Founded in 2013, ingredientsonline.com is an innovative online e-commerce platform providing nutritional raw materials for the dietary supplement, animal nutrition, cosmetic and food & beverage industries.
Describing itself as Amazon for ingredients, the platform currently offers over 1,000 ingredients coming from 240 factories in 17 different countries. The company also has over 5,000 registered and qualified members from large and small CPG companies.
Transparency has been a key message for the platform since the very start, and making the Alkemist CofA’s available is “100% part of our commitment to transparency”, said Peggy Jackson, VP of sales and marketing for ingredientsonline.com.
Of the 1,000 ingredients, 450 are botanical ingredients, and CofA’s from Alkemist are currently available for about a dozen. Jackson explained that this is an ongoing process and they will continue to test about 10 per month moving forward.
“This is the beginning of US 3rd party testing results that are available online, and I don’t think anyone else is doing that,” she said.
Non-botanical ingredients from the platform are tested by other leading labs, but Alkemist Labs will do the majority of the botanical testing. “They are the premier botanical testing facility in our eyes, and many people’s eyes,” said Jackson.
Elan Sudberg, CEO of Alkemist Labs, said that greater transparency around test results has been a key goal for him and Alkemist Labs for several years. While there are companies that have been making this data publicly available, like Amazon with its Elements range (although subsequent lines do not boast the same transparency) and Gaia Herbs with its Meet Your Herbs program, very few companies are sharing lab results, he said.
“Consumers are seeking more data on these products, especially younger consumers, and we think this is something that will ramp up in the future,” said Sudberg.
Turnaround time
Independent of the ingredientsonline partnership, Alkemist also announced that it has cut the turnaround time from five to four days for the most common identity tests they provide: routine HPTLC and Microscopy testing.
“We know that rapid turnaround time for identity testing is the biggest need our clients have,” said Sudberg. “While we were consistently delivering accurate results in five days, we know that one less day is an added advantage for our customers. In a climate of frequent consolidation and restructured labs that can adversely impact customer service, we’re proud to meet the needs of our clients."