of soap products formulated and produced in accordance with NOP regulation as “organic” or “made with” organic ingredients.   

“Some in the industry have expressed concern that allowing certification and labeling of soap as organic is a violation of OFPA,” NOP wrote in the July 24 draft document. “We disagree.” According to the document, “soap products formulated using certified organic oils and materials included on the National List may be certified and labeled as ‘organic’ or ‘made with organic [specified ingredients],’” Further, when such certified soap products are provided to downstream processors, “they may be further processed into ‘organic’ or ‘made with’ products,” NOP stated.

“Our strong support for extending the NOP to include soap made from agricultural ingredients is consistent with our established position that the OFPA is best applied broadly to all organic products based on content and irrespective of end use,” said AHPA President Michael McGuffin.
 
The draft document also provides guidance on the labeling of “organic” or “made with” organic soap products. Consistent with NOP regulations, the ingredient statement should list all organic and synthetic ingredients: “the actual organic ingredient and the synthetic ingredient used to make the soap.”
 
FDA has communicated to AHPA its position that in designating cosmetic soap ingredients, a labeler may declare its ingredients either as the starting materials that went into making the soap or the resulting reaction products. It is apparent from the language of the draft guidance that NOP would require the listing on a soap label of the “starting materials” that were used to make a soap, and is, therefore, consistent with one of the two options that FDA allows for labeling soap.

The draft document, however, provides an example of labeling for finished products containing organic saponified oils (i.e., soaps), and states that if a saponified oil is produced as part of a separate process, it may be listed as a parenthetical statement, such as “saponified organic oil (organic coconut oil, potassium hydroxide), water, glycerin, beet juice color.” AHPA comments that neither “saponified organic oil” nor “soap” currently appear to be allowed under FDA regulations.

“AHPA encourages NOP to initiate communication with FDA to clarify the issue,” said McGuffin, “and we look forward to continuing to work with NOP and FDA on this subject.”

The Organic Center, a research organization focused on the science of organic food and farming, released a statement recently refuting claims made by the UK's Food Standards Agency (FSA) in its report on the nutritional value of organic foods. The FSA’s study entitled "Nutritional quality of organic foods: a systematic review" was led by Alan Dangour of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and concluded that there is no substantive difference in nutritional quality of organic foods versus conventionally grown counterparts. The study is evoking controversy in the public over the value of the $48 billion plus organic marketplace.

“We (The Organic Center) strongly refute the claim made by Dr. Alan Dangour and his UK colleagues that the nutritional benefits of organic food are ‘not important.’  Left unchallenged, the UK team’s study and Dr. Dangour’s remarks could erode consumer confidence in the inherent nutritional and health benefits of organic food,” The Organic Center said in a statement. “Among the multiple missteps in the FSA’s analysis are a failure to properly assess differences in the levels of key polyphenols and antioxidants and not using stringent guidelines to determine whether the studies are scientifically valid.”

The Organic Center cited its March 2008 report covering many of the same studies comparing nutrient levels in organic and conventional foods, having confirmed that organic foods were, on average, 25 percent higher across 11 key nutrients compared to conventional foods.  

“In a separate report released in May 2009, we analyzed dozens of studies, the majority published in the last three years, that collectively show exposure to pesticides during pregnancy and the first years of life increases the risk of obesity, neurological problems and diabetes,” The Organic Center said. “With the average American child exposed to 10 to 13 pesticides daily in food and drink and the rate of new diabetes cases doubling in the last decade, reducing pesticides in children’s foods is a top public health priority.

“Environmental benefits of organic farming include promoting more bio-diverse, agricultural landscapes; helping reverse the effects of global warming through sequestering more carbon than conventional farming; and improving health and survival among honey bee and endangered fish and amphibian species.

We call upon government bodies, academic institutions, business leaders and consumers to join us in contesting this incomplete and flawed analysis of the benefits of organic food and farming.”

For a full analysis of the FSA report, visit: www.organic-center.org/science.nutri.php?action=view_id=157. For a full version of The Organic Center’s March 2008 report, visit www.organic-center.org/science.funded.php?action=view_id=126.

For this year’s holiday season, Organic Valley (LaFarge, WI) will host Celebrate Organic, a campaign for retailers to boost the sales of Organic Valley cooking and baking ingredients through recipes, coupons and the chance to win prizes. Celebrate Organic also gives customers a chance to help those in need through a contest which awards cash donations to three food banks nominated by shoppers. The campaign launches November 1, 2009.
 
Celebrate Organic will help drive sales of Organic Valley butters, cream cheese, Neufchatel cheese, half & half and heavy whipping cream, and can easily integrate with individual stores’ holiday promotional programs, the company said. Organic Valley will provide retailers with Celebrate Organic themed point-of-sale materials that include a web address for contest details and holiday recipes. Organic Valley’s Rootstock magazine —delivered free upon request to retailers in shipper/display boxes—will also feature organic holiday recipes and $6 worth of coupons. To make the program even more attractive to retailers, a public relations campaign and national consumer advertising with coupons support the Celebrate Organic promotion.
 
With the offer to Share and Save, shoppers are directed online to www.organicvalley.coop/celebrate to receive additional coupons worth $10 off Organic Valley products, plus healthy recipes and gift giving tips. While online, they can also enter a drawing in which five winners will be selected to win a year of free Organic Valley products. From those five, three grand prizewinners will be randomly chosen to receive the “Local Organic Heroes” donation for their local food pantry.
 
During the Celebrate Organic campaign, shoppers will be asked to nominate their retailer for the “Local Organic Heroes” food pantry award. The retailers named by the three contest grand prize winners will each receive a $2,500 cash donation for their chosen local food pantry, to be made on behalf of the winning shopper and their identified retailer.
 
Retailers interested in more information about participating in Celebrate Organic can contact their Organic Valley regional sales manager for details, or order in-store materials online at www.organicvalley.coop/promos before September 28, 2009, while supplies last.

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