Anyone Can Say They Follow or Surpass GMP Guidelines—But How Do You Prove It?

When you have been manufacturing natural health products for over four decades, you learn that quality is rarely about one dramatic decision. It is built through hundreds of smaller ones:

• Where did this ingredient come from?
• Was it properly identified?
• Does it meet our specifications?
• Was the correct amount weighed?
• Was the equipment properly cleaned?
• Was the process documented?
• Did the finished product pass testing before it was released?

Most consumers will never see those decisions being made. But they matter enormously to us, here at New Roots Herbal. And there is a simple analogy I often use to explain why.

Would You Buy a House without a Certified Inspection?

Most of us know someone who has had a bad experience with a contractor. The house looks beautiful when it is finished. The walls are freshly painted. The new kitchen shines. The contractor assures you that the electrical work was done correctly, the plumbing meets code, and everything behind those walls is exactly as it should be. But you cannot see behind the drywall. So, whose word do you take? There is a big difference between a contractor saying: “I followed the rules” and having a certified independent inspector examine the work while the walls were open and guarantee that the standards were really met. That is why certified building inspections give homeowners confidence. And it is one of the easiest ways I can explain how we view Good Manufacturing Practices and cGMP certification.

Saying You Are Following a High Standard Versus Proving It, Year after Year

Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) are designed to establish many disciplined systems controlling how products are manufactured, documented, and released. A company can establish procedures and declare that they follow or surpass GMP. But without impartial, external certification—meaning all your records and all your procedures get examined every year—what does the declaration really mean?

New Roots Herbal was following—even exceeding—GMP standards for years. But we wanted to go further. We already had experienced people, including a Quality Control / Quality Assurance team (QC/QA) where 88% hold at least a bachelor’s degree. We had detailed procedures, extensive quality controls, and something I consider equally important, namely a company culture in which doing things properly matters. Quality was not a new initiative we needed to create for an audit. It was already how our employees worked. Eventually, that led us to ask a very straightforward question: If we believed so strongly in the systems we had built, why not put them to the test? So, we did.

We pursued Current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) certification and opened our manufacturing operation to a rigorous assessment:

• Our facility was inspected.
• Our documentation was examined.
• Our procedures and quality controls were scrutinized.

And we passed on our first attempt. I am proud of that achievement, but perhaps not for the reason you might expect. The certificate itself matters, but what matters even more is what had to exist behind it: a solid professional foundation.

Preexisting Quality Control

Stringent quality-control measures had to be built into the process. You cannot inspect the quality of a product at the very end. It needs to begin before manufacturing even starts. At New Roots Herbal, quality-control oversight begins with raw materials and continues throughout production and finished-product release. Our current manufacturing process includes steps for raw-material verification and quarantine, in-process controls, bottling and labelling, final-product quarantine, and quality-control analysis before release. Our team of quality-control and quality-assurance specialists oversees these processes, sending ingredients and finished products to be tested in an on-site, independently managed ISO 17025–accredited laboratory—the highest, strictest accreditation standard for analytical laboratories.

Some companies state they only buy from trusted suppliers. While we appreciate good suppliers, we don’t trust them blindly. We always test everything they send us. First, we test their sample. If it meets our expectation, we place a full order. When the full shipment arrives, we test it again, in full.

Those details may sound technical, but the philosophy behind them is very simple: Trust is stronger when it can be verified. When you pick up a bottle of vitamins, probiotics, herbal extracts, minerals, or another natural health product, there is a great deal you cannot see.

You cannot look at a capsule and determine the identity of every raw material.

You cannot judge potency by looking at a powder.

You cannot see the manufacturing records, testing results, cleaning procedures, or quality systems that preceded that finished bottle.

Much like the wiring or plumbing behind the wall of a new home, much of what determines quality is hidden from view. That makes accountability particularly important.

Certification Is Not the Finish Line

I also do not believe certification means a company gets to congratulate itself and stop improving. The “c” in cGMP stands for current: For us, that extra word matters. Manufacturing technology accelerates. Analytical testing improves. Scientific knowledge advances. Equipment evolves. Expectations rise. A serious quality system must keep pace with these changes.

That mindset is reflected in our continued investment in manufacturing, testing, technology, and quality assurance. New Roots Herbal describes its facility as a certified cGMP manufacturing operation, with quality controls extending from incoming raw materials through finished products. And that is the standard we intend to keep building on.

Why This Matters to You

Consumers should not need to become manufacturing experts to choose a natural health product. But I do believe you deserve to know what stands behind the name on the bottle. When we say quality matters at New Roots Herbal, we do not want you to simply accept that because we said it. We chose to have our systems assessed. We chose accountability. We chose to demonstrate that the manufacturing standards we talk about are standards we are prepared to be measured against. Because after more than 40 years in the natural-health industry, one principle has remained remarkably simple: What is inside the bottle matters.

Peter F. Wilkes

A Montréal native and natural-medicine advocate, he has built a distinguished career in natural products, founding successful ventures including New Roots Herbal and NHP Laboratories. He remains committed to developing innovative, high-quality products that support evolving health-care needs in Canada and beyond.