Welcome to Nature’s Sunshine’s manufacturing facility and warehouse in Spanish Fork, Utah. This tour spotlights many areas of quality assurance, manufacturing and distribution and can serve as a teaching tool as you share information with your group members. We hope you share in our pride as we strive for continued quality, service and integrity.

New product formulation begins in the R and D pilot lab. Production processes are simulated here before full-scale production begins. This lab’s capabilities include pilot scale development and product testing for tablet, capsule, liquid and bulk dosage forms.

Quality Assurance (QA) comprises four labs: Herb Lab, Vitamin Lab, Mineral Lab and Micro Lab. QA Labs provide for maximum purity, ensuring that raw materials and finished goods are what they claim to be.

All herb materials are tested in the QA Herb Lab. NSP uses over 300 tests and procedures to ensure the premium quality of our products. Our products are backed by a 100 percent premium quality guarantee. Learn more about our Herb Lab testing methods and technology.

Here we test vitamins and related raw materials for purity and potency. Finished products are also tested to assure that all label claims are met. Liquid products such as Liquid Chlorophyll and powdered bulk products like SynerProTein are also tested in the Vitamin Lab. Learn more about our Vitamin Lab testing methods and technology.

Any raw material or product that needs to be analyzed for mineral content or the presence of mineral contamination goes through the Mineral Lab. Raw materials, including herbs, are tested for unwanted contamination such as arsenic, lead, aluminum and cadmium. NSP rejects raw materials that are contaminated. Learn more about our Mineral Lab testing methods and technology.

Every raw material is tested in the micro lab using a bactometer. This device detects the growth of microorganisms, including, yeast and mold, and pathogens such as E. coli, salmonella, staph and pseudomonas. This lab also tests NSP probiotic products such as Flora Force to ensure that they contain the labeled amount of friendly bacteria. Learn more about our Micro Lab testing methods and technology.

Production begins here where raw herbs, vitamins, liquids, literature, bottles and boxes are received and placed in quarantine. The quarantine process ensures that NSP uses only the finest raw materials in the manufacture of its products. Our new warehouse boasts more than 96,000 square feet and 7,500 pallet storage locations.

Material issuers follow a computer-generated “recipe” to gather raw materials and stage them for the issuing operators. The issuing team carefully issues each raw material into 200-liter stainless steel or fiber drums according to the recipe.

Raw materials flow from upstairs to the bins, which are airtight, eliminating airborne dust contamination. Once all of the raw materials for an order are in the bin, the bin is weighed using state-of-the-art scales that can weigh gram quantities to reconcile the raw material weight. Each bin’s weight is then verified against the work order. Then the container is sealed until it is opened in the processing area to feed the presses.

All herbal and vitamin combinations are produced in-house. We use a state-of-the-art mixer that has the capacity to lift 1,500 kilograms. Batches are mixed to ensure content uniformity. The average mix time is 15 minutes per combination. The bin mixing area can mix up to 25 combinations every eight hours.

All bins are washed between orders. The bin is washed under high pressure with hot, soapy water and then rinsed with reverse osmosis water as a final rinse. Bin-washing operators hand wash the outside of the bins and clean the lids and the valves by hand. Some parts are cleaned using a high-pressure parts washer. The parts dry in an air-drying room in about 15 minutes.

NSP employs six full-time mechanics to keep the equipment and the building functioning properly 24 hours a day, five days a week. They schedule equipment for routine preventative maintenance checkups.

All of the single and herbal combination capsules (about 60 percent of NSP’s product line) are produced here. The empty gelatin capsules are placed in hoppers upstairs and free-flow to the machine. The bottom portion of the capsule is filled with herb, which is gravity-fed from a stainless steel bin on the upper deck into the machine’s hopper. We can produce an average of 6 million capsules a day.

Material is placed in bins upstairs and is fed down to the presses. It is then pressed together with punches at around 2 tons, which forms the tablet in the die. During the run, tablets are tested for weight, hardness, thickness and appearance, ensuring that they meet correct specifications. We have three high-speed rotary tablet presses that each yield 75,000-plus tablets an hour. A fourth press produces about 20,000 tablets per hour.

NSP issues over 53 million labels yearly. Labels for 33 different countries are on hand at all times, each meeting the specific requirements of the country to which the product is being shipped. Labels inventory is tracked and controlled on the computer.

All packaging lines use metal detectors, which alert the workers if any metal is introduced in the processing of the products. Bar code scanners are used on all packaging lines to verify labels. This ensures that the bottles contain what the labels say they contain. There are six different packaging processes: Liquid Packaging, Bulk Packaging, King Packaging Line, Queen Packaging Line, 100-Count Packaging and Ace Packaging Line.

The liquid line packages all of our liquid products, ranging in size from 32 fl. oz. bottles of Aloe Vera Juice to 2 oz. bottles of extracts. Most of the liquid products are filled using a computerized filler. Some products, due to their viscosity, are processed using the simplex filler. Our new R.O. water system ensures the premium quality of our liquid products.

Bulk teas and other products are packaged here. Pau D’Arco tea is hand-filled into bottles by the line operators. Other products, including Psyllium Hulls, Nature’s Three, LOCLO, Herbal Beverage, Coral Calcium, Focus Attention and GreenZone, are dosed by the bulk filler. Using these two methods allows NSP to package products that might otherwise cost more.

The King, Queen and Ace Packaging Lines comprise some of our most versatile packaging technology. The King line’s slat filler can accommodate many different tablet sizes. The Queen line is fully automated and currently packages 57 top-quality NSP products. The Ace line is NSP’s most versatile packaging line and can handle products that cannot be run on any other machine. This line can package as many as 1 million tablets or capsules per day.

The 100-count line packages all of the 84-, 90- and 100-count encapsulated products that Nature’s Sunshine sells. Each crew averages 22,000 bottles of product during an eight-hour shift. This translates to 176,000 capsules per shift.

Cello-packed products like Thermo-Chi, CleanStart, Garcinia-Chi, Para-Cleanse and Antioxidant Arsenal are packaged with this equipment. We run about 725,000 product bags yearly, with bag counts ranging from 14 to 45 units per bag.

Manufacturing our own bottles and lids for many products saves money and allows us to pass the savings on to our Managers and Distributors. The 40-dram container is produced from plastic polyethylene material. Polyethylene offers excellent barrier properties to preserve the potency of our products. We also produce the companion cap from plastic polyethylene material, which offers excellent sealing capabilities.

All of the domestic distribution center and international market replenishment orders are picked and shipped from here. We ship to four domestic distribution centers: 1) Atlanta, Georgia, 2) Columbus, Ohio, 3) Dallas, Texas and 4) Spanish Fork, Utah. NSP ships to more than 40 different countries around the world.

On average, we fill 900–1,000 orders each day from this shipping line. Other lines are located in our Ohio, Texas and Georgia warehouses. Anywhere from 17,000 to 25,000 individual products are picked each day per distribution center.

Here orders are inspected for accuracy, then packed to prevent damage. We ship between 4,500–6,500 packages per week. Most packages arrive within two or three days from our warehouses.