Gummy Supplements: A Case Study in FDA Oversight Failure and Enshittification

AllCourtTENNIS

AllCourtTENNIS

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Keyana Sapp, who covers enshittification as a broader topic, turned her attention this week to gummy supplements in a fairly lengthy piece. My frame while reading was peptides, given how much recent criticism centers on unknown vial contents and claims that our safety is compromised. The short version: the FDA, as we already suspected, prioritizes money over safety, and the largely unregulated gummy supplement sector serves as a perfect talking point when you encounter pearl clutchers. From the article: “Under our current authorities, FDA has no systematic way of knowing what dietary supplements are on the market, when new products are introduced, or what they contain.” The very agency tasked with overseeing this whole industry lacks even a basic means of cataloging the products sold within it.

I've included the full text as an attachment in case the link fails. It's packed with links to additional resources on the subjects discussed. How many of those you click through might determine whether you decide to throw out all your gummies too lol.
 
It's encouraging that this topic is finally drawing some notice. Supplements as a category, and gummies in particular, are largely awful. Yet plenty of folks here and elsewhere keep taking them. I once ordered PEA on Amazon that claimed 1400mg per pill, but each pill weighed only 300mg. That prompted me to look into it, and I discovered that most of what's sold on Amazon US is likely unreliable, typically containing less than the label promises. Nearly every statement in the ad copy or on the bottle can't be trusted. Third-party testing gets mentioned often, but I've almost never found proof it was actually performed. Locating genuine independent testing wasn't simple either. One of the few readily available sources is NOW, which tests both its own products and those of competitors. This amounts to a major and pervasive regulatory breakdown.

Australia enforces tougher standards, so Amazon AU has fewer questionable items than the US. Sellers there could face prosecution for mislabeled goods or for failing to register with the TGA, yet new and obviously suspect products keep appearing. Presumably, if the seller is based overseas, prosecution is unlikely, and the problem's sheer size makes staying ahead of it probably impossible.

Beyond NOW and perhaps California Gold, very few brands offer a strong likelihood of accurate labeling. Generally, the older and more established the brand, the better. Newer companies are nearly always suspect. Trendy new products, such as urolithin A, are almost all dubious, since they're priced below what the raw ingredients cost in bulk. As the article notes, gummies are simple to produce, making them even more prone to problems.

Usually the issue is simply underdosing. Basic vitamins are probably less affected, though the article's testing found vitamin C levels varied wildly. If someone relied on them to correct a clinically significant deficiency, the results could be serious. The one area where supplements often contain deliberate adulterants—actual drugs that can cause real harm—is "men's health" products, which are frequently spiked with erectile dysfunction PDE5 inhibitors like Viagra.
 
AllCourtTENNIS said:

Keyana Sapp, who covers enshittification as a broader topic, turned her attention this week to gummy supplements in a fairly lengthy piece. My frame while reading was peptides, given how much recent criticism centers on unknown vial contents and claims that our safety is compromised. The short version: the FDA, as we already suspected, prioritizes money over safety, and the largely unregulated gummy supplement sector serves as a perfect talking point when you encounter pearl clutchers. From the article: “Under our current authorities, FDA has no systematic way of knowing what dietary supplements are on the market, when new products are introduced, or what they contain.” The very agency tasked with overseeing this whole industry lacks even a basic means of cataloging the products sold within it.

I've included the full text as an attachment in case the link fails. It's packed with links to additional resources on the subjects discussed. How many of those you click through might determine whether you decide to throw out all your gummies too lol.
Click to expand...
As someone working in the food industry, my dealings with the FDA as it stands now have been far from impressive...policy shifts that conflict with each other and seem arbitrary, nothing but frustration overall. Doing away with self GRAS sounds good on paper, but in practice it will just create additional obstacles for innovation
 
People told me to stay away from gummies. Whether USP certification on vitamins (US) actually carries weight, I can't say, but it's the only thing I look for when picking a multi.
 
Wait, what? Supplements have never been tested or even seriously reviewed by the FDA. This space has always been a lawless market full of bogus cure-alls.

Because supplements fall under a special food category, the agency only steps in after problems arise.

Labels are produced by the companies themselves, and beyond what consumers do on their own, there is essentially no testing.

Peptides actually undergo more testing than multivitamins do.
 
My only gummy supplement is a standard multivitamin. That said, I once belonged to the group of folks who’d line up several bottles—Vitamin C, B12, Magnesium, D3/K2—and swallow them daily. From personal experience, after months on that routine, my bloodwork showed VERY little movement. When I moved a few of those same nutrients to pill/capsule format, the shift was obvious both in how I felt and in the lab results.

It’s frustrating, yet many gummy products on the market appear aimed at trend-driven ingredients (ACV, Ashwagandha, etc), and the companies making them are simply chasing whatever is popular.
 
I'd love to rip into the FDA, but the truth is supplements were never their concern. This has always been a grey market. And honestly, the peptides they're going after are mostly counterfeit knockoffs of medications the FDA already approved. We call it the "grey" market, but in reality it's the "black" market.
 
gusterbuster said:

I'd love to rip into the FDA, but the truth is supplements were never their concern. This has always been a grey market. And honestly, the peptides they're going after are mostly counterfeit knockoffs of medications the FDA already approved. We call it the "grey" market, but in reality it's the "black" market.
Click to expand...
Exactly. And after you go black, there's no returning. Or whatever the saying is.
 
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