Please review what some of our clients have said about our natural products scientific consulting services. You can also view more of our clients in the Natural Health industries.
“Our work with Risa Schulman and Tap-Root was essential in developing a claims dossier on one of our new ingredients as part of PLT’s transparency program. Her familiarity with the current regulatory environment and the needs of consumer products companies informed her insights and the rigor with which she reviewed our science. We’ve had customers tell us that we can save them 6 months of product development time with this type of documentation. In fact, the dossier helped us beat out our competition and bring in new customers. Risa’s knowledge of science, communications and consumers make her an ideal partner for any company, small or large, in the food and dietary supplement industries. Plus, she is bright and personable making her a joy to work with.” – Barb Davis, Head of Medical and Scientific Affairs at PLT Health Solutions, review from LinkedIn on January 5, 2018
“I was able to work with Risa as part of a Wellness Adivsory Panel for a mutual client. Risa was always spot on with her counsel and recommendations. She is equal parts intelligence and genuine enthusiasm, which makes for an ideal partner. Plus, her skills in product innovation combined with a PhD-level background in plant science make her contributions especially important in today’s more plant-focused food marketplace.” – Rachel Cheatham, PhD, Foodscape Group Founder, review from LinkedIn June 15, 2017
“Risa came highly recommended to us by several biotech contacts in the industry. She understood our science and business concept very quickly and was able to identify critical regulatory gating steps that we needed to navigate and take on early to ensure our business viability. She guided us through required filings, even recommending additional legal expertise when needed.
Risa helped us understand what scientific research we still needed in order to launch our product and how our general timeline would be impacted by the necessary regulatory procedures. Risa and her team were invaluable in vetting our product labels, marketing elements, and website for regulatory compliance. Tap~Root’s contribution to us at this early stage has been critical.
“Perhaps most importantly, Risa is a great business partner and colleague. She is detailed, prompt, clear, sets expectations and is an absolute joy to work with. She understands and respects the financial limitations faced by a small startup and is always completely upfront with costs, setting expectations appropriately and sticking to them. She treats our business like it is her own. We have loved working with her and look forward to our continued partnership.” – Erica Ebbel Angle, Ixcela CEO, review from LinkedIn August 23, 2016
“Risa understands the key success factors for new product innovation (science, regulatory and market). Her contribution is not just important, it is essential.” -Gary Brenner, CEO Brenner pharma/food Business Development Ltd.
“Bright and engaging, Risa brings experience along with an excellent understanding of both the business and science sides of the Dietary Supplement industry. Her skill set coupled with her integrity is invaluable.” -Tim Hammond, Director of Sales and Strategic Relations, Bergstrom Nutrition, Oregon
“Working with Risa has been an incredible learning experience for us. Her knowledge and experience makes working with her not just pleasurable but also an educational experience for the whole team involved. We’ll definitely continue working with her!” -Marco Borges, Founder, Co.Exist Nutrition (22 Days Nutrition), California
“Risa Schulman is the whole package from skilled researcher to communicator.” -Mark Dreher, PhD,VP Scientific and Regulatory Affairs, POM Wonderful, California
More testimonials on:
STRATEGY
“Risa understands the key success factors for new product innovation (science, regulatory and market). Her ability to synthesize a wide range of often conflicting information and then translate it into a language understandable to the business side, is a most valuable asset to any company, certainly our own. For companies who grasp the importance of uncompromising integrity, Risa’s contribution is not just important, it is essential. We are working on a much more complex new product development where Risa’s ability to point us in the right direction is proving most valuable.” – Gary Brenner, Business and Sales Development, Algatechnologies, Ltd.
“Risa’s counsel and guidance were invaluable in helping our EU based company navigate the complicated and ever-changing regulatory environment of sales and marketing functional beverages and food supplements in the United States. While we were especially pleased with her assistance in creating solid, substantiated as well as consumer-oriented structure function claims, we were also able to use her deep market understanding and experience to help develop an excellent launch strategy – including training for exhibiting at our first trade show in the USA. We have no doubt that working with Risa not only helped us to develop effective strategy but also to recognize and avoid costly mistakes. In addition, with her help we feel that we “future proofed” our products in terms of regulatory compliance and liability.” -Michael Radziszewski, CEO Ebnsol Inc
CLAIMS AND MESSAGING
“Risa did a superb job of researching the scientific support for product claims for a major food company.” -Peter Hutt, Senior Counsel, Covington & Burling LLP, Washington DC
“I worked with Risa to revise and fine tune benefit driven package copy for a mutual client. She was extremely helpful from a regulatory/scientific perspective but also from a creative standpoint, where her input really helped me tie the brand’s tone of voice into the brand benefit. We’ve worked with regulatory experts in the past, but Risa just really got it.” -William Hogan, Copywriter at Pearlfisher, New York
“Risa Schulman has a firm grasp of the food and dietary supplement industries. She is very knowledgeable in areas of regulatory compliance, claim substantiation and evidence based marketing. Her professionalism is evident in her work, including timely, informative and detailed reports, excellent communication skills, and constructive discussions. She is a pleasure to work with and I would recommend her services without hesitation.” -Robert Smith, PhD, Sr. VP Sales and Business Development, Nutracea
“Risa Schulman is dedicated, enthusiastic and passionate about her work. Bright and engaging, she brings experience along with an excellent understanding of both the business and science sides of the dietary Supplement industry. Her skill set coupled with her integrity is invaluable. I enlisted her expertise to review existing as well as ongoing research to substantiate our claim and messaging direction and she delivered!” -Tim Hammond, Director of Sales and Strategic Relations, Bergstrom Nutrition, Oregon
“Risa has solid experience in R & D and excels at supporting scientific affairs and regulatory functions with her knowledge of botanicals and functional foods. Risa can help any company with claim substantiation and ingredient evaluation files. She is very personable and accommodating.” -Ezra Bejar, Vice President, Herbalife, California
“Our customers didn’t realize they could say all these things. They said no ingredient supplier provided information as helpful and thorough.” -John Jarmul, Marketing Manager, Kaneka Nutrients, Texas
“Risa’s knowledge of nutritional science is both wide and deep, and her ability to effectively communicate that in laymen’s terms is priceless to marketers.” -Karl Riedel, President, Riedel Enterprises, California
“We have engaged Dr. Risa Schulman on multiple occasions to help us review our marketing copy to ensure it meets regulatory requirements. She is an expert in this field and has provided to us very detailed and timely feedback. We enjoyed working with Dr. Schulman and will continue working with her in the future.” -David Isserman, President and Co-Founder, Ambrosia Sciences, LLC, Colorado
“As Founder of an Aromatherapy Company selling 21 combinations of essential oils, Risa Schulman and her team helped us to address the challenge of staying true to our brand while helping us to remain compliant with current regulations. She is very knowledgeable in the areas of claims substantiation and regulatory compliance and delivered consumer focused copy in a professional and timely manner, always going that extra step in focusing on a positive end result.” -Cary Caster, Founder, 21 Drops Essential Oil Therapy, Florida
DEVELOPMENT & LAUNCH
“Risa has been a great partner in bringing our product to market. Risa is very quick to digest complex materials and easily discusses these at different levels with many different types of audiences, from R&D scientists to marketing/management. Risa is versatile and able to function in different capacities. For me, one of the most helpful aspects was her role as a mentor to help me learn to perform a first pass regulatory review with more objective criteria. All of her communication is clear, crisp, and responsive. Her logical, thoughtful, and consistent manner is well grounded in regulatory experience and a love for communicating scientific and clinical concepts. I truly have enjoyed working with her and hope that I continue to have the opportunity to do so.” -Kehl Sink, Program Director at BioPharmX, California
“Risa was an extremely proactive business partner during a fast growth period in the company’s life cycle – startup to national launch. Her strong business acumen allowed her to effectively translate technical information into action plans the business could execute. She was superb at assessing risk and offering options. Building the company from the ground up was a lot of fun with Risa on the team.” -Rich Tannenbaum, Director, Supply Chain, POM Wonderful, California
“Risa has such a wealth of information within her field and that has made her invaluable to a young company like mine. She is fast, efficient and exceeded our expectations. We had an excellent experience working with her and look forward to the next time.” -Heather Kenzie-Terry, Founder, Nibmor Chocolate, New York
SCIENCE COMMUNICATION
“Risa was always very professional in her approach to work which was manifested by a high level of engagement, curiosity and thrive for doing the right thing. She helped developed our communications strategy which, in a tightly regulated industry, is not easy task to accomplish. Risa was also instrumental on creating, organizing a repository of all scientific information relevant to the business which enabled the decision making process. I definitely recommend Risa as a capable individual, able to deliver even on the face of high levels of uncertainty.” -Cesar Vega Morales, Research Scientist, Mars Botanical, Mars, Inc., Maryland
“Risa is very knowledgeable and, while working at Mars, showed great skill in taking research found in the literature and distilling it down for people outside of the business. She is professional in every aspect with a results driven approach to her work.” -Chris Simkus, Research Associate, Mars Botanical, Mars, Inc, Maryland
“Risa is a great public speaker and educator, and is able to explain hard topics in a relevant manner.” -Brian Schaneberg, PhD, QFS/SRA Director, Mars Botanical, Mars, Inc., Maryland
“Dr. Schulman combines solid R&D experience with regulatory affairs expertise and exceptional technical writing skills.” -Vyacheslav Dushenkov, VP R&D, Wellgen, New Jersey
“Rather than relying on our summaries, Risa takes the initiative to delve into our data, understand the science and work from a position of greater knowledge. Her input has been greatly appreciated.” -Tim Ellis, Chief Science Officer at Horizon Science Pty Ltd.
“Risa Schulman is the whole package from skilled researcher to communicator.” -Mark Dreher, PhD,VP Scientific and Regulatory Affairs, POM Wonderful, California
DUE DILIGENCE
“We engaged Tap~Root to evaluate the regulatory compliance and capabilities of a dietary supplement company we were considering for investment. From the beginning, I was impressed with Risa’s ability to listen to and understand our needs. Her methods were very effective, zeroing in on the key information that would give us the insights and recommendations we needed to support our diligence process. Her final report was very well structured, contained pragmatic recommendations and thoroughly met our objectives. Risa was a pleasure to work with and represented our firm well in her discussions with the target company. Her breadth of expertise, trustworthiness and warm personality are a great combination, and we won’t hesitate to bring her in again in the future.” -Zubin Canteenwalla, Senior Associate, NGEN Partners
“Risa/Tap~Root provided a timely expert opinion on an important technical matter. Her technical knowledge was excellent and she listened carefully to our concerns. If you have technical/scientific needs in the food/supplement arena I would recommend a discussion with Risa.” -David Barnes, PhD, MBA, Director of Research, Standard Process, Wisconsin
