Vitacost: good or bad?

[Zeta]

 

IAC, I didn't trust VitaC0st's private label supplements (VitaC0st and "En Esss Eye"), due to a history of deceptive labeling and bad results on ConsumerLab testing. One of the latter was Pb in their turmeric product, which you may have already seen, but just in case:

http://margaret.healthblogs.org/2008/02/08/report-of-tainted-curcumin/

(Here is an archived version of the link to the forum post where someone reveals the result:

http://web.archive.org/web/20100326014557/http://beating-myeloma.org/forum/therapies/2008/02/07/consumers-warned-lead-some-turmeric-supplements

 

Michael, thanks for making us aware of this. (I get "Page cannot be crawled or displayed due to robots.txt" at the archive.org link by the way)

 

I've been a member of ConsumerLab for around 5 years, and, without exception, all Vitacost products I've seen tested (which are only those I take or am considering taking) have passed ConsumerLab's testing. I wonder whether Vitacost has cleaned up their act.

 

 

On deceptive labeling:
http://www.longecity.org/forum/topic/14982-vitacost-and-nsi/?do=findComment&comment=159968
http://www.longecity.org/forum/topic/14982-vitacost-and-nsi/page-2?do=findComment&comment=177575

(Note that the cited misleading label on their R-LA is STILL in use, eight years later!
http://www.vitacost.com/vitacost-r-alpha-lipoic-acid-stabilized-rala-100-mg-60-capsules-1
 

Here is someone complaining about misleading kosher labeling: having not seen the  product, I'm not sure how serious this was (did this person just not read properly, or is the label somehow  designed in a way that could genuinely deceive?):
http://reviews.vitacost.com/4595/27779/vitacost-thyroid-complex-with-l-tyrosine-100-capsules-reviews/reviews.htm
"not a clear label,, only the caps are kosher not the actual substance."
 

 

I've seen similarly misleading labels on other R-LA products. If you read the full label you know what you're getting, but still, I agree it's a problem.

 

As for the kosher concerns: I see nothing in the current product description for that thyroid support supplement making any claims about kosherness.

 

On the whole, plenty of reasons to be suspicious 7-8 years ago, but fewer reasons today. My question would be: what supplement company does not suffer from such problems? TwinLAB maybe?

 

By the way, has anyone gone through ConsumerLab's reviews in a systematic way to see which supplement companies consistently come up green on ConsumerLab's tests? I started doing that once, only getting as far as the Life-Extension Foundation (which, by the way, had a perfect score after having gone through around 15 supplements).

 

Zeta