Nutrilite

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Nutrilite is a brand of mineral, vitamin, and dietary supplements created in 1934 by Dr. Carl F. Rehnborg.

Nutrilite products are currently manufactured by Access Business Group, a subsidiary of Alticor whose
products are sold via the Amway and Amway Global Corporations worldwide. The Nutrilite brand is known
as Nutriway in Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Turkey, Australia and New Zealand.

Contents
 [hide]

1 History

2 Distribution and

marketing

3 Regulatory and safety

issues

4 References

5 External links

[edit]History

Dr. Carl Rehnborg created the first multi-vitamin in the 1930's. His time in China between 1917 and 1927 or
so exposed him to experiences in which he realized the role vitamins and nutrients impacted general
health. He began selling his vitamins as the California Vitamin company and renamed it in 1939 to Nutrilite.
In 1945, he invented the multi-level marketing, door-to-door, selling system to distribute his vitamins. [1]Two
men, Lee S. Mytinger and William S. Casselberry became exclusive national distributor in 1945 and
operated a company to distribute the vitamins. [2]

The founders of Amway, billionaires Jay Van Andel and Rich DeVos, began as independent distributors
selling Nutrilite products in 1949, at a time when the product's previous distributors (Mytinger and
Casselberry, Inc.) were involved in a dispute with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which accused
them of false advertising. They rose rapidly to being top-selling distributers. Concerned about the FDA
dispute, Van Andel and DeVos launched a new company, the American Way, (later known as Amway), to
use the MLM system for other household products. The FDA/Mytinger-Cassleberry dispute, which was
went to the United States Supreme Court, was resolved in favor of the FDA in the 1960's.[3]

Amway bought a controlling interest in the company in 1972, and took over complete ownership in 1994.

In 2001, five Nutrilite products were the first dietary supplements to be certified by NSF International.[citation
needed]
In 2007, the Simply Nutrilite (later renamed Nutrilite Trim Advantage Body System) line was introduced.
The line includes health bars, anti-oxidant, and vitamin supplements.

[edit]Distribution and marketing

Nutrilite's vitamin and mineral products are distributed exclusively by Amway Global affiliates known as
Independent Business Owners (IBO) in North America and Amway IBOs in more than 90 other countries
and territories. Amway, Quixtar, and Access Business Group, are subsidiaries of Alticor. Nutrilite claims to
be the only global vitamin and mineral brand to grow, harvest and process plants on their own certified
organic farms, although Nutrilite states that their products may sometimes have ingredients from plants
grown not at their own farms. However, these farms are held to the same quality standards as Nutrilite's
own farms.[4] Nutrilite farming techniques include soil solarization, an integrated pest management system
and utilize sustainable agricultural production systems. Nutrilite's organic farms are located
in Brazil,Mexico and The United States (California & Washington State).[5] Many Nutrilite products sold in
other countries are also manufactured locally, for example in India. [6]

As spokespersons for the brand, Nutrilite has signed 2008 Olympic gold medalist (4 x 100m relay) Asafa
Powell of Jamaica; former 110m men's hurdles world record holder Liu Xiang of China; 2008 Olympic gold
and bronze track and field medalist Sanya Richards, FIFA World Player of the Year Ronaldinho; and 2008
Olympic silver medalist in pole vault, Jenn Stuczynski.[7][8][9][10]

[edit]Regulatory and safety issues

This section requires expansion.

In 1948, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration seized shipments of Nutrilite, then distributed by a
California firm, Mytinger & Casselberry Inc. The FDA claimed the a booklet with the product made false
claims that it would cure diseases. The distributor brought suit, claiming the seizures were unconstitutional.
In 1950, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the seizure was constitutional. [3]

In 1951 the FDA again acted against Nutrilite, issuing a landmark order forbidding 15,000 door-to-door
salesmen of the product from making "extravagant" claims for Nutrilite. The FDA prohibited claims that
Nutrilite had value in treating 57 diseases, including "cancer, heart trouble, diabetes, arthritis and
rheumatism." The FDA said that such claims could endanger the public health when made "in the privacy
of the home."[11]

In 2009 Amway voluntarily recalled three kinds of Nutralite energy bars due to potential contamination with
salmonella.[12]

[edit]References