The organization was founded in 1992 to help shape the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA), the regulatory, quality, and public policy framework that enabled dietary supplements to evolve from a niche market into a global industry serving hundreds of millions of consumers worldwide.
“We’ve accomplished everything that we set out to do,” Israelsen told NutraIngredients. “When we began, we had one goal, and we were formed in a very different way than most associations. It was one mission. We were in a unique spot at that time that I’d worked for Senator Hatch. He was in a very powerful position in the Senate, chair of the HELP committee, very large industry in Utah. FDA was literally battering and bashing the industry to a point where we really felt [that without] federal legislation or something dramatic, we as an industry had nowhere to go.”
UNPA – at that time known as the Utah Natural Products Alliance – was founded with eight companies, many of whom were intense competitors.
“I was proud that the founding members recognized, setting aside personal differences, we have a far bigger problem,” he said. “We drafted a one-page outline of what it is we would need, flew to Washington, sat with Senator Hatch. He had always said to us, if you need help, let me know. And we didn’t want to ask lightly, but I came in and said, ‘Senator, we really need your help now’. And he said, ‘What can I do?’ So, I hand him this one pager. He looked at it for maybe five or eight seconds, and he said, ‘I’m in’.”
UNPA changed its name to the United Natural Products Alliance in 2005 to reflect the growing diversity and geographic reach of its membership, which expanded across North America, Europe, and Asia to include dietary supplement manufacturers, ingredient suppliers, contract manufacturers, analytical laboratories, scientific organizations, and service providers.
The intention, said Israelsen, was to always be an alliance and not an association. “We agreed on ground rules,” he said, “which is one for all, all for one. Everything we would do would be by some level of consensus. Nobody had senior voting rights of any kind. That remained our approach from that date to this moment. And that has made us something of a different organization.”
UNPA still has six months of work ahead, during which time Israelsen said he’d like to see FDA act on some of the key initiatives like the exclusionary rule, which he described as a “big problem that I believe is going to get worse before it gets better”. Also on the list is a cleanup on the NDI issues, and he said he would dearly love to see a relook at GMPs, although that is unlikely in the next six months.
Why now and what’s next?
Israelsen’s contributions have been recognized with numerous lifetime achievement and leadership awards, including being named the NutraIngredients USA NutraChampion in 2021. Earlier this month, Sonoran University of Health Sciences awarded Israelsen an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree in recognition of his extraordinary contributions to the dietary supplement industry and public health.
So why now? “The industry has evolved,” said Israelsen. “We have a number of very capable organizations, trade associations. We now have a range of category associations that are looking after the affairs of now billion dollar-plus categories. That did not exist previously. My sense is the industry is well managed. It’s in good hands, people who know what they’re doing.
“And if I’m ever going to take a look at the other side of the mountain, I think now’s a good time. And it doesn’t mean I disappear. It means that next year I will have a new freedom to think about and act on projects and ideas that I’ve been interested in for a very long time, but honestly have not had the time to work on those as I would like to.”
Watch the video for the full interview, which also includes Israelsen’s take on AI, whether the industry needs champions in Congress, the people who had the biggest influence on his career, and what to expect during its final UNPA member retreat in September.
