Quality Control And Adulteration Of Supplements
- Josh Boughton
- 2 days ago
- 8 min read
I’ve written extensively about quality control and testing in the supplement industry. Every day, we are asked many questions about the topic. There’s so much that goes into it, and most people don’t understand how vast and in-depth the subject is. Lots of companies put symbols and seals on their products and websites, talking about how great they are, and brag about how much quality control they do. While these things might seem good, most of them are meaningless and don’t tell you anything about whether a product is good or bad.
It would take multiple books to go through all of the different things that need to be done in order to check the quality of each category of product. It also changes over time as newer, more advanced methods of adulteration become prevalent, which can cheat the current testing. It is much faster and cheaper to devise new adulteration methods than it is to develop the new tests needed to detect them. It can feel overwhelming to understand it all.
Supplement Quality Control
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There are a lot of things to consider when looking at the quality of a supplement. Many of these are not things you can tell from the label. Lots of labels look good, but that means very little as to whether a product is made correctly or not. Companies often say one thing on the label, but what’s actually in the product may be very different. Companies can have almost identical product labels, but what’s inside the bottle could not be more different. Check out our blog to learn more about this.
Ethics is always the first thing we check. Ethics involves ensuring that the production of raw materials doesn’t contribute to human suffering, such as forced or slave labor, and assessing its impact on the environment, including sustainability, overharvesting, deforestation, and pollution. We believe that, regardless of a product's quality control, if it has ethical issues, it’s not a good product.
The source of the raw materials is the next key consideration. Does the company get the raw ingredients and produce a material used in the production of their supplements, or do they source it from a middleman or directly from a farm or factory? We always prefer to use companies that work directly with the people who produce the ingredients or produce them themselves, whenever possible. This eliminates more quality control problems than any other method that we have found. It does not mean that no testing or quality control is needed, but it eliminates many of the risks. Check out our blog to learn more about this. Once we know the source of the raw materials, we can begin to investigate them. The source and type of raw material will determine what we are looking for. For example, what we are looking for in an echinacea extract is different than what we are looking for in a whey protein powder.
Next, we need to determine what the raw material should be tested for. Different materials will need to be tested for different types of adulterants and contaminants. For example, solvent residues such as hexane, acetone, and ethylene dichloride are a problem for many botanicals, but not an issue for whey protein. However, for whey protein, nitrogen spiking is a problem, but that’s not an issue for botanicals.
Ensuring the right testing methods are used is just as important as the testing itself. If something is tested, but the wrong test is used, a good test result does not mean anything. Even when testing for the same thing, such as solvent residue, different testing methods will be needed depending on what the raw material is. It’s important to know exactly what test is being used, not just that something was tested.
Keeping up with all the new adulterants and creative ways that ingredients are being adulterated is a huge job, and that’s an understatement. Every year, it gets crazier and crazier as suppliers find new insane ways to adulterate materials. These adulterants are so cheap, they don’t mind if they get caught. Another issue is that when good companies discover adulterants, they often return the contaminated raw materials, and then those suppliers send them to other companies that don’t prioritize quality or conduct testing. Here are a few examples of adulteration that you will not see on the label:
Cutting saw palmetto with vegetable oil and fatty acids.
Cutting Rhodiola Rosea with cheaper species of Rhodiola, such as Rhodiola Crenulata.
Adding black soybean hulls and black rice to elderberry extracts.
Cutting goldenseal with cheaper yellow herbs and adding yellow pigments.
Adding medications to products, like viagra in sexual enhancement products.
Adding starch, like maltodextrin, to Aloe Vera products.
Adding caramelized sugar to maca powders.
Selling regular honey as manuka honey.
Spiking green tea extracts with synthetic EGCG.
If you want to learn more about botanical adulteration, check out The American Botanical Council. They are an awesome organization!
It would take a manuscript to list all of the adulterants that come up in supplements. Food and ingredients adulteration has been happening for thousands of years, it’s just getting more sophisticated and harder to detect.
Once the raw materials have been properly tested and the product manufactured, finished product testing should be conducted to verify that the product meets label claims and is free from high levels of contaminants, bacteria, fungi, and other impurities, depending on the type of product. Different testing methods will be required for different types of finished products.
It has become increasingly trendy for companies to advertise their products as having been third-party tested. A lot of people are really surprised when we tell them that we don’t use third-party testing as a measure of quality, despite having lots of products that are third-party tested. There are numerous problems with third-party testing systems. Here are a few examples:
Lack of consistent standards for testing and methodologies from third-party testing labs and companies.
Inadequate testing
You can test for one thing and call a product third-party tested, despite it not being tested for most of the things it should be.
Lack of in-depth testing
Most third-party testing misses things like overdilution, solvent residue, spent materials, and a lot more.
It does not address ethical issues
Check out our blog for a more in-depth look at why we don’t feel it’s a useful tool.
What can you determine from a supplement label?
It takes a massive amount of time and research, which costs a significant amount of money, to determine if a company or its products are properly manufactured. We are a small, family-owned business, so we do not have the resources to vet every single product on the market thoroughly, as it should be done. While we have a huge database featuring tens of thousands of products and companies we have researched, we cannot examine the label of a product and determine whether a supplement is good or not. We can tell certain things, including, but not limited to:
Fairy Dusting
This is where companies put lots of ingredients in the label for marketing purposes, but not in dosages that do anything.
Check out our blog to learn more about fairy dusting.
Impossible levels of nutrients
This is where companies claim a product contains a certain amount of nutrients derived from a specific food or herb, but the levels claimed are not possible or would make the product cost hundreds or thousands of dollars to make.
For example, companies often claim that camu camu powder contains more than twice the vitamin C it actually has, which either means that their labels are incorrect or they purchased raw materials that were spiked with synthetic vitamin C.
Claims of nutrients being derived from a food that does not contain that nutrient.
This is where companies claim a supplement containing a particular nutrient is derived from a food that does not contain that nutrient.
For example, many B12 supplements claim to be derived from Saccharomyces cerevisiae (nutritional yeast), but nutritional yeast does not naturally contain B12. What they are doing is either spiking it with synthetic B12 or feeding it to yeast.
Inaccurate nutritional content claims
This is where companies claim a product has a certain amount of a nutrient, but that amount is not possible based on the amount of material that went into it.
For example, magnesium glycinate is about 14% elemental magnesium. So a product containing 500 mg of magnesium glycinate would contain about 70 mg of elemental magnesium. If a company claimed it had 140 mg of elemental magnesium glycinate in that 500 mg magnesium glycinate capsule, that would be an example of an inaccurate nutritional claim.
Some false label claims
This is where companies write things on the label that are not true.
For example, claiming on the label that a supplement is whole food when it has synthetic or isolated vitamins and minerals added.
Check out our blog to learn how to spot fake whole food supplements.
Whether the product uses the correct delivery format.
Some products need to be in pill, powder, or liquid form, depending on the product's intended use.
For example, liposomal supplements cannot be in pill or powder form; they must be in liquid form. So, if a product claims to be a liposomal pill or powder, that would be a red flag. To learn more about this, check out our blog.
Cost can be a red flag.
Often, products contain what are supposed to be very expensive raw materials and good dosages, but the product is sold for less than the cost of that raw material. That is a good indication that the product is not what it seems.
There are things that cannot be discerned from a label, including, but not limited to:
If the raw materials were ethically produced.
If the raw materials were processed correctly.
If the raw materials were adulterated.
If the product and raw materials were tested for contaminants and adulterants using the right methods.
If the product was manufactured correctly.
Whether the product meets its claimed amounts for nutrients and ingredients listed on the label.
Each of these things requires a lot of work and time to research thoroughly. Most products and companies fail our vetting process before we even get to the more advanced aspects we examine. That’s one of the reasons we don’t get as many new products or get them as quickly as other places. Until we can check and verify everything we are looking for, we just don’t get the products.
Once we vet a company or product, it does not mean it’s set for life. It requires ongoing checks, especially with companies that do not produce their own raw materials and products. Sometimes, for example, a company will change the supplier for an ingredient, and that new supplier does not meet our standards. In this case, we would discontinue the product, even though the label remains unchanged. It sucks having to change brands, and it would certainly be easier not to, but doing the right thing has to come before doing the most profitable thing. Quality control must be an ongoing process and is something that requires continuous updates and improvements. Don’t fall for flashy marketing, random seals, and lofty claims; those are easy to do. Real quality control is a long, tedious, research-intensive process that is not easily translated into an advertising campaign.
Supplement Quality Control Testing Questions And Support
If you have quality control questions about our supplements, please email us at info@rooted-nutrition.com, and we will be happy to answer them!
