CRN announces upgrades to Supplement OWL Platform

The Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN; Washington, D.C.) has upgraded several aspects of its Supplement Online Wellness Library (OWL) to increase ease of use. “Serving as a resource for regulators, retailers, industry, and consumers since 2017, the Supplement OWL continues to help create a rich and more complete picture of the dietary supplement marketplace,” said Luke Huber, ND, MBA, vice president, scientific and regulatory affairs, CRN, in a press release. “After evaluating company feedback on the registry, CRN worked to make uploading dietary supplement labels into the OWL registry easier than ever.”

To improve entry of product information and overall user experience, CRN added a self-service portal and developed new tools within the registry to add, edit, and remove products more easily, as well as a bulk-upload feature for adding groups of products more conveniently. A multi-version component helps companies efficiently enter product information for multiple versions of the same product in circulation. Multifactor authentication has also been added to improve security for participating companies, and a supplier feature allows brand owners to designate their contract manufacturer as business use with administrative capabilities on their behalf. Additional educational resources will help participants learn the Supplement OWL’s new features.

“CRN members and other responsible industry players recognize the importance of broad industry participation in the Supplement OWL to create a more transparent marketplace,” said Huber. “Extensive registry participation is critical as this self-regulatory initiative also serves as a model for mandatory product listing proposed by FDA and supported by CRN and other industry stakeholders. The Supplement OWL helps regulators keep bad actors off the market, provides a tool for retailers to list their current product offerings, and promotes industry’s accountability to consumers, regulators and the broader industry.”