How SGS Nutrasource develops certifications, and looking ahead at the company's future

Nutritional Outlook has recognized SGS Nutrasource as the 2025 winner of the Best of the Industry Service Provider.

In this interview, Joshua Baisley, SGS Nutrasource’s senior vice president of clinical operations, explains how the company develops the standards behind its many certifications, including the testing-based IGEN and non-GMO certifications, plus the origins of the NutraStrong certification.

Transcript

Sebastian Krawiec: So as you mentioned earlier, SGS Nutrasource offers a number of certifications. As you mentioned, the IGEN, non-GMO, the radioactivity. You also recently launched the NutraStrong certifications, as well as the International Algal Oil Standards product certification. Wonder if you could elaborate a little bit more about how SGS neutral source develops and establishes these standards, the standards behind their certifications, and what process do companies have to undergo in order to meet the standards, earn the certifications.

Joshua Baisley: So the certifications, for the most part, outside of NutraStrong, are testing based certifications, really driven by consumer interest risks in the industry. How can we help the industry communicate to the consumer the quality, the safety of the product? So that's really the basis of it. There's, of course, a number of certifications that we could always do. We really take an internal look at that, assess it, assess the market. And SGS now, they have their own process for certifications, so there's also alignment internally with the SGS standards for these certifications as well.

So each one is a little bit different. Some are lot to lot testing. Some are once a year lot testing. Each one we kind of look at the risk of the product, the profile, the SKUs, assess the industry and what's required for that. So the certifications team, that's kind of their job. They will look, they will do those assessments, and then present the framework of what that program is going to look like. It's quite a long process internally to work through all this, because we'll involve quality regulatory, ensure that when we're ready to launch, that this is something that's sustainable and that we can back. 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.