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ConsumerLab.com is a three-year-old, for-profit, Web-based subscription information service with a focus on consumers and health care professionals, says President Tod Cooperman, a nonpracticing medical doctor. The company purchases a representative sampling of a product group and sends it to 20 different contract labs for product quality, bioavailability, and contamination tests at no cost to the product maker. Any that later want their products added to the list of those tested must pay about $3,000. Companies whose products pass the tests can license the ConsumerLab.com seal, Cooperman says.
To date, the company has tested about 500 individual products. About 30 to 40% of herbal preparations don't pass muster--about the same as for multivitamins, Cooperman says. Single vitamins and minerals do much better. ConsumerLab.com is primarily concerned with quality and safety, but it does give a nod to efficacy. "There has to be a basis for efficacy for us to test a product," he says. "We haven't tested breast enhancing preparations, since there is no reason why they would work."
ConsumerLab.com will soon publish an example of how unregulated the supplements market really is, Cooperman says. An upcoming review of supplements purported to enhance sexual performance will show that only nine of 22 products contain the ingredients they claim. Half fail to meet FDA labeling requirements, and in one case the product delivers only 1% of the ingredients promised on the label. The efficacy of the products was not considered.
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