The dietary supplement industry is suffering from an identity crisis. We know exactly who we are and what we want to be: a profitable, growing industry producing quality health care products that improve people’s lives by helping them achieve and preserve their good health and wellness, and reduce their risks of chronic diseases. The identity problem is with our products and ingredients, not who we want to be.
Some manufacturers and marketers are having difficulty answering a simple question: "Do you really know the identity of the products you sell?" Such a fundamental question, and one that every consumer assumes manufacturers have answered affirmatively, but it seems that all too often the answer is “No." Just take a look at all these recent events that signal the current "identity" crisis:
- FTC recently closed an investigation involving fines and disbarment for a supplier allegedly selling what it represented to be hoodia, but was, in fact, not hoodia.
- Sports organizations such as USADA and NCAA routinely caution their athletes against using any dietary supplements because of the risk they may contain a banned substance without disclosing the presence of it on the label.
- Ten California county district attorneys have halted the sale of certain weight-loss products in their counties because they did not contain the ingredients listed on the label.
- Since the beginning of 2011, FDA has issued dozens of warning letters to supplement manufacturers because their products tested positive for the presence of illegal prescription drugs or anabolic steroids that, incidentally, were not listed on the label.
- The GAO issued a report in October 2011 warning the economic adulteration of FDA-regulated products, including dietary supplements, is a growing global problem risking negative health outcomes for consumers who ingest ingredients that may be harmful to them, or fail to receive anticipated health benefits because the products are not what they say they are.
Among the most-frequently cited violations of dietary supplement GMP regulations in FDA warning letters to industry is the failure to properly conduct identity testing on incoming ingredients before releasing them for manufacturing of the finished product.
One of the most-frequent complaints of Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) members is competitors passing off substandard ingredients. Maybe it’s selling ubiquinone and calling it ubiquinol (a more bioavailable form of coenzyme Q10 [CoQ10]), passing off something stained with blueberry juice and calling it bilberry extract, or testing a competitor’s high-margin chondroitin to learn that it’s not chondroitin at all.
All these symptoms of our crisis lead to the same diagnosis: We have a huge credibility problem in this industry, easily exposed by our industry critics, that some dietary supplements sold to consumers are not what they claim to be. They fail to contain the ingredients listed on the label (or the amounts listed on the label), or they contain prescription drugs or other substances that should not be in a legitimate supplement. And even if it’s only a few fringe companies engaged in these behaviors—although it certainly appears to be more than just a few—it's enough to cast a dark cloud over consumers’ perception of the entire industry.
This is a fundamental obstacle to increased growth for the supplement industry—if consumers can’t be sure what they are getting in a product, they are going to put into their bodies, will they be confident enough to purchase and ingest the product? Or recommend it?
