Looking Back By Sid Sudberg In 1997, my son, Elan, and I created Alkemist Labs after I attended a couple of FDA classes in botanical identification to help the dietary supplement industry self-govern. The FDA offered the class following its investigation of an adulteration issue that involved plantain being adulterated with Digitalis lanata that caused […]
Category: Perspectives
Expo West 2022 Recap
Elan’s Expo West Recap Congratulations to the amazing team at Informa Markets and New Hope! Natural Products Expo West was a hit, and I didn’t catch Covid. In all seriousness, I do appreciate the delicate balance they offered in their efforts to keep us all safe. Many from the industry cautiously attended Supply Side in […]
SSW 2021 Recap from Elan
To say that ‘it was good show’ would be an understatement as SSW 2021 might go down in the history books as one of the best trade shows of the decade. While the NBJ Summit was terrific, really terrific and CRN annual meeting amazing, truly amazing, nothing beats the Las Vegas energy coupled with the […]
Elan’s 2020 Industry Resolutions
Elan’s 2020 Industry Resolutions A new year is often a time of reflection, and many people make New Year’s Resolutions, which they may or may not keep, with varying degrees of success. Simply, put, they generally fall into four categories: Start Stop Decrease Increase So here are my 2020 resolutions recommendations for our industry: The […]
Elan’s recap 2019 and forecast 2020
Looking back, Looking Forward While it won’t go down in the archives as our best one, 2019 was almost a really great year. The industry, and our little lab, experienced some challenging growing pains, along with some very real successes. As we enter the new year, it’s good to review the closing one, and go […]
DSHEA 2.0
By Elan Sudberg I’ve been ruminating on the adage, ‘what got you here won’t get you there’ as I turn 40 this month, as we strategize the future of Alkemist Labs, as the industry evolves, and as legacy regulations ripen. DSHEA was written before the internet was a thing, passed in 1994 and then just […]
Elan’s 2019 EXPO West Recap
It’s that time of year again… Post show triage where we frantically dig out from a colossal pile of hot emails received while at the show, sort through stacks of new business cards and try to recall who was what and why we were supposed to follow up, and hope in vain that the 85,000 […]
You Can Build Your Own Car Top Shower, But Should You?
By Elan Sudberg It’s my strong belief that substandard testing practices are the biggest threat to this industry. At worst, something bad goes undetected and does someone harm. At best, they foster poor quality throughout the industry, allowing products with poor efficacy into the supply chain and sabotaging repeat purchases, while handing ammunition on a […]
