Rafael Nodal of Boutique Blends has issued a statement on FDA Compliance,
Now that our industry is officially under the FDA regulations, we wanted to write to update you on the work we are doing to comply with the regulations.
We know that as a retailer, when you order products from a company, you may wonder if you should support their brands because you don’t know if the company will be here next year. (A fair question).
As you may know, Hank and I come from the healthcare industry, one of the most regulated industries in the USA. We are used to the red tape and the interpretation of regulations and all the frustrating work that comes from dealing with the regulatory agencies.
For us, this is nothing new. As a matter of fact, we have been telling our industry associations for many years that although it was necessary to fight the regulations, it was equally important to prepare for them.
We hope that the law suit presented by all three industry associations (IPCPR, CAA & CRA) will be successful in court, but in the meantime we have been preparing for over 18 months and have just become a member of Cigar Association of America in order to have broader industry and regulatory support.
Not only have we completed the necessary steps to make sure that our new products were in the market by the August 8, 2016 deadline (Aging Room Pelo de Oro, Aging Room Solera, Oliveros Gran Retorno, Aging Room All Stars, Aging Room Quattro F55 Maduro, Aging Room Owner’s Reserve, Aging Room Artistry, Aging Room Mi Tierra and La Bohéme Connecticut) but we have also worked on the documentation to align our current blends and vitolas with blends that were in the market prior to February of 2007, in order to apply for the substantial equivalents of our blends (Aging Room M356, Aging Room Haváo, Aging Room Maduro, Swag, and La Bohème among others).
We have continued productions of some of our pre-2007 brands throughout the years and will continue to produce those grandfathered blends, like the Oliveros King Havano, Oliveros LTD and Oliveros Eight Zero, among others.
As a company we have spent hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars preparing for this and since we have navigated the regulatory maze before, we know it is not going to be easy, but we also know that with detailed preparation, detailed documentation, implementation of strict protocols and continued updates of our policies and procedures, we can survive.
Until now the FDA preparation has been done by our core staff. We are now staffing regulatory personnel to coordinate compliance with our outside consultants as well as our attorneys.
We thank you for your support and if you have any questions about our FDA compliance protocols, feel free to contact us.
Rafael Nodal
President
Hank Bischoff
Vice President
Sincerely,
Rafael Nodal
Boutique Blends Cigars
