A bold new initiative is shaking up the dietary supplement industry, and it's about time! SuppCo, a company dedicated to transparency, has launched a groundbreaking certification program to verify the active ingredients in supplements. This move comes as a response to the alarming findings of their previous testing initiatives, which revealed a shocking truth: nearly half of the top-selling supplements failed to meet basic label accuracy standards.
Steve Martocci, co-founder and CEO of SuppCo, shares his personal journey of frustration when trying to make informed decisions about supplements. He realized this wasn't an isolated issue but a systemic failure within the industry. With the introduction of TESTED by SuppCo, the company aims to set a clear and independent standard for transparency and accountability, empowering consumers to trust what they buy and allowing responsible brands to prove their integrity.
But here's where it gets controversial... SuppCo's certification goes beyond traditional testing methods. Jordan Glenn, head of science at SuppCo, explains that their approach is a logical extension of previous testing, which found that roughly half of the popular supplements sold on Amazon fell short of label accuracy. The certification process adds an extra layer of scrutiny, shining a light on formulation decisions and manufacturing standards before a product even reaches the lab.
"TESTED tells you what's actually in the bottle you buy off the shelf," Glenn emphasizes. By combining TrustScore and TESTED, SuppCo creates a closed loop, helping consumers identify trustworthy products and confirming their reliability in the real world.
SuppCo's initial testing rounds targeted key supplements like creatine, NAD+, urolithin A, and berberine. The results were eye-opening: 22 out of the tested products contained a mere 0% to 3% of their listed active ingredients. Brands claiming the highest serving sizes often concealed weak or absent active ingredients, raising serious concerns about quality control.
"These aren't borderline misses; they're breakdowns at every level of quality control," SuppCo highlights in their 2025 testing retrospective. Whether it's manufacturing shortcuts, supplier variability, lack of internal testing, or intentional deception, the outcome remains the same: products that promise much but deliver little.
TESTED by SuppCo takes a rigorous approach, submitting all products for testing through an independent ISO 17025-accredited laboratory. Products that meet or exceed 95% of their labeled active ingredient claims earn certification. Importantly, SuppCo shares all results, including failures, on their product pages, ensuring consumers have the information they need to make informed choices.
With over 650,000 users actively tracking their supplement routines on SuppCo, certification results are directly accessible to those making purchase decisions. This visibility complements existing certifications, which, while valuable, were not primarily designed with consumers in mind.
Annual testing ensures compliance, and products that fall short are guided through remediation before retesting. Brands pay a certification fee to cover the costs of independent testing, program operations, and licensing.
SuppCo's initiative addresses a critical structural issue in the industry. As Glenn puts it, "The supplement industry is at an inflection point. Consumer expectations are rising, and independent verification is becoming the new baseline."
Brands partnering with TESTED understand that transparency is the key to long-term success in a crowded market. Verification, accountability, and transparency are no longer optional; they define the category at scale.
Jeff Byers, CEO of Momentous, a participating brand, emphasizes the importance of trust and accountability: "It's easy to talk about quality, but proving it is much harder. We chose to participate in TESTED by SuppCo because transparency should not be optional."
SuppCo joins the ranks of organizations like ConsumerLab, NSF International, and the United States Pharmacopeia in their mission to ensure supplement label accuracy, identity, purity, and quality. However, SuppCo's certification addresses a fundamental structural issue in testing, purchasing products anonymously off the shelf, just like a consumer would. This approach closes a loophole where a product might pass a certification test using a selected lot but underperform in the bottle a consumer opens.
Other companies in the space, such as natural product manufacturer NOW Foods, have also conducted their own testing of supplements purchased on Amazon, identifying widespread labeling and potency issues.
Through its industry self-policing program, NOW has conducted multiple rounds of testing on "no-name brands" purchased on Amazon since 2017, monitoring a range of ingredients. The results have been described as "alarming" and "abysmal," highlighting the need for increased transparency and accountability in the industry.
SuppCo's certification program is a significant step towards addressing these issues, empowering consumers and holding brands accountable. It's time to close the loop on supplement quality and ensure consumers get what they pay for.
