The US government does not review dietary supplement products before they are marketed. According to the law, manufacturers of these supplements are responsible for making sure their products are safe and for determining that the claims on their labels are accurate and truthful [1]. Consequently, consumers often have difficulty finding reliable information on these types of supplements. ConsumerLab.com is a privately held company that attempts to fill this need. Its mission is “to identify the best quality health and nutrition products through independent testing.”
The ConsumerLab.com Website is divided into several sections, including Laboratory Test Results, Where to Buy Products, Natural Products Encyclopedia, and Recalls & Warnings.
Laboratory Test Results
ConsumerLab.com contracts with independent laboratories to test different kinds of health, wellness, and nutrition products such as vitamins and minerals, herbals, and sports and energy products. The results of these tests are the primary focus of the Website. Some of the products recently tested include echinacea, St. John's wort, and zinc. The criteria ConsumerLab.com uses to test products include identity, potency, purity, bioavailability, and consistency. The criteria and guidelines for these testing programs are described on the Website. ConsumerLab.com buys products from retail stores, catalogs, online retailers, or multilevel marketing companies. It does not accept products directly from manufacturers. Products are retested every few years.
All of the Laboratory Test Results sections are divided into four sections: Background, Test Methodology, Results, and Consumer Tips. The information in the Background section describes the supplement and its common uses. The Test Methodology section describes the tested quality concerns, including a link to a page explaining how products have been selected for the test methodology, and the criteria a product must meet to achieve a “passing” score. The Results section starts out with a summary of the test results followed by a table listing what products were reviewed and whether or not they met the criteria. The Consumer Tips section offers advice to consumers who are considering taking the product. Subscribers can view these reports in full. Non-subscribers can read truncated versions of the reports. Approximately half of the reports indicate the date the review was posted.
Where to Buy Products
Some of the listed name-brand products contain paid links to product label information from supplement manufacturers. These links are clearly indicated as advertisements. Manufacturers of products that pass ConsumerLab.com's testing can enroll in ConsumerLab.com's CL Approved Quality Product Seal licensing program, which allows them to add ConsumerLab.com's approval symbol to the product's label. Vendors pay an advertising fee to be listed in the Where to Buy Products section.
Natural Products Encyclopedia
The information in the Natural Products Encyclopedia is provided by Natural Pharmacist™ (HealthGate Data) and is divided into three categories: Herbs & Supplements, Conditions, and Drug Interactions. Each section contains an alphanumeric index and is searchable by keyword. The basic entries include principle and other proposed uses, scientific evidence for effectiveness, suggested dosage, safety issues, and current references from biomedical research journals.
Recalls & Warnings
Alerts relating to dietary supplements and other nutrition products from government agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Federal Trade Commission, and Health Canada are listed in the Recalls & Warnings section. The full text of the most current alert is available to both subscribers and non-subscribers. As of May 11, 2004, the most recent warning, posted on April 2, 2004, involved the FDA's warning letters to sixteen dietary supplement distributors for making false and misleading claims for weight loss products promoted over the Internet. Previous warnings and recalls listed in reverse chronological order, going back to January 2002, are available to subscribers.
Conclusion
The ConsumerLab.com Website is easy to navigate. The main navigation bar appears in the left column on every page of the Website. The Search this Site feature covers all sections. Because currently less than 100 supplements have been reviewed, finding a specific Laboratory Test Result report is not difficult using the four categorized drop-down menus (Herbals, Vitamins and Minerals, Other Supplements, and Nutritional Products: Foods and Beverages) on the Laboratory Test Results page. As this number grows, some users may become frustrated, particularly if they are not certain which category contains a particular supplement. Even though the paid advertisements are identified, novice Web users may have difficultly discerning which sections are impartial information from ConsumerLab.com and which are paid advertising from supplement manufacturers. Because some of the Product Reviews and Natural Products Encyclopedia entries are rather lengthy, the option of a printer friendly page format would be helpful.
ConsumerLab.com is a useful Website for consumers looking for easy-to-read information on herbals and other types of supplements.
Reference
- US Food and Drug Administration. Dietary supplements: tips for the savvy supplement user: making informed decisions and evaluating information. [Web document]. Jan 2002. [cited 15 Jun 2004]. <http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/∼dms/ds-savvy.html>. [Google Scholar]