How to Evaluate the Quality of a Dietary Supplement

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Article Title:

How to Evaluate the Quality of a Dietary Supplement

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Article Description:

So, you've found a Dietary Supplement that exactly fits

your special need. The information on the supplier's

website appears to be consistent with everything that

you've read and heard, and now you're ready to buy. But

there are questions on your mind. " What is the quality of

this product that I'm buying? " you ask. " Can I really

trust this supplier? "

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Distribution Date and Time: 2010-11-02 12:15:00

Written By: Norm Howe

Copyright: 2010

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How to Evaluate the Quality of a Dietary Supplement

Copyright © 2010 Norm Howe

Validation and Compliance Institute

http://www.vcillc.com

So, you've found a Dietary Supplement that exactly fits your

special need. The information on the supplier's website appears

to be consistent with everything that you've read and heard, and

now you're ready to buy.

But there are questions on your mind. " What is the quality of

this product that I'm buying? " you ask. " Can I really trust

this supplier? "

With the globalization of the Dietary Supplement market, these

are valid questions. When you look at the retailer's website, or

even the label on the bottle, you can't tell anything about the

product. You can't tell who actually made it. You can't tell

where it was made. And you can't tell whether the product is a

quality product, or not.

What's a consumer to do? I can give you a few answers, but you

don't have an easy task ahead of you. Here's why.

First you need to understand the structure of the Dietary

Supplement industry. Hold on because this is a little

complicated.

There are many levels in the Dietary Supplement supply chain.

Some of the companies may function in more than one level in the

supply chain but most don't. They only do one part of the

process. For instance, the company that you buy your Dietary

Supplement from will usually be only a distributor. Here is a

list of those levels:

Dietary Ingredient Manufacturers. These are the companies that

manufacture the individual ingredients that you see listed on the

labels of the Dietary Supplements that you buy. Some examples

would be St. 's Wort, Echanacea, or Glucosamine. These

products are sourced from all over the globe.

Dietary Supplement Manufacturers. These companies mix Dietary

Ingredients together.

Tabletters and encapsulators. These companies convert the mixed

Dietary Supplement into tablets or capsules.

Packagers. These companies package the tablets, capsules,

powders, or liquid Dietary Supplements and apply labels.

Distributors. These are the companies that actually market the

finished Dietary Supplement to consumers.

Herein lies your first big problem. The companies that perform

these functions are not visible to you. The retailer that you buy

your Dietary Supplement from may perform one or more of these

functions. However, the chances are that your retailer does not

do all of it. In fact there's a good chance that your retailer

is only a distributor and contracts out ALL of the manufacturing

operations.

Any Dietary Supplement that is offered for sale in the United

States must comply with regulations of the US Food and Drug

Administration (FDA). The Dietary Supplements that we buy are the

safest in the world.

The FDA has enacted new regulations to improve the quality of

Dietary Supplement manufacturing and FDA inspects all of the

levels in the supply chain. However, those new regulations have

only recently gone into effect and FDA has not inspected all the

suppliers under the new regulations.

FDA does not give companies a certification, nor do they approve

them after they have been inspected. So there is no stamp of

approval from FDA that you could find on your retailer's website

or in their literature that would define them as " FDA

approved " .

On the other hand, if FDA inspects a facility and finds problems,

it can issue a Warning Letter. The Warning Letter will be

published on FDA's website, www.fda.gov. The link is visible on

the lower right side of the home page. If you want to investigate

a company, go to the Warning Letter page and search for the

company.

Unfortunately the retailer is unlikely to be the manufacturer of

the dietary supplement. But if you find that your supplier has a

recent Warning Letter, find someone else to buy your dietary

supplements from.

There are non-governmental organizations that inspect and certify

Dietary Supplement manufacturers. These organizations will then

allow the Dietary Supplement manufacturer to display their

certificate or logo. The certificate will usually say something

like " GMP Certified " . GMP stands for Good Manufacturing

Practices. These organizations inspect Dietary Supplement

manufacturers to make sure that they follow Good Manufacturing

Practices and to ensure that the manufacturer has GMP training

(http://vcillc.com/compliance_services.html) in place for all

of their employees.

The bottom line is that if you want an extra measure of safety

when you look for a Dietary Supplement supplier, look for a GMP

certification logo on the website or on the label of the product

you buy. But don't stop there. Go to the website of the

certifying organization and check to make sure that the Dietary

Supplement supplier is listed as a certified company.

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Norm Howe, Senior Partner at Validation and Compliance Institute,

consultants for the pharmaceutical and medical device industries.

He got his BS at UC, Berkeley, and a Ph.D. in chemistry at UCLA.

He has held many management positions in FDA regulated industries,

most at BASF. http://www.vcillc.com/