NutraCast: Gene Bruno, NutraScience Labs, on the jump in shady business practices

While the trend is troubling, the certified nutritionist, registered herbalist and professor also said he is encouraged that a lot of the younger generations are doing their research on supplements and the companies behind them. 

In order to weed out some of these bad players, Amazon updated its quality requirements. Bruno said that while he thinks what Amazon is doing is a good thing, but he would like the ecommerce giant to take it a step further.

“I'd like to see them apply their own stringent standards to themselves. And this is what I mean: Amazon doesn't store their dietary supplements in a temperature-controlled warehouse—stated in their own documentation— which means that supplements in some months of the year, can be exposed to temperatures as high as 155 degrees. And I'm of the mind that they should move those supplements to a temperature-controlled warehouse. Because if a supplement company does everything it's supposed to do, tests it, sends it out, if it sits for a couple of months in an Amazon warehouse in 155 degrees, I can't tell you that it's going to have the same level of heat sensitive nutrients in it that it did when it arrived. So I would like to see them make that change.”​

To hear more about price gouging, shipping delays, and how brands can find suitable substitutes amid ingredient shortages, listen to the NutraCast. 

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