New York Attorney General Targets Supplements at Major Retailers

[JPV]

I've always found it interesting that the brands of supplements that are found in major chain grocery and drug stores are rarely, if ever, found in health food and vitamin shops. Same with pet food, you never find major national brands in reputable pet stores.

I always figured the stuff in major chains was crap but I never thought it was this bad. I always figured the ingredients were of just a poor quality. I never expected that some of them would be a complete lie.

It really saddens me how corrupt and greedy American corporations have become and how our government exerts such little oversight...

The New York Times - New York Attorney General Targets Supplements at Major Retailers

The New York State attorney general’s office accused four major retailers on Monday of selling fraudulent and potentially dangerous herbal supplements and demanded that they remove the products from their shelves.

The authorities said they had conducted tests on top-selling store brands of herbal supplements at four national retailers — GNC, Target, Walgreens and Walmart — and found that four out of five of the products did not contain any of the herbs on their labels. The tests showed that pills labeled medicinal herbs often contained little more than cheap fillers like powdered rice, asparagus and houseplants, and in some cases substances that could be dangerous to those with allergies.

The investigation came as a welcome surprise to health experts who have long complained about the quality and safety of dietary supplements, which are exempt from the strict regulatory oversight applied to prescription drugs.

The Food and Drug Administration has targeted individual supplements found to contain dangerous ingredients. But the announcement Monday was the first time that a law enforcement agency had threatened the biggest retail and drugstore chains with legal action for selling what it said were deliberately misleading herbal products.

 

[Valentijn]

There needs to be quality control - but NOT the draconian measures which people will use this study to insist upon. If they turn it into a circus requiring FDA approval, studies, etc, we can wave bye-bye to supplements.

 

[JPV]

Yeah, my big fear is that the authorities will use this sort of thing as a pretext to ban or make the production of legitimate supplements more difficult and expensive... all on the behalf of Big Pharma interests.

 

[IreneF]

Lots of supplements are made by "private label manufacturers" who contract with distributors. So the name on the label can change, and the distributor can change manufacturers.

Plus Big Pharma owns some of the supplement companies. Sorry, I'm not getting good internet right now, so I can't give you more info.

 

[satori]

And this happened-apparently for a significant period of time-under the FDA's watch. Just another way to try to discredit alternative medicine.

 

[IreneF]

More about supplements:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/2009/0...lements-made-by-big-pharmaceutical-companies/

http://www.nutraceuticalsworld.com/...als/?email_uid=320740fbad/list_id=396c189146/
Note that the market for nutraceuticals is valued at $75 billion

 

[alex3619]

Australia went through a slightly different crisis a few years back. Supplements were made on machines that also made products many were allergic to. Much of the range of supplements made here was shut down, and remained drastically reduced for some time. It was a setback, but did not last.

The industry needs to be aware that they can damage their reputation in the long term if they engage in misleading and dangerous practices.

These kinds of things do not just occur with supplements either. There is far more extra virgin olive oil sold in the world than is actually made.

 

[WillowJ]

So when we have studies saying some vitamin or supplement "does not work", were they actually using the vitamin or supplement in question, or just rice flour and random greens and allergens?

 

[MeSci]

There's another thread here. Can they be merged?

 

[MeSci]

I've always found it interesting that the brands of supplements that are found in major chain grocery and drug stores are rarely, if ever, found in health food and vitamin shops. Same with pet food, you never find major national brands in reputable pet stores.

We do in the UK. The same big pet food brands are sold almost everywhere - pet shops, supermarkets and online. Pharmacies tend to sell brands of supplement made by big, long-established companies, whereas health food shops sometimes sell smaller brands, but may also sell some of the bigger brands. To get the supplements brands I prefer I usually have to buy online, as there's not a good range in the small town where I live.

 

[IreneF]

So when we have studies saying some vitamin or supplement "does not work", were they actually using the vitamin or supplement in question, or just rice flour and random greens and allergens?

Probably the former, but it would depend on the quality of the study. Read the study to find out, and if it isn't clear, email the principal investigator.

 

[WillowJ]

Probably the former, but it would depend on the quality of the study. Read the study to find out, and if it isn't clear, email the principal investigator.

I usually just read summaries of what all studies have been done, as i can't read everything. But I clearly recall reading one like (paraphrase):
we had everyone take their normal multivitamin, because that most closely matches what people do in everyday experience, and found no benefit to taking multivitamins

 

[barbc56]

Regulation does not mean that supplements are only available by prescription. However because they are not regulated in the US, I only use prescription supplements. Maybe oversight is a better description than regulation.

Canada regulates supplements. Here's an informative site regarding this.

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/dhp-mps/prodnatur/faq/question_consum-consom-eng.php

 

[Little Bluestem]

A radio report I heard said that they did not find any DNA of the plant on the label in an herbal extract. Would an extract contain DNA?

 

[MeSci]

A radio report I heard said that they did not find any DNA of the plant on the label in an herbal extract. Would an extract contain DNA?

We've been discussing this in the other thread.

 

[ProveIt]

I have always avoided supplements that use fillers or prop blends, but it seems they just flat out lie on the label anyway.
Curious if the onus of blame should be placed on the manufacturing labs or the distribution chains. Hard to believe that chains so big can't afford to have their supplements quality tested.