Question: Hello, I was wondering if any of your vitamins or herbs are manufactured in China? If they are do you have a list so when I order from you I won't get any of these Chinese products?
Thank you for your question. We do get products from all over the world, including China. Regardless of the country of origin, we do stipulate that all manufacturers must be compliant with GMP standards and practices. We require a Certificate of Analysis from our manufacturers with each lot of product verifying that product:
- meets label claims
- has been tested for pathogenic bacteria (Staph, Salmonella, E.coli)
- has been tested for fungal counts
- has been tested for heavy metals (mercury, lead, cadmium and arsenic)
Our specs also require that manufacturers verify that they are compliant with FDA regulations regarding BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalitis) and that they meet the standards set by Proposition 65 in California.
Once we receive the product, we send samples to independent 3rd party quality control labs for quality control testing to verify that the product meets label claims. We also have an in-house laboratory that does spot-checking for heavy metals. If the product does not meet label claims in our 3rd party testing, we return it to the manufacturer.
The large manufacturers we use have stood the test of time in products they have made for us. Failure to provide a product which meets our specifications has resulted, at times, in deliberately changing to a different manufacturer. It is a disservice to our customers and a waste of our time and effort dealing with any unreliable manufacturers.
We do not have a specific list of what is coming from China, since country of origin of individual products may vary by lot with availability of ingredients.
Some customers choose to select items containing trademarked ingredients, since these ingredients will be coming from the holders of that trademark. More info may be available on the internet regarding sourcing of ingredients for these trademarked formulations.
