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Three-step Quality Control of Your Supplements

Blog, Health & Wellness
  • December 22, 2022
Contrary to popular belief, herbal remedies and supplements are not scrutinized to the same extent as pharmaceutical medications. We have previously written about how difficult it is to find your way in the supplement jungle and how to separate the good from the bad. To build on this article, we continue to strive to increase customer awareness by summarizing how consumers can ensure product quality in three simple steps.

Take-home points

Customers can quality check the quality of products by confirming:
  • A product license number by a national governing body.
  • A third-party certificate seal of ingredient purity and proof of current good manufacturing practice standards (GMP).
  • Scientific proof of safety and effectiveness.

How to confirm the quality of your supplement

  • Check for a product license number by a national governing body. A Health Canada NPN number ensure that the product is licensed and that any health claims made by the company are approved. These will be displayed on the container or packaging (Figure 1). Trim 7 NPN Information Health Canada does not test any supplements directly for purity, efficacy, or safety, and the consumers must therefore do additional quality control steps.
  • Check for a third-party certificate seal. Supplement purity and good manufacturing practice standards by the company may be ensured by a credible third-party organization, such as Informed Sport and NSF. These companies test label claims (i.e., that the product contains what it says), toxicology, and contaminants, and screen for banned substances if the supplements are to be used in sports. A seal will be displayed on the product if it is certified (Figure 2). Third-Party Certifications - Informed Sport, NSF While a third-party certificate seal maybe necessary if the supplement is to be used in sports, there are other certificate seals that indicate whether the product contains certain allergens, such as gluten, or that the product is 100% vegan friendly. While all of these certificates provide clarity and assurances to the consumer, none of these seals indicate whether or not a product is effective.
  • Check for scientific proof of safety and effectiveness. This quality control step is the most important and requires the most legwork by the customer. By using internet search engines and targeted search terms (National Library of Medicine and google.com), you can often confirm safety and efficacy of the product prior to buying your product.

Important tips:

  • For direct proof of safety and efficacy, the product, ingredients, and the daily serving should be proven in at least one randomized clinical trial and published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
  • When supplement companies use ‘borrowed science’ or even worse, fake data, it means they attempt to prove safety and efficacy by making untrue or exaggerated claims or refer to other products or research studies done by others. This is certainly misleading and not science proven.
For tips on how to conduct a search for research proven products, consult our blog on how to choose the best supplements.

Supplement Quality Score

Now that we’ve outlined the key steps to quality control, you can now go score the ‘quality level’ of the supplements in your home using the scorecard below:
  1. The product is licensed by a national governing body and carries its logo. (1 point)
  2. The supplement is third-party certified by a credible organization. (1 point)
  3. The product, ingredients, and daily dosage have been proven effective and safe in a randomized clinical trial (search National Library of Medicine or google.com). (1 point)
Highest quality supplement = 3 points Medium quality supplement = 2 points Low quality supplement = 0-1 points
Table 1. Example of quality scoring of a high-quality multi-ingredient supplement vs. generic brands currently on the market.
Brand Product Licensed Certified Research proven Quality Score
StayAbove Muscle 5 Health Canada Informed Sport Yes 3 points
Generic brands N/A Almost never Rarely Often ‘borrowed science’ 0-2 points
Ultimately, this is exactly why StayAbove Nutrition’s multi-ingredient supplements, such as Muscle 5, are of superior quality versus many other products on the market. We make sure that our supplements are licensed by Health Canada, third-party certified, and also proven in randomized clinical trials (Figure 3). StayAbove Nutrition Muscle 5 - certified by Informed Sport Figure 3. StayAbove Nutrition ensures that all multi-ingredient products, such as Muscle 5, are licensed, third-party certified, and research proven.

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