Dan Richard, vice president global sales and marketing at NOW Foods, took some time at Natural Products Expo West to discuss the latest trends and challenges facing the supplement industry, particularly around Amazon sales and counterfeiting. Richard said NOW has tested 25 to 30 B12 brands for adulteration. While they are still going through final analysis, this most recent round of testing has revealed surprisingly positive results. The majority of brands passed—a refreshing change from previous rounds.
Since B12 is an expensive vitamin, Richard said he expected different results.
“When we look at Amazon testing, we’re looking for economic adulteration, who has a reason to cheat and why. So in this case, it seems there may not be the reason we thought there was to cheat.”
However, counterfeiting remains a major concern for NOW, a problem running rampant in Russia.
“It’s such a big problem,” Richard said. “It’s gotten worse in the last two years in Russia in particular. Russia is kind of a Wild West today, and there’s a lot of brands with a lot of fake products being sold in Russia.”
Despite the various challenges the industry presents, Richard emphasized that NOW Foods continues to adapt and address these issues to ensure the quality and integrity of their products. To hear more on these challenges, including tariffs and succession, as well as trends Richard is watching on and off the show floor, watch the full interview.
