Pure Nootropics - Sublingual Noopept product recall

Hopefully I have made it apparent to everyone that I started Ceretropic because I am passionate about nootropics, and care about the community. I know we can push for higher standards, and advance all aspects of the nootropics/supplement industry. I am not just trying to capitalize on a market. I am trying to push for a new paradigm, and advance something I am passionate about.

I am a perfectionist, and the hardest part for me with the growth we have had, is to let go of control and delegate tasks. When it was me doing production and fulfillment, I knew that everything was done perfectly, and no mistakes were made. I would work nonstop to ensure everything was exactly as it should be. Now that I am running a larger team, I have to rely on other people to take as much pride as I do in every process, as I just don't have the time to stand over everyone's shoulders. That is a more difficult task than it might seem.

Our processes are always improving. Every single day I think about what we can do to make things better. We have been using GMP compliant processes for tracking our production. Every inbound bulk compound is put into a quarantine room, while purity testing is run on the batch. Once confirmation of the identity and purity of the batch is complete, the bulk product moves into approved storage. Then our lab team pulls a vacuum seal container from our lab, notes the container ID and empty weight, and fills the container with a specific compound. The total input weight of the powder is checked and logged in our tracking system, and all that information is recorded electronically, and is placed in a sheet on the container itself. When a batch of powder jars or solutions is made, the container is weighed before the batch, then weighed after the batch, to confirm the appropriate amount of raw material was used. Then a lab manager has to sign off on the batch before it can move on to shrink banding and be put on the shelves.

The issue that happened here is that we have not been tracking the solvent use in the same fashion as the powder use. We have a 55 gallon drum of PG that is used to fill 1 gallon containers for use in the solution. We also fill 1 gallon containers with purified water from the dispensing system. Up until this point, the batch-to-batch usage of water was not logged and tracked. That is changing now.

All bottles filled with any solvent are now going to be assigned batch numbers for the day they were filled, just like the powders. When a solution batch is being made, the production tech is going to gather all the ingredients at their station, and have the lab manager sign off on everything before the solution production even starts. Then once the batch is complete and bottled, the lab manager is going to calculate the total used weight/volume of every ingredient, check every bottle manually, and sign off on the batch before it goes to be shrink banded. That way errors like this will be caught before the batch is even put into beakers to mix, and any discrepancies will be known before anything even leaves the bottling area.

On top of that, I just hired a dedicated QA/QC support person. She is going to have a single task: to inspect every single step of our operation on a daily basis. She is going to monitor the intake of raw materials. She is going to monitor the lab, and ensure production steps are being followed by everyone. She is going to inspect bottles and jars on the shelves for inconsistencies, and small things like labels not being straight, or shrink bands not being properly aligned. She is also going to monitor my fulfillment team, and ensure they are following their processes, and that packaging and sorting of outbound orders is being done properly. On top of that, she will be constantly pulling finished products off the shelves, and testing to ensure weights are correct, and everything is as it should be. She will not be distracted with any tasks, other than making sure every single little process in our complex system is followed 100% properly, and by 100% of my team members.

These changes are going to ensure we can maintain high levels of quality and customer support, even as we grow at faster rates. Nobody is perfect. That is why we need ironclad processes in place. They must be impermeable to the inevitable instances of human error, and catch when people mess up, long before it affects any customers. Hopefully I have made it abundantly clear that I care very much about not only my customers, but the community as a whole. I will always work as hard as I can to make sure purity and safety are our highest priority, and that you can trust everything coming from Ceretropic is what we say it is, and is of the highest quality.