Tests Show Many Supplements Have Quality Problems

Lead in ginkgo pills. Arsenic in herbals. Bus in a baby's colic and teething syrup. Toxic metals and parasites are part of nature, and all of these have been found in "natural" products and dietary supplements in recent years.

Set aside the issue of whether vitamin and herbal supplements do any good.

Are they safe? Is what's on the label really what's in the bottle? Tests by researchers and private labs suggest the answer sometimes is no.

One quarter of supplements tested by an independent company over the last decade have had some sort of problem. Some contained contaminants. Others had contents that did not match label claims. Some had ingredients that exceeded safe limits. Some contained real drugs masquerading as natural supplements.

"We buy it just as the consumer buys it" from stores, said Dr. Tod Cooperman, president of ConsumerLab.com. The company tests pills for makers that want its seal of approval, and publishes ratings for subscribers, much as Consumer Reports does with household goods.

Other tests, reported in scientific journals, found prenatal vitamins lacking claimed amounts of iodine, and supplements short on ginseng and hoodia — an African plant sparking the latest diet craze.

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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/06/09/national/a093306D80.DTL

A lot of the raws and finished products come from China these days BTW.

I worked with a guy that repackaged raws into finished products. He started testing his own products at domestic labs and found some crazy things in them (steroids were the least of his concerns)

And sometimes, they had nothing in them.