NNFA Announces Passing Scores for 100 Percent of Members' CoQ10 Products

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.--The National Nutritional Foods Association (NNFA) announced that 100 percent of 27 coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) products earned passing scores under its TruLabel program. NNFA purchased the 27 member products--17 tablets/capsules and 10 softgels--on the market and submitted them to an independent laboratory for analysis. Under the association's mandatory TruLabel testing program, the products were analyzed for amounts of CoQ10, as listed on the "Supplement Facts" panel. Results of the tests, including which products were tested, are available on the NNFA Web site (www.nnfa.org).

Products were analyzed in triplicate using High Pressure Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), which is the U.S. Pharmacopeia method for finished products. Passing scores indicate the product met label claims within a 5 percent margin of error.

If any product fails a TruLabel test, the manufacturer is given six months to correct the discrepancy. Members whose products fail on subsequent tests, and who do not remove them from the market, are expelled form the association, although this has not happened to date, according to Phillip Harvey, Ph.D., chief science officer of NNFA. "We have found, interestingly, that a number of the companies discontinue the product," Harvey said. "But generally, if they do not abide by corrective action, [expulsion] is a possible consequence."

NNFA's TruLabel program requires members who market dietary supplements to provide the association with labels from each product, and the information is maintained in a database by NNFA. When TruLabel testing is scheduled, which occurs three to four times per year, an ingredient from a select list of currently popular products is chosen. Member supplements containing the chosen element are identified and randomly purchased in the market; the program does not test products provided directly from manufacturers. Products are then sent to independent laboratories for analysis where they are scrutinized using standard operating procedures for blind testing.

"[M]embers know they're subject to random testing, so they have to keep products up to speed in terms of label claims," Harvey said. "Some members don't like the program, but it's part of what we've been doing for a long time. It's also good for consumers to know that NNFA member companies are subject to random testing."