SuppCo launches an independent certification to verify actives in dietary supplements
This new program enhances SuppCo’s TrustScore rating system and builds on earlier testing efforts that revealed about half of top-selling supplements, purchased off the shelf, failed basic label accuracy standards.
“SuppCo emerged from my frustration with trying to make informed supplement choices, and I soon realized this wasn’t a personal struggle but a systemic industrywide problem,” said Steve Martocci, co-founder and CEO of SuppCo, in a press release. “With TESTED by SuppCo, we’re establishing a clear, independent standard for transparency and accountability so shoppers can trust what they buy, and responsible brands can prove it.”
TESTED by SuppCo is launching with brands such as Momentous, Thorne, Metagenics, Gaia Herbs, Designs for Health, Fatty15, Solaray, Niagen, Integrative Therapeutics, and Pendulum.
Certifying what’s on the shelf and exposing gaps
Jordan Glenn, SuppCo’s head of science, explained that the certification extends the company’s work testing 44 popular Amazon-sold supplements last year, which found that roughly half of those products failed to meet basic label accuracy.
The program adds a new layer to the TrustScore feature, which highlights formulation choices, manufacturing standards, and transparency practices that signal quality before a product reaches the lab.
“TESTED reveals exactly what’s in the bottle you buy off the shelf,” Glenn noted. “Together, they create a closed loop where TrustScore helps users identify potentially trustworthy products, and TESTED confirms whether that trust holds up in real-world use.”
SuppCo’s initial testing rounds focused on creatine, NAD+, urolithin A, and berberine supplements, with results showing that 22 products contained 0% to 3% of their listed active ingredients. Shortcomings were especially evident among brands advertising the largest serving sizes, which SuppCo says often masked weak or missing actives.
“These aren’t borderline misses; they reflect breakdowns at nearly every stage of quality control, from raw ingredient sourcing to final formulation verification,” SuppCo stated in its 2025 testing retrospective.
Whether due to manufacturing shortcuts, supplier variability, insufficient internal testing, or deliberate deception somewhere along the supply chain, the outcome was the same: products that made bold claims yet delivered little to nothing of what they promised.
TESTED by SuppCo tests products at an independent ISO 17025–accredited laboratory, and certification is earned when a product meets or exceeds 95% of its labeled active-ingredient claims. All results are publicly posted on SuppCo’s product pages, regardless of certification status, so consumers can decide with full visibility.
“With more than 650,000 users actively tracking their supplement routines on SuppCo, certification results—including failures—are presented directly to decision-makers,” Glenn said. “That transparency complements existing certifications, which are valuable but weren’t designed with everyday shoppers in mind.”
Testing is repeated annually to ensure ongoing compliance, and products failing to meet the standard receive remediation guidance before retesting. Brands pay a certification fee to cover independent testing, program operations, and licensing.
Addressing structural issues and closing a meaningful loophole
SuppCo isn’t alone in monitoring the marketplace for supplements that fall short of labeling and identity standards, especially as the industry emphasizes self-regulation and good manufacturing practices.
“The supplement industry is at a turning point,” Glenn said. “Consumer expectations are rising, regulatory scrutiny is intensifying, and independent verification is becoming a baseline expectation rather than a differentiator.”
He added that brands partnering with TESTED from the outset recognize transparency as the durable competitive edge in a noisy market. In this framework, verification, accountability, and openness become the baseline, and brands that bake quality into their operations and prove it independently shape the category at scale.
“It’s easy to talk about quality and make big claims about products, but it’s far harder to prove it,” said Jeff Byers, CEO of Momentous. “We chose to participate in TESTED by SuppCo because trust and accountability are how this industry progresses. Transparency shouldn’t be optional, and brands that stand behind their products, like ours, should be willing to prove it.”
Like ConsumerLab, NSF International, and the United States Pharmacopeia before it, SuppCo aims to ensure and verify supplement label accuracy, identity, purity, and quality, but positions its certification as addressing a fundamental structural issue in how testing is conducted.
“Most existing certifications rely on manufacturer-submitted samples or production lots,” Glenn explained. “TESTED purchases products anonymously, off the shelf, after typical retail aging, just as a consumer would. That distinction closes a meaningful loophole where a product can pass a certification test using a carefully chosen lot yet underdeliver in the bottle a consumer actually opens.”
Industry players and scene-setters alike have conducted their own testing of Amazon-purchased supplements. NOW Foods, a prominent natural products manufacturer, has run 19 rounds of testing on no-name brands since 2017, examining ingredients such as St. John’s Wort, methyl B-12, SAM-e, resveratrol, berberine, astaxanthin, bromelain, magnesium glycinate, quercetin, CoQ10, glutathione, curcumin, phosphatidylserine, acetyl-L-carnitine, alpha-lipoic acid, and creatine.
In many cases NOW described the findings as alarming or persistent, highlighting multiple red flags and urging consumers to proceed with caution.
