Anahad O’Connor, a New York Times reporter who has been writing about the New York State Attorney General’s report on fraudulent dietary supplements, named four groups that certify supplements in his most recent post. The first two are non-profit, the second two charge consumers for their services:
- United States Pharmacopeia (USP), Dietary Supplements
- NSF International
- ConsumerLab, $36/year
- LabDoor, $150/year
I’ve written about USP (USP Verified Label – Look For It When You Buy Supplements), ConsumerLab (40% Of Tested Multivitamins Don’t Contain What Their Labels Say They Contain), and LabDoor (30 Best-Selling Fish Oil Supplements – All Contain Mercury).
O’Connor’s last paragraph really cinches this story. As I’ve said for years, DSHEA* was written for the supplement industry, not the consumer.
“The honor system isn’t working,” John Bradley, the editor in chief of Nutrition Business Journal, wrote in an editorial last week. “The best way forward for the nutritional supplements industry will be to accept at least a bit more oversight. However well-intentioned DSHEA might have been, that 1994 law opened the door to cheating and malfeasance that, even if committed by only a minority of players, is destroying public trust.”
Fanatic Cook 