Supplements - assuring their quality

[Amazoniac]

Since I haven't found a thread already discussing this subject, here it is:

Hello haidut,

How to assure that a customized supplement supplier uses high quality and pure ingredients? In other words, hwo to determine that they are reliable and what are the clues for that?

If you don't mind, I'll find a proper place in the forum to place this conversation, I just didn't have the time yet..

Wish you a great day!

The only way to have a definitive answer on that is to hire a company to do a chemical analysis and issue a Certificate of Analysis (CoA) on the actual supplement. However, that won't necessarily tell you what is the quality of the ingredients used but only whether they are present in the supplement. A full CoA tends to be very expensive and can cost several thousand dollars per supplement analyzed. In the absense of that, the vendor can supply individual CoA for each of the ingredients used in the supplement, which is what I did for my supplements. I sent the CoAs to Charlie and Dan Wich about a year ago. The CoA for each ingredient used lists its exact type, purity and chemical formula.
Finally, a good quality supplement rarely causes allergic reactions even in sensitive people and some of the ingredients of the supplement can be gleaned from its taste/smell/texture and so on. For instance, SolBan has a bitter/tangy taste due to the aspirin/caffeine/niacinamide, Energin is orange in color and has the nasty taste of thiamine (B1), Oxidal is navy blue in color and had bitter taste due to the caffeine and benzoic acid in it.
I hope that helps.

Thank you, haidut!

 

[Dan W]

I think Haidut's point about the taste/smell is more useful than people realize, given we have built-in, high-quality sensors

You can often search for "[substance] MSDS" and find a description of its odor and taste in the "physical and chemical properties" section. Or just Google "[substance] (odor OR smell OR taste)". Then you can figure out if anything seems "off", along with suspicious signs like leftover solvents (nail polish remover or rubbing alcohol type smell). And it doesn't have to be just for powders/oils: you can open capsules and puncture/crush gelcaps.

And I haven't bothered going this far with anything, but the MSDS (or COA) can also have other testable information like PH, solubility, and melting point.