MORE FRAUD ON THE RIVER

[BCseacow83]

Another round of product quality/label claim testing performed by NOW FOODS on multiple brands being sold on amazon. No big surprise, TONS OF FRAUD.

Now I know what people will say, as it's the response I get every time I point this out: "What's the big deal, I only buy reputable brands, like SNS or NOW FOODS when I shop on amazon."

Fair enough, but that is not the point IMO. The point is you are financially supporting a platform that thinks SO LITTLE OF YOU that they continue to allow widespread FRAUD of their "valued customers" despite being FULLY AWARE of the issue. Not to mention they are often not even close to the best deal you can find. They take advantage of peoples lack of planning, hence the need to get something tomorrow(although that seems to be more and more an issue) while fooling people into thinking they are getting "free shipping." please.

Support retailers that actually give a **** about the industry and your RIGHTS to purchase supplements. Were DC to attempt to ban all supplements you think amazon would give two shits let alone fight for your rights? Not likely.

Support the sponsor here. Support a locally owned supplement shop if you have the option, heck buy anywhere other than there. /rant

 

[sns8778]

NOW Foods is a great brand and I commend the job that they are doing with their quality testing.

A personal rule that I have for myself is that I do not buy or trust any brand that exists exclusively or almost exclusively on Amazon or Walmart.com (which is different than brands in their stores).

I talk on here all the time about the importance of quality testing, and especially the importance of safety testing like for heavy metals and microbial testing. Sadly, most of the time I feel like no one pays attention to that.

As someone that has worked in this industry in the quality and raw material side for 19 years, I'm very cautious as to what brands of products that I will use myself. There are far too many brands that just outright lie and don't even try to meet label claims and then far too many that don't do any testing to know if they are meeting label claims or not.

And a real issue that pisses me off in this industry right now that is becoming more common is brands claiming to use branded ingredients when they aren't - when they are either just using generic and claiming its the branded versions or not even putting the ingredient in there at all. That is lying to their customers and fraud against not only the branded ingredient companies, but also against their own customers.

 

[EpiStrong]

I am happy doublewood passed. I have a few of their single supps. I got skeptical of bulk supplements but when I made my own pump with their supps years back it worked decently though

 

[Beau]

I am happy doublewood passed. I have a few of their single supps. I got skeptical of bulk supplements but when I made my own pump with their supps years back it worked decently though

I have used Double Wood and Micro Ingredients and am happy to see that they both rated favorably.

 

[sns8778]

I am happy doublewood passed. I have a few of their single supps. I got skeptical of bulk supplements but when I made my own pump with their supps years back it worked decently though

I would still be cautious though because they have failed miserably on some of their other testing unfortunately.

https://www.nowfoods.com/about-now/press-room/press-releases/now-tests-other-brands-phosphatidyl-serine-finds-serious-issues

^^^ By Eurofins testing, they only had 16% of the listed Phosphatidylserine.

They also failed testing on their Quercetin supplement as well:

https://www.nowfoods.com/healthy-living/articles/now-tests-coq10-quercetin-sold-amazon

 

[sns8778]

I have used Double Wood and Micro Ingredients and am happy to see that they both rated favorably.

Unfortunately, they aren't. See my above post - they failed several of the testings that NOW did.

If I'm not mistaken, the Astaxanthin is the first one that did pass.

 

[sns8778]

For anyone interested, here is a list of other test results that NOW has done and posted on other brands:

Phosphatidylserine Test Results:

https://www.nowfoods.com/about-now/press-room/press-releases/now-tests-other-brands-phosphatidyl-serine-finds-serious-issues

Bromelain Test Results:

https://www.nowfoods.com/quality-safety/testing-results-bromelain-supplements-purchased-amazon

CoQ10 & Quercetin Test Results:

https://www.nowfoods.com/healthy-living/articles/now-tests-coq10-quercetin-sold-amazon


Alpha Lipoic Acid Test Results:

https://www.nowfoods.com/healthy-living/articles/now-reports-testing-brands-alpha-lipoic-acid


CoQ10 & SAMe Test Results:

https://www.nowfoods.com/about-now/press-room/press-releases/now-finds-quality-issues-coq10-and-same-online-brands


Curcumin Test Results:

https://www.nowfoods.com/about-now/press-room/press-releases/now-tests-curcuminturmeric-extract-sold-amazon


Glutathione Test Results:

https://www.nowfoods.com/about-now/press-room/press-releases/now-tests-glutathione-sold-amazon

 

[Resolve10]

Welp. Just add this to the list of other reasons why I find it impossible to branch out anymore.

I don’t like to use Amazon for supplements just in general (and for other things), but I appreciate more ammo to support my current biases haha

 

[Beau]

Unfortunately, they aren't. See my above post - they failed several of the testings that NOW did.

If I'm not mistaken, the Astaxanthin is the first one that did pass.

Thank you. Darn it.

 

[Potbelly]

No more Mr. Cheapo for me

 

[sns8778]

No more Mr. Cheapo for me

I think that unfortunately a lot of people waste money trying to save money.

I've always viewed it as - if a top quality product is 30.00 or you buy an iffy one for 20.00, did you really save 10.00 or just waste 20.00 to start with?

For example, there is a huge quality issue with TUDCA and there are brands on Amazon that claim to sell it for prices that just aren't possible based off of quality raw materials.

 

[Drakee]

Very surprised doublewood passed. Still wouldnt trust them for most things.

 

[sns8778]

Very surprised doublewood passed. Still wouldnt trust them for most things.

They passed this one but they failed 2 other ones that NOW has done on their products.

 

[BCseacow83]

I appreciate the discussion folks. People work way too hard to scrape by these days and the last thing I want to see is people getting screwed. Add to that that people like myself, and Steve make a living in this industry and things like this tarnish the entire industry, one that we have to fight for the credibility of to begin with.

I don't INITIALLY blame amazon for this problem, as to be honest I had one of these brands on my shelf, Amazing Nutrition(dhea) as when we opened they had stock, while many others did not. I have pulled them and will NOT be stocking them again as they have multiple failures. I would expect no less from amazon if they gave a ****, they don't.

 

[sns8778]

I appreciate the discussion folks. People work way too hard to scrape by these days and the last thing I want to see is people getting screwed. Add to that that people like myself, and Steve make a living in this industry and things like this tarnish the entire industry, one that we have to fight for the credibility of to begin with.

I don't INITIALLY blame amazon for this problem, as to be honest I had one of these brands on my shelf, Amazing Nutrition(dhea) as when we opened they had stock, while many others did not. I have pulled them and will NOT be stocking them again as they have multiple failures. I would expect no less from amazon if they gave a ****, they don't.

I'm not going to go into detail, as it would be hard to explain in laymen's terms anyway, but a big problem that I have with Amazon in terms of supplements is that their policies make it easier on brands that are just willing to lie than on brands that do things the right way.

 

[THEstudent]

I'm not going to go into detail, as it would be hard to explain in laymen's terms anyway, but a big problem that I have with Amazon in terms of supplements is that their policies make it easier on brands that are just willing to lie than on brands that do things the right way.

@sns8778 would you say that if a company is selling a branded ingredient that it is a pretty safe buy?

 

[ZLB70]

@sns8778 would you say that if a company is selling a branded ingredient that it is a pretty safe buy?

Read his whole post, he says companies lie about it

 

[sns8778]

@sns8778 would you say that if a company is selling a branded ingredient that it is a pretty safe buy?

There are a lot of brands on Amazon that just straight out lie about what they have in their products:

• Some of them intentionally under dose ingredients.
• Some of them don't even contain the listed active ingredient at all.
• Some of them may not even mean to be not be meeting labels claims - but there's no excuse for it because if they'd bother to send their finished products out for independent testing, they would know.

^^^ in any case, the problem is that with companies doing that, you can't trust their label claims regardless, even if they're claiming to use a branded ingredient. And honestly, if they're willing to lie about an inexpensive raw material, they may be more likely to lie about an expensive one, including branded ones.

For me, a general rule is that I don't buy products from any company that exists solely or almost solely on Amazon. I'm sure that there are some good ones that do; but there are enough that don't meet label claims to mess it up for the ones that do.

There are very few brands that I trust and use personally.

 

[sns8778]

Read his whole post, he says companies lie about it

I think you're referring to my post where I said:

And a real issue that pisses me off in this industry right now that is becoming more common is brands claiming to use branded ingredients when they aren't - when they are either just using generic and claiming its the branded versions or not even putting the ingredient in there at all. That is lying to their customers and fraud against not only the branded ingredient companies, but also against their own customers.

^^^ that is unfortunately getting to be more and more of a problem and isn't just a problem on Amazon, but getting to be far too common of one with sports nutrition products in general.

The big major companies aren't generally going to do that because they're too large to take stupid chances like that and they have way too much to lose if they were to get caught and get sued over it.

That presents a terrible problem for this industry - as many of the brands doing it outside of Amazon are either fly by night companies or smaller companies, most of which aren't doing any quality testing anyway.

That presents a bad situation for small to medium sized companies in this industry that do things the right way - because it makes many consumer scared to support small to medium sized companies in this industry and as it becomes more exposed and found out about, its going to hurt things even more. And that punishes the business that do do things the right way.

You take SNS for example - we are an FDA registered cGMP compliant company that only uses cGMP contract manufacturers. We get FDA inspections and are literally nit picked and compliant right down to the hand washing instruction signage that is on the mirrors in the employee restrooms. In our warehouse, we have climate control systems and then have to have backup climate control systems in case those mess up and need maintenance. I could keep going on about the difference between doing things the right way and not. We have to keep extensive records which is hugely time consuming, and spend tens of thousands of dollars per year in quality testing including heavy metals and microbial testing.

^^^ But I'm not complaining about any of that at all - because the reason that all of that is required is to deliver top quality products to customers, meet label claims, and to ensure customer health and safety (regarding heavy metals & microbial testing).

My complaint is that some brands like us do all of those things - yet because some brands choose to not even try to meet label claims, sell products with zero independent testing, make and bottle things themselves, etc. - stuff like that isn't fair to the companies that do things the right way and care about their consumers.


Most branded ingredient companies only want to work with companies that do things the right way because they don't want their ingredients to be in products that could attract any negative attention or publicity. We have to sign licensing agreements, submit labels to them for approvals, and go through a whole process in order to be able to license and use those ingredients.

But then here come along the companies that don't do any of that - they just find the logo on Google and put it on their label and lie about having the branded ingredient in their products. And I'll tell you this - any contract manufacturer that will make a product for a brand that claims to include a branded ingredient and hasn't seen the licensing agreement and verified the licensing agreement with branded ingredient company - that contract manufacturer can't be at all trusted to meet label claims because they're already committing fraud themselves. The brands that are doing this are not only ripping off the branded ingredient companies, but they're ripping off their customers.

 

[Sparta12]

This just makes me so sad, just like many other places/products that cut corners and screw us over... I am so tired of this

 

[Nodus1]

I really like what Now Foods does in the supplement space, on many levels. I’ve always liked their product and ease of access but their quality really hit home when I tried their phosphatidylserine. I was like, Wow, this is what it’s supposed to feel like!?!