Emerson Ecologics Quality Program Provides Healthcare Professionals with EQP Approved Manufacturers of Red Yeast Rice Supplements

BEDFORD, N.H., Nov. 22, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Emerson Ecologics has released a list of manufacturers that have received EQP (Emerson Quality Program) seals for quality manufacturing, including the production of red yeast rice supplements.  The list is intended to help healthcare professionals confidently recommend red yeast rice supplements to their patients.  The announcement follows recent warnings published by Archives of Internal Medicine on the safety of red yeast rice, which is commonly used in the management of high cholesterol.

"While it's critical to bring attention to non-compliant manufacturers of dietary supplements in order to guide healthcare practitioners to make safe and effective recommendations to their patients, it's just as important to recognize that there are companies producing exceptional supplements," says Lise Alschuler, N.D., and vice president of Quality and Education at Emerson Ecologics, the largest provider of dietary supplements and services to healthcare professionals.  "The Emerson Quality Program is making both sides transparent to healthcare professionals."

The EQP distributes unbiased and verified information about the manufacturing practices of its suppliers to healthcare professionals and highlights companies producing high quality supplements.

To be considered as an EQP partner, supplement manufacturers must be certified to be compliant with cGMP (current Good Manufacturing Practices) by a third-party such as NSF International, United States Pharmacopeia or the Natural Products Association.  Manufacturers must produce evidence of comprehensive supplier qualification, validation of raw material certificates of analysis and industry best practice testing frequency and methodologies.  Companies meeting these standards are awarded an EQP partner, EQP silver partner, or EQP gold partner seal.

"We've always recognized the importance of assuring the quality of red yeast rice and have conducted an independent verification on these products that we provide to healthcare professionals," says Alschuler.  "Our evaluation has insured that HPLC testing verified the monacolins to be within naturally occurring levels and further documented that citrinin was not present in significant quantities in these products."

Red yeast rice supplements manufactured by Douglas Laboratories, Protocol for Life Balance, Nordic Naturals, Designs for Health, PhysioLogics, and BioGenesis, have all received either the EQP Partner, EQP Silver or EQP Gold designations verifying cGMP compliance. The EQP designation further demonstrates that the manufactures have a robust raw material supplier qualification program is in place and use of the most precise and sensitive testing methodologies at validated frequencies. The EQP Gold seal encompasses stability testing and more extensive contamination testing with every batch of product produced.

Emerson Ecologics distributes more than 20,000 products from hundreds of dietary supplement manufacturers to thousands of healthcare practitioners recommending supplements to their patients on a regular basis.  Healthcare professionals can easily access third-party information about a supplement's purity, identity and potency at: https://www.emersonecologics.com/Quality/QualitySummaries.aspx.  Supplement manufactures can voluntarily apply for EQP at no cost by calling 800-654-4432.

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SOURCE Emerson Ecologics