BCIT’s Natural Health and Food Products Group (NRG) has signed an MOU with the United Natural Products Alliance (UNPA) forming a formal strategic partnership that will benefit the global natural health product industry by: creating better ways to share information, identifying priority research areas, developing resources to promote the use of validated analytical technologies, and encouraging innovation and the advancement of the state of practice in natural health products industry internationally.
“We are proud to join the growing UNPA brain trust.” says Kim Dotto, BCIT’s Dean of Applied Research. NRG has been supporting the local and international herbal industry for over 15 years and is pioneering much-needed standardization of methods for testing herbal ingredients and finished products.”
The United Natural Products Alliance (UNPA) is an international association representing many leading natural products, dietary supplement, functional food, scientific and technology and related service companies that share a commitment to provide consumers with natural health products of superior quality, benefit and reliability. The goals of this industry association align seamlessly with NRG’s emphasis on product sources and quality standards, with a focus on health policy, regulatory affairs, product formulation, botanical authentication, analytical method development and validation, and therapeutic monitoring for preclinical and clinical studies.
“Working with her colleagues at BCIT, Dr. Paula Brown has worked tirelessly to forward rigorous natural product and dietary supplement research and education in North America,” said UNPA President Loren Israelsen, “The organization has taken a leading role in projects to benefit the agri-food industry and in developing recommendations in analytical chemistry and regulatory framework for natural products and botanicals. We look forward to working with BCIT and its faculty in addressing these issues as they see growing significance and global market relevance.”
BCIT joins two other institutions of higher education and a total of 15 UNPA MOU and commercial partners forming a growing brain trust of resources for UNPA membership and the dietary supplement industry at large.
“This strategic partnership illustrates the growing role BCIT applied research and innovation is playing in enhancing productivity, growth and innovation on an international level.” Kim Dotto, Dean Applied Research
For more information, please contact Hazrah Moothoo
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