Major Retailers Accused of Selling Fraudulent Supplements

Do you take herbal supplements regularly? If yes, you might not be getting what you’ve paid for…

Americans spend an estimated $5 billion each year on questionable herbal supplements that promise everything from boosting mental clarity and increasing brain power to curing Ebola. Consumers can usually tell when a product seems fishy, but fraudulent labeling can definitely get the best of us.

The New York State Attorney General is demanding that four major retailers – GNC, Target, Walgreens and Walmart – pull some of their private label herbal supplements from their shelves after DNA tests found that four out of five of their products did not contain any of the herbs on their labels. Instead, the tests discovered that the so-called “herbal” pills often contained cheap fillers such as powdered rice, asparagus and even houseplants. In some cases, the products that were tested contained hazardous ingredients that could be dangerous to those with allergies.

Supplements at Walmart, which were advertised to contain Ginkgo biloba, thought to be a memory booster, did not appear to contain any of said substance. Instead, they contained fillers like powdered radish and wheat – a potential danger for those who are sensitive to gluten. At Walgreens, the FDA found that the ginseng pills were basically powdered rice and garlic.

It’s really baffling how there are so many fraudulent supplement products being sold at major retailers. How did this happen? Who is in charge of regulation? The truth of the matter is that supplements are exempt from the strict regulations that the FDA imposes on prescription medications. Nonetheless, the FDA requires that manufacturers and retailers label all ingredients correctly. The highly popular supplements currently sold at those four major retailers are in clear violation of these requirements.

The responses from the retailers have been varied. The New York Times reports that Walgreens plans to pull the problematic supplements from all stores nationwide as a precautionary measure while it further investigates the matter. GNC says it will cooperate with the Attorney General’s office, but that it stands behind the quality of its private label products. Meanwhile, Walmart says that it will reach out to its suppliers and “take appropriate action,” because it wants customers “to have complete trust in [their] products.” But Walmart has no plans to remove the fraudulent products from its shelves at this time.

Here’s a roundup of all the products that were tested by the Attorney General, along with the test results described in the cease-and-desist letters that were sent to the four retailers.

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