New SupplySide East Agenda, Education Announced

PHOENIXVirgo announced new exhibit hall hours, exhibit hall growth, education details and GMP training for the 13th annual SupplySide East event, May 2 to 4 at the Meadowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus, N.J.

SupplySide East features the largest exhibition of healthy and innovative ingredients in the Northeast. Hundreds of global companies will display thousands of cutting-edge ingredients and technologies. The exhibit hall is open May 3 from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and May 4 from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., which is a change from previous years. Show participants are encouraged to use the online Exhibitor Search feature on the SupplySide website, which allows users to search by company name, ingredient, brand name and services offered. It provides full contact information to enable attendees to plan meetings in advance, and allows users to build lists of exhibitors to visit at the show.

"Attendees will see more than 30 new exhibitors at SupplySide East 2011 that they didn't see last year," said Peggy Jackson, executive vice president of Virgo's Health & Nutrition Network. "We've also expanded the exhibit hall hours to give show participants time to meet all exhibiting companies."

The three-day education program will feature four tracksa Cosmeceutical Track, Food and Beverage Track, and two Nutrition Tracks, sponsored by EPAX AS. Professionals from Bayer HealthCare, GNC, Kraft/Cadbury, Sara Lee, Avon, Amway Health and Beauty New Technology R&D, and several other leading organizations served as education advisors. All education program details are available on the show website.

Highlights from the 30-session program include:

GMP Training Presented by NSF-DBA

The official GMP training program at SupplySide East, developed and presented by NSF-DBA, offers two courses, "Documentation Management for GMP Compliance" and "FDA GMP Inspection Readiness."

The first course, "100 Level Course: 21 CFR 111 - Dietary Supplement GMP Overview," will provide an in-depth review of the guidelines and review case-studies involving recent warning letters initiated to dietary supplement companies for non-compliance to 21 CFR 111 GMPs. This course is a comprehensive introduction to the GMPs for new personnel and serves as a refresher to those in QA/QC, manufacturing, production, or R&D seeking to meet a GMP training requirement.

Supplier or vendor qualification is a crucial component in GMP compliance. The "200 Level Course: GMP Vendor Qualification & Auditor Training," will discuss how supplier qualification principles also apply to subcontracted services (manufacturing steps, packaging and labeling, testing and/or calibration services, storage and distribution, etc.), the critical components any supplier qualification program must include, the process of auditing, auditing techniques and much more.

Daily Networking Events

Several additional events offer continued networking. The SupplySide Happy Hour will be held Monday, May 2, from 4 to 5 p.m. in the Meadowlands Exposition Center immediately after the education program concludes for the day. With Natural Health Science's sponsorship, the Opening Reception, on Tuesday, May 3, is moving to the atrium of the Embassy Suites, next to the Meadowlands, from 4 to 5 p.m. The Appreciation Reception, co-sponsored by Premium Ingredients International and Suzhou Vitajoy Bio-Tech Co Ltd., will be held on the exhibit floor from noon to 1 p.m. on Wednesday, May 4. All three receptions are open to all attendees, speakers and exhibitors.

More than 20 leading companies are sponsoring the SupplySide East event, including major sponsors AGG - Anderson Global Group, EPAX AS, Lesaffre Human Care, Pharmachem Laboratories, Natural Health Science Inc. and Proprietary Nutritionals Inc.