News & Reviews

Ever since the highly publicized news of tainted pet food from China broke earlier this year, Chinese imports have been under scrutiny. Toy recalls, banned pesticides, counterfeit medications, toothpaste and cosmetics, and dangerous fish have caused us to question if the dependency on cheap products and labor is worth the risk.

Earlier this year, 1,000 shipments of tainted nutritional supplements imported from China were detained or rejected by the FDA at U.S. ports. Some tainted materials managed to get through; multivitamins containing lead made it as far as store shelves. Many of the raw materials used for nutritional supplements and pharmaceutical drugs are produced in China and formulated in North America. Ascorbic acid, better known as vitamin C, is widely used as a food preservative. China supplies 80% of the world’s ascorbic acid. A third of the world’s vitamin A comes from China, as does much of the vitamin B12 supply and many amino acids.

In September a shipment of soy protein was returned to China. It was labelled poisonous and contained an unsafe additive. In October two shipments of panax ginseng from China were rejected for containing banned pesticides. In August, a shipment of shark cartilage was turned away and declared “filthy”. The FDA defines “filthy” as follows: “The article appears to consist in whole or in part of a filthy, putrid, or decomposed substance or be otherwise unfit for food.”* Though much of the media attention has focused on China, raw materials are sourced worldwide and contaminated products are entering the US from other countries. The same month, five shipments of shark cartilage from Australia were rejected for the same reason.

Is the sourcing of raw materials yet another thing to worry about? Through our own research, we have spoken with several companies and the quality-driven supplement companies suggest that the question is not where the raw materials originate, but what testing is done on them to ensure quality, safety, and efficacy.

Companies that formulate nutritional supplements should put their products through rigorous testing from the raw materials through to the finished product. Factors to examine are microbe count (bacteria, yeast, and mould), heavy metals (to identify the presence of lead, arsenic, mercury and cadmium), other contaminants like residues from pesticides, solvents, PCBs and dioxins (specifically for fish oils), and potency.**

Your natural products or health food store may not be able to answer questions about testing procedures conducted by each company. Contact your supplement provider to request a detailed explanation about what testing is done on the raw materials, regardless of where they are sourced. Or alternative, contact us and we will do our best to contact the companies in question.

References: *http://www.fda.gov/ora/oasis/8/ora_oasis_i_54.html

**Special thanks to Genuine Health, Preferred Nutrition, Global Botanical and Sisu for providing this information about Quality Standards