DSEA, NPF announce merger

WASHINGTON The Dietary Supplement Education Alliance on Wednesday merged with the Natural Products Foundation, the companies announced during a noon press conference.

“DSEA’s Dietary Supplement Information Bureau and consumer and media outreach programs are highly regarded and will fit perfectly with the mission of the foundation, which is to enhance and promote the integrity of natural products through quality, science and education,” stated Randy Dennin, chairman of the Natural Products Foundation. “This merger allows us to not only strengthen and expand the foundation’s educational scope, it provides an established infrastructure that can be used to grow initiatives begun and planned by DSEA.”

As part of the affiliation and in order to take advantage of the Natural Products Foundation’s tax-exempt status, DSEA was dissolved as a corporate entity. Elliott Balbert, DSEA’s founder and past president and chief executive officer of Natrol, and fellow DSEA past-president Jon Benninger have joined the foundation’s board of directors. DSEA staffer Deb Knowles has also joined the foundation team.