How to be sure your supplements are safe

For many of us, taking vitamins and supplements is part of our daily routine. That’s because no matter how healthily we try to eat each day, there will always be nutrient gaps in our diet that vitamins can help fill.

But have you ever considered how your vitamins and supplements are made? When you start thinking about it, you might start asking: Are supplements safe? How do I know what’s on the label is actually what’s inside each tablet? Do they go through some sort of vitamin test to make sure they work?

Thanks to the growing trend of traceability and transparency from manufacturers you might be able to find all the information you need to be sure that your vitamins and supplements are pure, safe and effective. That includes the Nutrilite brand, which traces its botanical ingredients from seed to supplement with countless quality assurance test along the way.

Supplement testing and quality assurance

Let’s meet Jacob Lim. Lim is a research and development technician in the Nutrilite Quality Control Chemistry Lab in Buena Park, California. He is on a supplement testing team that works to ensure all the right things are in Nutrilite supplements at the specified levels while also making sure that none of the wrong things are in there.

On some days he tests the raw ingredients used in the supplements, others it could be composites created as part of the manufacturing process and still others it could be the vitamin potency testing of finished tablet. For each one he uses chemicals and liquid chromatography to break down the sample into its separate nutrients.

“We’re measuring the level of each nutrient in the supplement to make sure it matches the specifications for the product. The right specifications ensure the potency through the expiration date,” he said. “We repeat this process for every nutrient in the product.” (You can see a video of him doing that here.)

On other days Lim may be manning the ionically coupled plasma mass spectrometer to check those same materials for any harmful levels of contaminants. If anything ever fails a test for nutrient levels or contaminants, there’s an immediate investigation to find the source of the problem and ensure none of those products leave the manufacturing facility.

Nutrilite traceability: Seed to supplement to you

All of the supplement tests Lim and his colleagues do are among of the hundreds of thousands of quality control tests performed throughout the manufacturing journey. Tracking those tests is a key part of the extensive Nutrilite traceability process that the brand gladly shares with consumers.

It starts with selecting the seeds for botanical ingredients. Careful records are kept on where and when the seeds are planted and how they’re grown and harvested. The tracking continues with every step of the extraction and manufacturing process, from ingredient mixing to quality assurance (Hi, Jacob!), and finishes up with packaging and delivery.

There is a digital paper trail from beginning to end. As a result, the lot number on a bottle of Nutrilite Extended Release Vitamin C, for example, can be used to trace the path of ingredients all the way back to a specific section of Fazenda Nutrilite, the certified organic Nutrilite farm in Brazil where the acerola cherries used in the product are grown.

“It might be a lot of work, but it’s an important part of making sure that your supplements are safe and effective,” Lim said.

And that’s just the internal checks and balances.

Third-party supplement testing

For an additional level of validation, the Nutrilite team submits many of its products for independent, third-party certifications for dietary requirements, quality, safety and sanitation. That includes working with Star K for kosher products and IFANCA for halal products as well as Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and NSF International.

“We have such confidence in our quality systems that we welcome having a third party verify that we are producing quality products that are safe and free of harmful contaminants,” Nutrilite Senior Quality Engineer Liliana Totoiu said.

NSF International, a leading independent lab testing food, water, supplements and consumer products, analyzes more than 67 Nutrilite products to ensure they comply with predetermined standards of quality, safety, and sanitation.

The certification process is not a one-time event but involves regular on-site inspections of manufacturing facilities and regular re-testing of products to ensure that they continue to meet the same high standards required to maintain certification over time.  Every aspect of a product’s development is thoroughly evaluated—from extensive product testing and material analyses to product and manufacturing audits.

After certification, companies and products continue to be subject to close scrutiny. There are regular on-site inspections of manufacturing facilities and annual testing of products to ensure they continue to meet the high standards required for maintaining the certification. This process is not easy or inexpensive, but the Nutrilite team believes it’s worth it.

“It’s a key role in the Nutrilite traceability process to ensure that every product is pure, safe and effective,” Totoiu said.

Lim, who has worked for Amway for about 4 years, said his job in supplement testing has made him appreciate the role quality control plays when he’s buying other things at the grocery store.

“It’s easy to see some things on the labels. But for others, like the absence of heavy metals, it’s a little harder,” he said. “With Nutrilite, knowing that there are documented results for everything as well as third-party testing is a really good sign.”