The world continues to evolve and with that evolution people find themselves leaning towards different lifestyles. Especially, with the different health issues like diabetes and obesity, more people are becoming health conscious. Some would begin exercising, others would become vegan while a number may choose to become vegetarians. The lifestyle choices may create nutritional deficiencies pushing people to begin taking dietary supplements.
Dietary supplements are minerals, herbs or vitamins that you can take. You take them because you are not getting them from the natural food sources depending on your diet. Therefore, supplements become beneficial to your health. Supplements on Amazon is one way of acquiring the dietary supplements but how sure are you that they are legitimate?
The Background of Supplements
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates supplements in some aspects such as labelling and supplement ingredients. However, there are no provisions in the law that stipulate the FDA to approve supplements for their effectiveness and safety before they reach the consumer.
Therefore, when you are shopping for the best multi vitamins online, how sure are you that it is safe and it works? With the limitation of scrutiny that the FDA can provide, different manufacturers may take advantage to put across a supplement that is not effective. With this kind of doubt, supplements on Amazon have to undergo strict regulations before Amazon can put them on their catalogue.
Amazon’s Compliance Checklist
To ensure the legitimacy of products or supplements to consumers, Amazon has to use a rigorous compliance checklist to approve a product to sell. On the subject of supplements on Amazon, the organization has worked along the lines of the FDA for approval guidelines. The approval guidelines are in the lines of packaging, labelling and supplements’ detail page.
Labelling
All labels should be in English with information detailing the name of the supplement. The quantity in terms of tablets or capsules should also be included with the amount of supplement in each quantity. The label should also include a fact panel, ingredients list and the addresses of the manufacturer, packer and distributor.
The labels should not claim cure or prevention unless approved by the FDA. Labels should not claim that the supplement is approved by the FDA or portray the FDA’s logo. Amazon also states in its checklist that the label should not claim that the supplement on Amazon is equivalent to any controlled substance.
The stated guidelines are not all that is required by Amazon but, now when shopping for the best multi vitamin you have a rough idea of what to expect.
Packaging
Packaging regulations may be quite simple but it ensures that the consumer gets the right product. The supplements package must be new, unused and sealed in the original manufacturer’s packaging. The packaging must display serial numbers, lot numbers or matrix codes.
You can look up more guidelines on the detail page and products and ingredients that Amazon stipulates here.
The same guidelines can help you determine the legitimacy of supplements on other platforms. So, if you are shopping for specials on Body by Nature, you know what to look for from the labelling, packaging and ingredients.