Adulteration

New year, same problem: FDA issues tejocote root warning, finding the supplements adulterated with poisonous plant

04-Jan-2024 By Danielle Masterson

The supplements labeled as weight loss products appear to be mislabeled as testing revealed the tejocote root was substituted with a potentially deadly plant.

‘The cost is credibility’: FDA sends warning letter to Amazon on tainted male sexual products

03-Jan-2024 By Stephen Daniells

The U.S. Food & Drug Administration has warned Amazon about “energy enhancing supplements or foods” alleged to contain undeclared sildenafil and tadalafil for male sexual performance.

Court orders Balance of Nature to stop production & sale of non-compliant supplements

21-Nov-2023 By Stephen Daniells

A federal court has ordered the manufacturer and distributor of the Balance of Nature brand to cease the production and sale of the dietary supplements after the FDA accused the two Utah-based companies behind it of multiple violations spanning years.

ENI’s Bewicke on botanical supply chain quality: ‘We consider ourselves gate-keepers’

16-Nov-2023 By Stephen Daniells

The botanical supply chain is being pressured like never before, with suppliers having to deal with multiple stressors, from increased consumer demand to climate change and adulteration.

SSW education session to spotlight ‘historic’ BAPP SOP

23-Oct-2023 By Stephen Daniells

Stakeholders can learn how to implement the BAPP ‘Burn it, Don’t return it’ SOP to help ensure the integrity of the worldwide supply chain for dietary supplements, foods, OTC drugs, and cosmetics.

BAPP lab guidance lays out methods to detect adulteration in lavender oil

03-Oct-2023 By Stephen Daniells

A new BAPP lab guidance document details the laboratory analytical methods available for the authentication of English lavender essential oil and how to detect adulteration with lower-cost materials.

‘Beyond reckless’: Online weight loss supplements found to contain toxic Yellow Oleander

15-Sep-2023 By Stephen Daniells

Medical and analytical experts are raising the alarm after analyzing weight loss supplements purchased online and labeled as tejocote root, and finding that almost all of them actually contained toxic yellow oleander.

Herbalife’s DNA-based botanical authentication program

15-Aug-2023 By Danielle Masterson

For Herbalife’s Zhengfei Lu, PhD, the importance of botanical authentication goes beyond fulfilling the regulatory requirement on botanical identification– it’s about protecting consumers, ensuring efficacy and supporting sustainable practices.

NutraIngredients-USA recognizes ‘game changing’ BAPP ‘Burn it, Don’t return it’ SOP as Industry Initiative of the Year

18-Jul-2023 By Stephen Daniells

The ABC-AHP-NCNPR Botanical Adulterants Prevention Program (BAPP) is having a real-world impact on the quality of consumer products in the marketplace, and NutraIngredients-USA was delighted to recognize its Best Practices SOP for the Disposal / Destruction...

BAPP releases new bulletin on elder berry adulteration

23-Jun-2023 By Asia Sherman

The Botanical Adulterants Prevention Program (BAPP) has published a new bulletin calling attention to evidence of elder berry adulteration in the dietary supplement market.

‘Frightening extent’: BGG World develops Japan-patented identification method of saw palmetto to counter rampant adulteration

21-Jun-2023 By Hui Ling Dang

High prices, “unscrupulous suppliers”, and inadequate identification methods have resulted in adulteration rates of saw palmetto extracts reaching 33% in Japan and as high as 75% in other Asian markets, says BGG World.

BAPP SOP update: Adopters say guidance is moving commerce needle

05-Jun-2023 By Danielle Masterson

The Botanical Adulterants Prevention Program (BAPP) Best Practices Standardized Operating Procedure (SOP) for the Disposal / Destruction of Irreparably Defective Articles (IDAs) is a voluntary standard to remove “irreparably defective” substances that...

NutraCast: How Purity-IQ ‘fingerprints’ natural products

05-May-2023 By Danielle Masterson

The company's CEO explains why “You can’t hide from NMR."

Review outlines adulteration methods to deceive lab analytical techniques

01-Feb-2023 By Stephen Daniells

A new review by the ABC-AHP-NCNPR Botanical Adulterants Prevention Program (BAPP) highlights the most common types of adulteration plaguing the botanical supply chain and offers stakeholders a valuable resource to tackle this age-old problem.

ABC celebrates 34th year by turning tables on suppliers of adulterated materials

17-Nov-2022 By Hank Schultz

The American Botanical Council has marked its 34th anniversary with the full debut of an open source document that responsible companies can use to prevent adulterated materials from finding their way into finished products.

‘Warning letter geek’ decodes marketing compliance

17-Nov-2022 By Danielle Masterson

Asa Waldstein is principal of the Supplement Advisory Group and the man behind 'Warning Letter Wednesdays.' His bread and butter is educating companies about the dos and don'ts of marketing.

‘Historic’: Adulterants Prevention Program releases ‘Burn it, don’t return it’ SOP

20-Oct-2022 By Stephen Daniells

The ABC-AHP-NCNPR Botanical Adulterants Prevention Program (BAPP) has released its long-awaited Best Practices Standardized Operating Procedure (SOP) for the Disposal / Destruction of Irreparably Defective Articles (IDAs).

BAPP bulletin outlines adulteration of black seed, a rising star among medicinal botanicals

04-Oct-2022 By Hank Schultz

A new Botanical Adulterants Prevention Program bulletin lays out how Nigella seed products are adulterated with similar looking seeds and how the oil is sometimes cut with lower cost seed oils.

Paper lays out methods for ensuring quality of botanical supplements marketed for immune health

30-Sep-2022 By Hank Schultz

A new paper by a cadre of experts in the analysis of botanical ingredients has added a valuable resource to quality control in this sector, an expert says.

Deeper dive into CAERS data shows how unlikely it is that white mulberry could have caused death

29-Aug-2022 By Hank Schultz

A further examination of adverse events reports further elucidates how unlikely it is that white mulberry could cause the kinds of problems that led to the tragic death of the wife of a prominent public official.

Warning letter alleges company used raw materials tainted with glass and plastic

24-Aug-2022 By Hank Schultz

An FDA warning letter sent to supplement manufacturer Oregon’s Wild Harvest said the company failed to demonstrate that it had a valid method for assuring that incoming raw material lots were free of contaminants.

Majority of immune supplements bought on Amazon found to have labels that don’t match contents

11-Aug-2022 By Hank Schultz

A study published yesterday by a group that included researchers from the University of Mississippi found that fewer than half of 30 immune supplements bought on Amazon had labels that accurately reflected their contents.

Nature’s Way succeeds in advertising challenge on understrength elderberry products

05-Jul-2022 By Hank Schultz

An elderberry product marketer has agreed to drop claims that its products contain elderberry in an advertising challenge lodged by Nature’s Way Brands, LLC, which has exposed elderberry adulteration in the past.

BAPP publishes Ginkgo Leaf Extract lab guidance document

11-May-2022 By Stephen Daniells

A new publication from the ABC-AHP-NCNPR Botanical Adulterants Prevention Program (BAPP) will help marketers of ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) leaf extracts products find the best analytical methods to verify this botanical.

Low potency products still the norm on Amazon, NOW finds in CoQ10, quercetin tests

09-May-2022 By Hank Schultz

Supplement manufacturer NOW found in a new set of tests of CoQ10 and quercetin supplements sold on Amazon that quality problems persist for products sold on the site and in some ways may have gotten worse.

BAPP enters eighth ‘decade’ of published documents with saffron bulletin

24-Mar-2022 By Hank Schultz

The Botanical Adulterants Prevention Program has published its 71st publication, the director of the program said recently at the Expo West trade show recently.

Final Blackstone Labs defendant sentenced

15-Mar-2022 By Danielle Masterson

The last chapter of the Blackstone Labs book has closed, with a Florida man sentenced to 51 months in prison for his role while working at the sports and dietary supplements brand.

Supplement closet skeleton grapefruit seed extract makes appearance in warning letter

08-Feb-2022 By Hank Schultz

Grapefruit seed extract, a dubious ingredient that seems to have more lives than a cat, has made another official appearance, this time in a warning letter from the US Food and Drug Administration.

Majority of NMN products tested by ChromaDex had virtually none of active ingredient

14-Jan-2022 By Hank Schultz

Supplement manufacturer ChromaDex alleges that testing has revealed that more than half of NMN anti aging supplements being sold on Amazon contained almost none of the bioactive molecule.

Pandemic-induced demand created field of dreams for adulterators, Blumenthal warns

08-Nov-2021 By Hank Schultz

The demand spike caused by the global pandemic has been a bonanza for the botanical supplements industry. But ABC chief Mark Blumenthal says it has been the biggest threat of adulteration during his time in the industry, too.

Could elderberry boom carry within it seeds of bust?

01-Nov-2021 By Hank Schultz

The unprecedented growth of elderberry demand carries with it a potential poison pill if dilution produces enough ineffective products that consumer confidence is lost, one supplier maintains.

Most glutathione brands bought on Amazon pass NOW’s tests

14-Oct-2021 By Hank Schultz

NOW has released its latest round of testing of products sold on Amazon and found that the glutathione supplements it bought were of reasonable quality, though some failures in potency and purity were still observed.

FDA warns company over use of higenamine in supplement

30-Sep-2021 By Hank Schultz

FDA has issued a warning letter to dietary supplement manufacturer that is based in part on the presence of the problematical ingredient higenamine in some of the company’s products.

Another Blackstone Labs defendant pleads guilty

09-Sep-2021 By Hank Schultz

Another one of the defendants in the Blackstone Labs steroids enforcement action pleaded guilty in a Florida court recently.

BAPP unveils more intensive cooperation with testing association

14-Jul-2021 By Hank Schultz

A new collaboration announced by the Botanical Adulterants Prevention Program will make hundreds of analytical methods more easily available to the industry.

BAPP bulletin finds less pomegranate adulteration, but failure rate still too high

09-Jun-2021 By Hank Schultz

A new Botanical Adulterants Prevention Program bulletin on pomegranate adulteration finds that the situation has improved somewhat in the past five years, but that a still unacceptably high amount of fraudulent products are in the market.

Taiyo gets Informed Ingredient certification on branded ingredients

25-May-2021 By Hank Schultz

Taiyo International has invested in the certificaiton of its ingredinets by getting the Informed Ingredient stamp from certification body LGC on its Sunfiber, Suntheanine, Matcha and Teavigo ingredients.

Omega-3 adulteration: Almost half of products bought on Asian e-commerce sites fail to meet single species label claims

28-Apr-2021 By Gary Scattergood

Nine out of 19 omega-3 products that were bought through prominent Asian e-commerce sites and marketed as containing a single species, did not contain the ingredients declared on the labels, according to new data.

BAPP puts out lab guidance to help detect olive oil adulteration

31-Mar-2021 By Hank Schultz

The Botanical Adulterants Prevention Program has published a guidance document for one of the most commonly adulterated ingredients of all: olive oil.

Laundry list of banned stimulant ingredients found in sports products bought online

24-Mar-2021 By Hank Schultz

A new paper has found a number of banned stimulants in sports nutrition products. Many of the ingredients in question have been the subject of specific FDA enforcement actions in the past.

BAPP reports 11% of 532 elderberry products tested failed ID specs

24-Mar-2021 By Hank Schultz

The Botanical Adulterants Prevention Program has confirmed that a small proportion of elderberry products whose test results it reported on were found to be adulterated.

BAPP: 10 years of tangible results educating the industry and changing practices

22-Mar-2021 By Stephen Daniells

The ABC-AHP-NCNPR Botanical Adulterant Prevention Program made its debut 10 years ago, and over the course of the past decade the program has made an immense contribution to educating the industry about adulteration

Elderberry quality: New standards needed for dosage forms, and separate monographs for European vs American Elder, say experts

17-Mar-2021 By Stephen Daniells

Increasing consumer demand for elderberry products combined with a proliferation of different dosage forms and the constant threat of adulteration means more standards and monographs will be of great value to industry, according to a recent forum hosted...

Report from pharmacy group overplays risk posed by supplements, observers say

04-Mar-2021 By Hank Schultz

A new report from a pharmacists’ group highlights the potential risks dietary supplements pose to patients. The ‘alarmist’ tone of the report emphasizes the work the industry needs to do to educate such groups, observers say.

Wildcrafting pressures, move toward cultivation, supply bottlenecks to color botanical sourcing picture in 2021

15-Feb-2021 By Hank Schultz

The supply of botanical materials will continue to present challenges in 2021, experts said. Among the issues are the strain put on some wildcrafted sources, the possible move toward more cultivation and the dearth of sufficient shipping capacity to...

USP to hold forums on elderberry standards, pyrrolizidine alkaloids

21-Jan-2021 By Stephen Daniells

USP will virtually host two open forums over the next eight days, one covering possible addition standards for elderberry – one of the hottest and most in-demand ingredients of 2020 – and another covering pyrrolizidine alkaloids – toxic compounds that...

ABC: 2020 saw soaring sales but rising supply and adulteration concerns, too

23-Dec-2020 By By Mark Blumenthal, founder and executive director of the American Botanical Council

The year 2020 has been unprecedented in the lives of all people — including those currently involved in the global botanical research communities as well as those involved in global and domestic trade of botanical raw materials, extracts, essential oils,...