Research group ConsumerLab told NutraIngredients-USA.com that in independent testing of five commercially available brands of each supplement type, a number of quality problems linked to dosage, solubility and lead contamination.
In additional testing of five lycopene products studied in the report, the group claimed that no issues had been found in relation to product quality.
Previous testing
According to ConsumerLab, the new findings follow a report into the same products segment three years ago, when the company looked at five additional branded lycopene, selenium and green tea products. Fifteen supplements were looked at in total.
Tod Cooperman, managing director of ConsumerLab, claimed that many of the concerns highlighted in the previous study still appeared to remain, particularly in the issue of monitoring raw material supply safety.
Cooperman said that the exact brands used in both two reports did differ between studies. This strategy he suggested reflected a balancing act to maintain a focus on specific brands, while at the same time covering a range of wider and new products on the market.
ConsumerLab claims that although it aimed to target as many supplement brands for its testing as possible, the products it had picked in the latest report were designed to serve as a random snapshot of their specific markets.
Despite these seeming limitations in terms of scope, the analyst said that the correlation with its previous report showed that some manufacturers were still struggling to provide product meeting certain quality requirements.
Product concerns
Through the independent testing the company said that in terms of its green tea focus, one brand was found to be contaminated with lead as well as providing less compounds catechins then had been claimed on its packaging.
“A daily dose of another green tea supplement provided 78.3 mg of caffeine - the amount in two cans of cola - although it claimed to contain less than 45 mg of caffeine,” stated ConsumerLab. “Caffeine occurs naturally in green tea, but it is possible to obtain extracts that have little caffeine – one product, for example, provided only 2.5 mg of caffeine per day.”
Future challenge
In looking at selenium supplements, the group said that one product had failed to break apart under the required thirty minute USP requirement.
“Another selenium product claimed to include one gram of fiber per pill – an impossibility considering that each pill weighed less than 0.2 grams,” stated the company.
Cooperman claimed that in cases were testing failed to meet quality requirements, a second round of testing was undertaken at another independent lab.
In looking ahead at the challenges for green tea supplement providers in the next few years, the adoption of more uniform labeling systems that look beyond granting general polyphenol information was one means of improviong consuerm awareness and confidence.
Similarly in looking at problems related to selenium quality, Cooperman estimated that less than five per cent of products were failing to meet the USP disintegration requirement and that the industry could easily meet quality requirement across the board.
ConsumerLab said that by comparison, a seemingly less diverse supply chain for lycopene products had perhaps led to successful testing of the products by the group.