Contaminated Chinese Ingredients

26th June 2007

By Warren Matthews

We have had a number of customers write to us recently expressing concerns about ingredients sourced from China.  These queries were triggered by a number of news releases highlighting problems of contamination of Chinese product.

So, I thought that it was appropriate that I gave you a full explanation about where and how we source our raw ingredients.

Firstly, it is important from the outset to understand that not all Chinese ingredients are substandard, although many are.  For example, we purchase our policosanol from a Chinese manufacturer. It is the same manufacturer that supplies policosanol to Cognis, a major reputable European supplier of raw ingredients.  Cognis, like us carried out their due diligence very thoroughly and found that the quality of the Policosanol from this particular manufacturer in China could not be bettered anywhere else in the world.

On the other hand we have been offered policosanol from other Chinese manufacturers for more than 1/3rd less in cost…but, we would not touch it.

There are approximately 5,000 suppliers of raw ingredients in China.  However, less than 2% meet our criteria as a potential supplier of raw ingredients for Xtend-Life.

How come so many products produced in the USA either contain contaminated ingredients or else do not contain what they claim?

Poor blending protocols can account for products not containing what they claim.  But the contamination issues are purely due to insufficient diligence in the purchase of raw ingredients, and/or poor manufacturing processes.

This is due in part to the widespread practice of contract manufacturing.  Very few suppliers of dietary supplements actually manufacture their own products.  We are one of the few companies who do.

A contract manufacturer is under a great deal of pressure from their customers to provide the finished product as cheaply as possible.  They are given a formula and asked for a price.  In order to be competitive they use the cheapest possible ingredients and either do no identity testing or at best minimal testing.  Instead they rely on the certificates of analysis from the raw ingredient suppliers which is OK from reputable manufacturers but are suspect from many other manufacturers.

This enables them to produce a paper trail so they can say to their customers that they did supply the ingredients required.

As indicated above many of the COA’s are false!  This is a world-wide problem and not limited to Chinese manufacturers of raw ingredients. Some US ingredient manufacturers/distributors of raw ingredients also are guilty of this so the blame cannot all be directed to the Chinese...they are just catering to a demand by less than honest manufacturers all over the world. 

So, reputable manufacturers have to be very much on guard and have systems set up to test raw ingredients and check out the manufacturers of the raw ingredients themselves.

Sometimes it is obvious when an ingredient is ‘questionable’.  For example, when a company offers an ingredient substantially cheaper than current market price then you can be sure that all is not well.  However, contract manufacturers will generally jump at these ‘bargains’ if they are supported by an authentic looking certificate of analysis.

So, how does Xtend-Life overcome the problems of substandard raw ingredients?

To answer this I have to explain our protocols in selecting new raw ingredients.  These protocols have been refined over almost 8 years.

Step 1:  Is preparing an EXACT specification of the raw ingredient that is required for a particular formula.  This is a painstaking procedure as all components of the raw ingredient have to be factored into the spec, not just the active component.  This is because these other ‘non active’ components still play an important role in interacting with other raw ingredients.

Step 2: When the specification is complete we then identify the likely source of that raw ingredient.  For example, if it is a plant based ingredient, where is that plant native to?  Is it India, China, New Zealand, Asian, European, USA, Canadian or South American?  After establishing this we then investigate possible manufacturers.  As I mentioned earlier if the product is coming from China only 2% of the suppliers will be considered.

Step 3: After compiling a short list, those manufacturers who are not GMP certified or do not have ISO certification are removed.  Those who are left are asked to provide a Certificate of Analysis.

Step 4: The COA’s are examined by our chief researcher Prof. Dr. A Munem Daoud PhD, and also Trevor Lyttle, B Tech, M.Sc (Hons) our procurement manager.  The methodology used to prepare the COA is examined and from that either rejected or put into the ‘maybe’ file provided they match our specification.

Step 5: If there are multiple choices then a selection is made from the manufacturer with whom we already have a relationship with or, whose factory we have visited.

Step 6: When we order an ingredient from China we advise the supplier that we will be having the ingredient tested by a independent GMP lab in New Zealand.  In the event that we find it does not match the certificate of analysis we will ship the product back to them and ask for a full refund and lodge a complaint with the Chinese Embassy.  Sometimes the manufacturer will refuse to supply us on those conditions so we move on to a different supplier.

Hopefully this will give you a better appreciation about just how different Xtend-Life is from other brands that are manufactured under contract with price in mind.  In fact, I have seen products that retail at LESS than the cost of the GENUINE raw ingredient.  In these cases they have used a different ingredient or, purchased out of date raw ingredients which are sold very cheap as they have lost most or their efficacy.
Price is never a consideration in our purchasing decision.  We take the attitude is that what it costs is what it costs!  There are no bargains for quality ingredients!

Do all your ingredients come from China?

Not at all!  We source our ingredients world-wide.  We purchase from many US and European companies such as Roche, Naturex, Cognis, National Enzyme Company, Merck and Terry Labs just to name a few.

We also use a number of materials that are patented or that have intellectual property rights attached to them, such as Henkel’s Covi-Ox (Vitamin E oil) and TocoMin® from Carotech Corp, among others.  This is in contrast to many manufacturers who are not prepared to pay a premium of such scientifically supported ingredients.

Some of the ingredients certainly come from China and because of the sensitivity of using any Chinese ingredient I personally visit our suppliers there on a regular basis to make sure everything is ‘above board’.

It is virtually impossible to produce any quality comprehensive supplement without using some Chinese ingredients.  This has always been the case as many ingredients are not available in other parts of the world.  This situation has been accelerating in recent years as manufacturers in other parts of the world find it difficult to compete and as such they have discontinued manufacturing many raw ingredients.

Therefore the need to deal with the Chinese for raw ingredients becomes inevitable.  The trick for manufactures is to know what you are doing and not buy on price!  But…unfortunately most contract manufacturers do not follow the same protocols as we do because they are under intense pricing pressure.

If a dietary supplement manufacturer claims to not use any Chinese produced ingredients they are either using a very simple basic formula with local ingredients or, they have not really checked the accuracy of the source of their ingredients.  

What about contaminants such as micro-organisms and heavy metals? 

There is NO excuse for any product to be released on the market with these contaminants.  If all manufacturers followed our example and sent out samples from EVERY batch to an independent laboratory for testing for these contaminants PRIOR to release there would be no supplements on the market with these contaminants.

Even though we do this testing on every batch we have never had a batch with contamination.

I hope that this article will put our customers minds at rest and maybe even encourage those readers who are not yet customers to perhaps give Xtend-Life a try.

In good health,

Warren Matthews