Certifications, Clinical Trials, and Consumer Trust: How SGS NutriSource Serves the Industry

We live in a time when consumer trust is paramount. That means investing in clinical substantiation and certifications; substantial investments that require finding the right partner. SGS Nutrasource is one such partner that can help streamline this process by offering consulting, contract research, and certification services in-house. The company will work closely with clients so that their products can meet the strict demands of consumers. That level of expertise and capabilities is why SGS Nutrasource is Nutritional Outlook's 2025 Best of the Industry, Service Provider.

Omega-3 Beginnings

SGS Nutrasource (Guelph, ON, Canada) was founded in 2002 by Will Rowe, who is the president and CEO, and Dr. Bruce J. Holub from the University of Guelph with the idea of commercializing a diagnostic test that measures blood omega-3 levels. The company soon went on to do product testing of omega-3 dietary supplements to validate safety and quality, which led to the launch of the International Fish Oil Standards (IFOS) Program, a pioneer in third-party certifications.

“It was a novel concept at the time to have an actual certification for an ingredient,” explains Joshua Baisley, vice president of clinical operations for SGS Nutrasource. “The certification was based on testing, and Health Canada at the time in 2004 came out with the Natural Health Product Regulations and guidelines on testing requirements. From there, clinical research started because Health Canada came up with a monograph. So, to be different, you needed to do your own clinical research. [We were] very omega-3 focused, and then the regulatory component was the natural add-on from there to support the filings with Health Canada.”

So in short succession, SGS Nutrasource went from diagnostic testing to product testing, certification, consulting services, and clinical research services, fulfilling a need in the marketplace as companies sought guidance in navigating newfound regulations. Baisley joined SGS Nutrasource in 2013 and quickly realized that the company should expand beyond omega-3s.

It really comes down to starting with the end in mind. We really want to understand what you want to get out of this trial.” — Joshua Baisley, SGS Nutrasource

“I joined in 2013 [when Nutrasource was] still very focused on omega-3s. I was brought in to help with the clinical site, but eventually the CRO component as well with my background—I actually worked on pretty much every other dietary supplement other than omega-3s,” Baisley recounts. “To me, coming from the clinical world, the design is more important. It's about indications. It's about claims, and the ingredient, while it's important and it does have some nuances that have a role in the trial, is not the primary component of the trial design. So, when I joined, I said, ‘Okay, great model. Let's expand it beyond omega-3s and really branch out across the nutraceutical space.’ ”

Clinical Research Support

According to Baisley, the drive for clinical research is multifaceted. Brands for example, want to differentiate. “How do you differentiate yourself? You're going to have to have claims, novel claims. How do you stand out on that shelf? And in order to get those claims, you need the validation behind it,” he explains. There is also pressure from consumers for science-backed products, which puts pressure on brands and ingredient suppliers.

“Ingredient companies, the large ones, are always looking for acquisitions or to purchase other ingredients, but they want the science behind that before they invest in it,” observes Baisley. “So, it's kind of this ripple effect that's starting at the consumer but goes back through the entire product chain.”

So, when it comes to working with customers on clinical research, SGS Nutrasource understands the different reasons for pursuing research and will tailor the process to meet those needs. “It really comes down to starting with the end in mind; we really want to understand what you want to get out of this trial,” says Baisley. “For some companies, it's pure marketing. Science isn't a priority. In other cases, it could be that they're doing a pilot study, and it really is just to find out: Is there a signal? Am I on the right track? Should I be investing money into this type of indication? Again, those types of studies don't need the same rigor, right? It's more about a fact-finding mission. Then, there are others who have already done some of that work; they know this is where they want to go, and these are the claims they want to make.”

“We can never guarantee the success, but what we can do is mitigate risk as much as possible,” adds Baisley. “It all comes down to, at the end, does the product work? If we've designed everything well and robustly, that's really what it comes down to: does the product work?”

Certifications

Third-party certifications are an important way to help consumers identify products that meet a high standard of quality. SGS Nutrasource offers a wealth of certifications that target either specific ingredients or qualities, such as fish oil, krill oil, algal oil, probiotics, and non-GMO.

“How the certifications are designed is really based on consumer feedback, trends, and risks that are in the industry,” explains Baisley. “How can we create something that's consumer-facing, that means something to the consumer, and has transparency?”

Each certification has different requirements, developed based on a thorough assessment by SGS Nutrasource’s certification team. “It's quite a long process internally to work through all this, because we'll involve Quality Regulatory to ensure that when we're ready to launch, this is something that's sustainable and that we can back,” explains Baisley. “Of course, there's the testing component. So, it's again, validation of the labs, ensuring they've got the methodology in place, that we've got the partnerships in place to support the demand as we launch these programs.”

One example of how SGS Nutrasource uniquely positions its certifications to meet the needs of customers is its iGen non-GMO certification. Unlike the Non-GMO Project, which is based on assessing the paper trail of a product and its ingredients, iGen is testing-based in that it actually tests to see if there’s genetically modified material in the product.

There is also the NutraStrong certification launched in 2023, which takes a bit of a different approach to some of SGS Nutrasource’s other certifications. “[NutraStrong] was started to be a little bit more broad-based. Rather than being specific to an ingredient, we're looking more at categories, and do you fit those categories?” says Baisley. “Collagen was one of the first ones, because there are claims of vegan collagens versus your standard collagens, and that was kind of the first catalyst for that program.”

Two collagen ingredients, Lonza Capsules & Health Ingredients’ (Morristown, NJ) UC-II and Bioiberica’s (Barcelona, Spain) Collavant n2, both earned NutraStrong certification, which was important because they were able to certify that their collagen was native undenatured collagen, a point of differentiation for them. NutraStrong has also been used to certify prebiotics, in the case of Comet’s Arrabina ingredient.

How the certifications are designed are really based on consumer feedback, trends and risks that are in the industry...How can we create something that’s consumer facing, that means something to the consumer, and has transparency?” — Joshua Baisley, SGS Nutrasource

Looking Ahead

SGS Nutrasource was acquired by SGS in 2023, which has opened up a number of opportunities for the company, and these benefits extend to customers as well.

“We're really looking to grow Nutrasource more globally, to really build the [dietary supplement] category for SGS,” says Baisley. “The benefit, of course, of coming into SGS is the unbelievable amount of resources that we now have at our disposal. When we're working on studies with cosmetic-like properties, we have a network now of 20 sites that we own that are cosmetic focused. So, it's bringing our rigor into those sites to now utilize the equipment and the expertise that are already in-house. We have bioanalytical capabilities throughout the world now that we can tap into, and there's the pharmaceutical side, of course, as well. And there are many shared resources. When you're in the clinical space, [for] a lot of your subcontract work, you're using the same labs as pharma. We have access to a lot of these things now, all in-house, that previously were outsourced.”

Going from 100 to 100,000 associates globally also increases the amount of internal resources available to SGS Nutrasource that enhances its capabilities to meet the demands of customers. We look forward to seeing the continued growth of SGS Nutrasource in response to the growing demand for substantiation and certification in the natural products space.

Click here for more on Nutritional Outlook's 2025 Best of the Industry Awards.