Co-creating clinical excellence in dietary supplements

Great ingredients don’t change the world on their own. They need a safe, reliable, and swift path from the laboratory to the people who need them. How do we ensure that journey is successful? It takes an uncompromising commitment to quality at every single step. More importantly, it takes a true end-to-end partner with expert services that can support you from concept to consumer.  We are thrilled to share that the dsm-firmenich Center for Chemistry, Research, Analytics, Application and Solutions (CREAAS) in Kaiseraugst, Switzerland has successfully achieved FSSC 22000 certification. This major milestone transforms our facility, empowering us to manufacture clinical products internally and elevating our role as your strategic end-to-end partner.

By bringing clinical batch manufacturing in-house under strict food safety guidelines, we are setting a new standard for laboratory practices within our Health, Nutrition and Care business. This means faster timelines, reduced costs, and enhanced confidence.

Here are the key takeaways from our recent certification:

• A deep dive into what FSSC 22000 means for food safety and clinical standards.
• How our expert services streamline clinical trial sample manufacturing.
• The critical role of controlled, traceable, and audit-ready conditions in lowering regulatory risk.
• Why partnering directly with dsm-firmenich accelerates your path to market.

What is FSSC 22000 certification?

FSSC 22000 stands for Food Safety System Certification 22000. It is a globally recognized scheme that ensures food safety across the entire supply chain. Recognized by the Global Food Safety Initiative, this prestigious certification requires a culture of excellence and a fierce dedication to strict international standards.

While basic good manufacturing practices focus primarily on hygiene and cleanliness, FSSC 22000 takes a far more comprehensive approach. It introduces rigorous risk management, continuous improvement, and full supply chain oversight. Achieving this certification for a laboratory is exceptional. It demonstrates our team's commitment to delivering outstanding prototypes while placing consumer safety at the absolute center of everything we do.

For our partners in the dietary supplement industry, this food safety certification provides immense peace of mind. You need to know that the end-to-end partner you rely on meets the highest possible global standards. With FSSC 22000, we provide that assurance. We give you a solid foundation to build consumer trust.

A true end-to-end partnership for dietary supplement innovation

Gone are the days of a simple transactional supplier relationship. The modern dietary supplement market demands more. Consumers want products that are efficacious, sustainable, and enjoyable to consume. Delivering on all those expectations requires a strategic end-to-end partner who is invested in your success from ideation to the final product on the shelf.

At dsm-firmenich, we work alongside you as an end-to-end partner, co‑creating next‑generation dietary supplement solutions where product development, science, and clinical excellence converge. We bring together decades of expertise in ingredients, taste, and application development to support your entire product development journey. When you work with us, you are not just buying ingredients. You are gaining expert services that act as an extension of your own research and development team.

We understand the challenges you face when bringing a new dietary supplement to market. We anticipate those challenges and work collaboratively to solve them, ensuring that the final product delivers both clinical efficacy and an outstanding consumer experience.

Together, streamlining formulation development 

Every successful product launch begins with robust formulation development. Nutrients and active ingredients often have complex interactions. Sometimes, they present challenging sensory or stability and oxidation issues that decrease consumer adherence. Our application, taste, and sensory experts work together to create customized, delicious, and innovative solutions.

With FSSC 22000 in place, we can seamlessly transition from exploring formulation solutions to producing the final clinical trial supplies. We offer numerous options, including tablets, soft gels, hard shell capsules, gummies, and beverages. This flexibility ensures that we can meet the exact dosage and format requirements of your specific project.

Do you have an ambitious idea for a new nutritional gummy? We can help you mask bitter notes and perfect the texture. Are you developing a clear nutritional beverage? We will ensure the active ingredients remain stable, and the taste profile is refreshing. We integrate ingredients into final marketable matrices so you can delight your consumers without compromising on health benefits.

The perfect blend of taste and science

Customers look for nutrients in a delicious way, but off tastes can ruin an otherwise brilliant product. This is where our taste and sensory expert services truly shine. We do not just make products that work. We go beyond the essential, working with you to co-create solutions people want, humanity needs, and our planet deserves

Our co-creation process follows four distinct phases. First, we explore the benchmark products and understand your specific customer insights. Next, we inspire you with emotional flavor profiling and creative flavor libraries. Then, we test the prototypes in target matrices and real-world environments. Finally, we select the optimal flavor solution together.

We can mask astringent, bitter, or metallic notes, transforming a difficult active ingredient into a pleasant floral, cereal, or sweet experience. By combining our sensory room capabilities with our food GMP lab, we ensure that the delicious prototypes we develop can be scaled and manufactured safely for clinical validation.

Ensuring rigorous stability testing

A product must perform consistently from the first day of the trial to the end. Stability testing is a non-negotiable aspect of dietary supplements clinical trial manufacturing. We investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying a product's efficacy and test its performance across various matrices over its entire shelf life.

Operating under FSSC 22000 guidelines means our stability testing protocols are integrated into a comprehensive risk management system. We monitor how complex ingredient interactions affect functional properties on the microscale, mesoscale, and macroscale. This detailed approach guarantees that the clinical trial supplies you receive remain potent, safe, and effective throughout your entire study.

Internal manufacturing for faster breakthroughs

Time is one of the most precious resources in nutritional research. Waiting for external vendors to produce trial materials often creates frustrating delays. By earning this certification, our customers can streamline their product development process, while having complete confidence in the quality and safety of any products or prototypes we develop.

This new capability makes our innovation process significantly faster and far more cost-effective. We eliminate the friction of transferring knowledge, materials, and protocols to third-party manufacturers. Instead, the team that helps you conceptualize your product can now produce the clinical batches required to test it.

When we combine this new certification with our existing governmental authorizations and our Biosafety Level 2 laboratory, we become a uniquely appealing partner for fast-paced co-creations. You can trust that our prototypes are developed under controlled, traceable, and audit-ready conditions.

This rigorous environment lowers regulatory risk. When it is time to substantiate the health claims of your dietary supplement, you can do so with total confidence in the integrity of your clinical materials. We maintain meticulous documentation at every stage, from raw material sourcing to clinical batch release. 

A shared vision for sustainable innovation

We envision a healthier, more sustainable world where communities thrive through science-backed innovative solutions that create measurable impact for people and planet. We embrace a greater purpose by creating real, measurable impact for both people and planet, fueled by innovative science-backed solutions that support our customers sustainability goals and aspirations.

Our FSSC 22000 certification sits alongside our elite My Green Lab Platinum sustainability performance rating. This powerful combination differentiates us in a crowded market. We offer high-quality clinical trial sample manufacturing produced with a reduced environmental impact, without compromising scientific rigor.

You do not have to choose between stringent safety standards and responsible environmental practices. At dsm-firmenich, we deliver both. We go beyond the essential, to co-develop desirable and sustainable science-backed products, powered by our expert services, Together, we can elevate people and planetary health through measurable impact.

The people behind the process

Certifications are awarded to facilities, but they are earned by people. Creating a safe and trusted environment where team members feel comfortable speaking up and supporting one another is central to our success.

Our dedicated scientists and technicians bring deep expertise in food science, chemistry, pharmacology, and biology. Their blend of curiosity, structure, and bravery made this achievement possible. They live our active food safety culture every single day, ensuring that every dietary supplement prototype leaving our lab meets the highest global standards.

When you collaborate with dsm-firmenich, you get direct access to this incredible pool of talent. You get a team that is just as passionate about your product's success as you are.

Accelerate your next dietary supplement breakthrough

The landscape of health and nutrition is evolving rapidly. Consumers demand better taste, cleaner labels, and proven clinical benefits. To stay ahead, you need a end-to-end purpose led partner equipped to move quickly, responsibly, and innovatively.

The FSSC 22000 certification at CREAAS proves our dedication to excellence. By enabling the internal manufacture of clinical products for clinical trials, we remove barriers to innovation. We offer a controlled, traceable, and highly efficient environment for formulation development, sensory optimization, stability testing, and clinical batch manufacturing.

Are you ready to move faster from a brilliant concept to a market-ready launch? Partner with a team that combines strict global food safety standards with boundless scientific creativity. Contact our experts today to discuss how our certified clinical trial manufacturing capabilities and expert co-creation process can support your next dietary supplement project.  A healthier world takes more than just ingredients. It takes an end-to-end, purpose-led partner that brings progress to life.