NOW Foods Develops Adulteration Screening Method

BLOOMINGDALE, Ill.NOW Foods announced its scientific team developed a method for screening dietary supplement ingredients for adulteration. A scientific report on the method, Rapid screening test for adulteration in raw materials of dietary supplements," is scheduled to be published in the peer-reviewed journal Vibrational Spectroscopy (DOI: 10.1016/j.vibspec.2010.11.009).

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 Michael Lelah, technical director, NOW Foods. 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, which NOW has shared with FDA, American Herbal Products Association (AHPA), Natural Products Association (NPA), American Botanical Council (ABC), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), utilizes existing equipment and software, is easy to use, requires minimal sample preparation, requires limited data interpretation, can be performed by non-technical personnel, has a short run time, and is functional across a wide range of raw materials and adulterants. The method requires only 30 seconds grinding in an analytical mill before performing the scan. Including milling the samples, the entire screening process can be performed in less than 10 minutes per sample.