NOW Foods Shares Method for Adulteration Screening

Scientists working for NOW Foods (Bloomingdale, IL)have developed a method for rapid screening of adulteration in raw materials of dietary supplements.

NOW Foods, a manufacturer of dietary supplements, claims that the method is fast and easy, requiring limited preparation and data interpretation. Only 10 minutes are needed to analyze a sample, and the method can be performed even by non-technical personnel, according to the company.

Adulteration is a cause for concern across the entire dietary supplement industry, which is why NOW Foods is sharing the method with FDA (Rockview, MD), NIH (Washington, DC), the American Herbal Products Association (Silver Spring, MD), the Natural Products Association (Washington, DC), and the American Botanical Council (Austin, Texas).

“NOW scientists have devoted considerable resources to developing, validating, and publishing a new screening method to detect adulteration of dietary supplement ingredients with erectile dysfunction drugs, weight-loss drugs, or melamine and steroid compounds, which have been reported to be found in products and present a hazard to consumers,” said NOW Foods technical director Michael Lelah. “We hope our industry will consider using this simple approach to test for adulteration in their ingredients. NOW Foods has been using this tool for over a year to inspect sports supplement ingredients. It has insured that no adulterated products reached the marketplace.”

The method has been published in the journal Vibrational Spectroscopy.