Nutrilite

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.

History

Carl F. Rehnborg created the first multi-vitamin in the 1930s. His time in China between roughly 1917 and 1927 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. Two men, Lee S. Mytinger and William S. Casselberry became exclusive national distributor in 1945 and operated a company to distribute the vitamins.

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 (FDA), which accused them of false advertising. They rose rapidly to being top-selling distributors. 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 went to the United States Supreme Court, was resolved in favor of the FDA in the 1960s.

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.

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.

Distribution and marketing

Nutrilite's vitamin and mineral products are distributed exclusively by Amway affiliates known as Independent Business Owners (IBO) in North America and 90 other countries and territories. Amway, Quixtar, and Access Group, are subsidiaries of Alticor.

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.

Reception

Nutrilite Double X was tested by ConsumerLab.com in their Multivitamin and Multimineral Supplements Review of 38 of the leading multivitamin/multimineral products sold in the U.S. and Canada. Double X passed ConsumerLab's test, which included testing of selected index elements, their ability to disintegrate in solution per United States Pharmacopeia guidelines, lead contamination threshold set in California Proposition 65, and meeting FDA labeling requirements.

Regulatory and safety issues

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 that 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.

In 2009 Amway voluntarily recalled three kinds of Nutrilite energy bars due to potential contamination with salmonella after the FDA tracked the peanut butter salmonella outbreak to a Peanut Corporation of America plant, a vendor Amway had used on occasion.

External links

• Official website
• From the Ground Up, c.1954 promotional Nutrilite film in the Prelinger Archives hosted at Archive.org