NOW reveals “mathematically impossible” false labeling on Amazon-purchased supplements

13 May 2020 --- Natural products company NOW has made public a series of product tests on Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) and S-Adenosylmethionine (SAMe) products purchased on Amazon. The results reveal potency far below label claims. The testing was done internally and the company says it aims to inform consumers on potential fraudulent claims, as well alert the supplements industry, in order for such products to be identified and withdrawn from circulation. NOW also reports a high demand for supplements, especially targeting immunity, due to the COVID-19 outbreak and flags supply chain hurdles.

“NOW’s supplement sales are significantly higher than normal amid the pandemic, and still beyond what we are able to supply. Some immune-support supplements are seeing ten times or higher demand and supply is a major challenge. Some products like vitamin C or l-lysine are made in China and are limited in supply or available at higher costs,” Dan Richard, VP Global Sales & Marketing at NOW, tells NutritionInsight.

“Other products, such as vitamin D, that are in softgel forms require a long time to manufacture and pass all quality checks. So the entire supply chain is still playing catch-up and trying to anticipate where demand will be this summer and coming fall season,” Richard adds.

NOW has made public a series of product tests on products purchased on Amazon, with the results revealing potency far below label claims.He goes on to explain that the reason for publicizing the test results on Amazon-purchased products was because the demand for supplementation has risen. NOW takes defrauding consumers personally, he says, and it is in the best interest of the entire dietary supplements industry to identify and work to purge such bad actors to protect consumers.

Suspicious supplements tested
All supplements samples were tested by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) in NOW’s labs, using validated methods. HPLC is widely considered the best fit for purpose test method for both of these materials, the company notes.

“We initially tested the CoQ10 because we had serious questions about the dosage form. It is almost impossible to run this potency (400 mg) of sticky CoQ10 in a dry capsule on machines,” highlights Aaron Secrist, Vice President of Quality and Regulatory Affairs. “We suspected the SAMe to be low potency, which they were, with several delivered in an unstable form.”

The CoQ10 products, which were almost all labeled as 400 mg in dry capsules, contained far below the claimed amount, if any CoQ10 was detected at all. This is the second time NOW tested these and similar no-name brands purchased on Amazon and these new results are consistent with what was found two years ago. 

NOW also tested suspicious SAMe dietary supplements available on Amazon. SAMe is typically unstable due to heat or moisture, which is why most brands, including NOW, enteric coat SAMe within tablets. Another way to stabilize SAMe is the form S-adenosyl-L-methionine from disulfate tosylate salt. The company suspected that the products tested to be low potency or in an unstable form. One additional brand, PureControl Supplements, badly mislabeled its product by claiming 1500 mg SAM-e from “500 mg as adenosyl-methionine-disulfate tosylate” in only two capsules, which is a mathematical impossibility, NOW flags.

“As a business partner of Amazon, we did report this information to them and hope they will take action. Additionally, NOW has provided this information to other supplement brands, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and to trade associations,” Richard concludes.

Supply chain hurdles in the supplements industry have been previously flagged. The American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) recently noted that avoiding supply chain disruptions is fast becoming an industry priority amid the still unraveling COVID-19 pandemic. AHPA reported a host of supply chain issues within the herbal ingredients sphere to the US Department of Agriculture, which refer to shortages and delivery disruptions for a variety of ingredients, supplies and services. In light of this, AHPA is collecting supply chain data to inform industry and government, and is inviting companies to complete a relevant survey to aid with the endeavor.

By Kristiana Lalou