OpTree

The salmonella scare that has hit the U.S. has finally made its way to the direct sales industry. Amway Global has announced that the company has voluntarily issued a recall of three types of the Nutrilite Energy Bars due to the possibility that they contain peanut paste that has been tainted with salmonella.

Last week, Amway Global recalled three flavors, the vanilla pretzel, peanut butter and chocolate nut roll Energy Bars. The company said that those three flavors possibly contain or have been tainted in some way by the peanut paste that is at the center of the health scare.

The recent salmonella outbreak has been traced by the Food and Drug Administration to the Peanut Corporation of America in Georgia, a vendor that Amway sometimes uses for their products. Robin Luymes, communications manager for Amway said that customers have been notified by letter.

Amway also notified customers that another product sold in the Amway Global catalog, the Austin Toasty Crackers, have been recalled due to contamination as well.

If you have purchased these products through Amway or an Amway Global rep, please either return them to the company or throw them away!! Although no confirmed cases of salmonella have been linked to Amway products, it’s better to be safe!

The products, SKUs, and manufacturing lots are being recalled are:

Vanilla Pretzel Energy Bar, SKU/UPC 10-6529; lot numbers 8219A, 8242A, 8276A and 8304A

Peanut Butter Energy Bar, SKU/UPC 10-6530; lot numbers 8294A and 8340A

Chocolate Nut Roll Energy Bar, SKU/UPC 10-6528; lots numbers 8287A, 8357A and 8246A

Product Intro Kit, SKU/UPC E9745; lot numbers 8275BPS1, 8275BPS2, 8275BPS3, 8275MSN1, 8275MSN2 and 8275MSN3.

The lot numbers appear on both the package and the individual bars.

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With all the news lately about alleged excessive lead levels and questions about product safety and the FDA jumping in, Mannatech took no time in announcing that several of their products have been certified by NSF International an accredited testing laboratory.

The products, Ambrotose and Advanced Ambrotose Glyconutritional Supplements have had the purity of the products tested and reviewed and determined as being pure and safe.

NSF is a public health certification organization that works to review products and certify the efficacy of statements made on the labels. NSF reviews the contents of products and tests them to make sure that all ingredients present in the supplements are listed on the label and are safe for consumption. Rather than simply testing products, the NSF also requires visits to the manufacturing facility before they were complete the certification.

After careful evaluation of the two products, NSF found that they met requirements of the NSF/ANSI 173 Dietary Supplement Standard which is the only American National Standard for dietary supplements. Mannatech will be proudly displaying the NSF seal on their supplements and will put notice of the certification in all of their consumer product information material.

“NSF certification is just one part of the extraordinary quality and purity measures Mannatech adheres to throughout its product management process,” said Marika Berkley, vice president of global regulatory affairs and quality assurance. “In addition to selecting ingredients that meet our rigorous purity standards, Mannatech ensures all its manufacturers adhere to industry-standard GMPs. We continually monitor our manufacturing partners and conduct frequent in-house and independent tests of the efficacy and purity of our products.”

This is a great accomplishment for the company, and actually for any company, especially companies that sell dietary supplements. Dietary supplements are not as stringently tested and many are sold without having to meet any kind of safety requirements. Within the MLM industry there has been so much talk lately about high lead levels, especially with Herbalife which is being sued for dangerous lead levels in products. Just to stay in business, it might soon become necessary to have products tested and certified for safety.

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This was an unusually active week in the MLM world given the surprising news of Weekenders going out of business and filing for bankruptcy without any notice to its Distributors. Some of the more clever burned distributors have started taking to eBay to hock their wares and recoup some money.

We also started seeing that Mannatech appears to be getting out from its own legal troubles by settling a case which has plagued the company for some time now.

In other legal news, Herbalife continues to be harassed by the lead suit that a woman has filed over claims that she has suffered liver damage from using their products. This latest fiasco stemmed from the infamous Barry Minkow who has Herbalife on his radar and just wont let go. This also comes at a time when the FDA has started cracking down on false claims made both from and against the industry.

Tupperware is the lasted MLM company to be affected by the US economy woes being hit with higher prices from Dow Chemical Co due to the rising costs of resin - one of the main components in Tupperware’s products.

In more positive news, the Stevie Awards were handed out and both Shaklee and USANA each won an award presented by the American Business Association.

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is cracking down further on the world of nutritional supplements, dietary aids, teas and crams that make false promises to cure cancer. The FDA prohibits companies from selling the “over the counter” and “over the web” aids that make false claims, especially since the government can not verify the efficacy their efficacy.

This week, the agency sent out warning letters to 25 companies on their hit list of companies that sell products over the web claiming they cure diseases such as cancer. The letters went to companies and individuals and sent a stern warning that the FDA will not tolerate the sale of these products under false pretenses. The FDA worries that by using these products, consumers will not seek reliable medical treatment. The FDA is also concerned that because the products aren’t tested, they could have hazardous results to consumer’s health. (Herbalife should pay attention……)

“The FDA is very concerned that consumers will purchase these products on the Internet and use them instead of products that have been proven safe and effective,” said Michael Levy, director of labeling the agency’s new drug division

While none of the letters were sent to Multi-Level Marketing Companies, or Direct Sales companies, there have been a few MLM companies over the last few years that have received some harsh criticism for making “miracle cure” claims about their products and supplements. In just the last week, as the FDA sent these letters, we saw Mannatech-www.mannatech.com- settle lawsuits in part over false claims made by their distributors about the effectiveness of their products. Herbalife is also in the midst of a terrible suit over claims that their products are harming consumers with too much lead.

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