GNC has become the first major retailer of dietary supplements to adopt testing procedures for its herbal brands that exceed Food and Drug Administration standards.
The nationwide retailer recently announced that its Herbal Plus products would be DNA-tested to ensure that the ingredients listed on their labels actually are in the products.
GNC also said it will display notices at stores and on its websites clarifying the products' manufacturing and processing procedures and disclose whether chemicals are used to make them.
The changes, announced March 30, stem from a dispute between the New York state Attorney General's office and dietary supplement retailers GNC, Walgreens, Walmart and Target in February that resulted in the four retail chains removing some supplements from store shelves.
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According to New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, herbal supplements bought at the retailers did not contain the primary ingredient listed on the labels and instead consisted largely of fillers and other plant material.
Schneiderman's office used advanced DNA testing to verify the ingredients of 78 bottles of herbal supplements bought at the retail giants and found that four out of every five bottles contained no trace of the plants purported to be in the supplement.
Schneiderman said the tests of products such as St. John's wort, echinacea and ginseng indicated that " 'buyer beware' may be especially true for consumers of herbal supplements."
"The DNA test results seem to confirm longstanding questions about the herbal supplement industry. Mislabeling, contamination and false advertising are illegal," he said.
In response, industry advocates say DNA testing is ineffective and inaccurate for plant material and insist there is little evidence that DNA barcode testing, which can detect fresh or alive genetic material, is useful for supplements that contain processed plant extracts.
They add that GNC's announcement — the result of an agreement between Schneiderman and the retailer — "performs a disservice to consumers because it wrongly perpetuates the misdirected notion that DNA barcode testing is appropriate."
Steve Mister, president of the Council for Responsible Nutrition, said DNA barcode testing "remains a flawed method for across-the-board testing for analyzing the quality of botanical ingredients and finished products."
In their announcement, GNC officials said they tested the products that the New York attorney general's office found questionable, with the results showing that the supplements did contain herbal extracts listed on their respective labels.
They also said they hope the changes, which will include DNA testing of plant material before it goes through the extraction process, will help drive stricter standards for supplements across the industry.
"As an industry leader, we have always gone above and beyond the minimum requirements in pursuing quality for our consumers, and we will continue to lead the efforts for higher standards. This is good for consumers, good for the industry, and good for GNC," company CEO Michael Archbold said.
Schneiderman and Indiana Attorney General Gregg Zoeller also announced that they have joined with the attorneys general of 12 other states to call for a congressional investigation into quality control and manufacturing in the herbal supplements industry.
For years, Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., have advocated for tighter regulation of the dietary supplement industry, introducing a bill in 2013 calling for better labeling of products and research into their performance, and working with colleagues to press the FDA for tighter control of the industry.
Schneiderman said the time has come for such changes.
"When consumers take an herbal supplement, they should be able to do so with full knowledge of what is in that product and confidence that every precaution was taken to ensure its authenticity and purity," he said.
