Buying Standards For Dietary Supplements

We carry supplements we believe to be safe, effective and produced and packaged in an environmentally friendly manner under humane conditions.

The manufacture of dietary supplements is a complex and costly process, and we take that into account when evaluating vendors. The standards for one group of supplements do not necessarily apply to every group of supplements. We allow a certain amount of flexibility when applying these standards but never sacrifice integrity.

Good Manufacturing Practices:

GMP standards provide documented practices and procedures for the handling, manufacture, processing, testing, packaging, labeling, storage and shipping of nutritional foods and dietary supplements. These guidelines ensure that products are safe, pure and potent and that label claims are accurate and truthful.

In addition to these standards, our vendors complete a questionnaire about their manufacturing practices.

Product Efficacy & Ingredient Quality

• Whenever possible we seek products containing ingredients with published scientific validation in human health and nutrition. We do offer a number of dietary supplements for which few or no published studies exist, but whose efficacy has credible anecdotal evidence (e.g. - homeopathic preparations, herbal remedies).
• We encourage vendors to submit their product formulations for review and approval by qualified specialists in the field of health and nutrition.
• We encourage vendors to use herbs and food concentrates that are Certified Organically Grown. We strongly encourage vendors to sell products that are GMO-free. While we do our best to offer non-GMO alternatives, some supplement ingredients are manufactured from crops that may be genetically modified (e.g. - fructose and vitamin C from corn, lecithin and other soy-derived ingredients).
• We expect vendors to supply product that contains ingredients that are foods or substances naturally occurring in the human body. We encourage manufacturers to use no artificial preservatives, colorings, flavorings, stabilizers or additives. We only sell synthetic or semi-synthetic active ingredients with demonstrable benefit (e.g. - ipriflavone, vinpocetine, synthetic vitamin E in certain CoQ10 formulations which facilitates the passage of CoQ10 across the blood-brain barrier).

Product Labeling Standards

• Legality & Integrity:
• We expect vendors to supply product labels that meet or exceed industry guidelines and standards and comply with all applicable laws and regulations.
• We expect all claims and statements on product packaging to be valid, accurate and truthful.
• Labeling Information:
• We expect vendors to supply products that have full disclosure labels, including all ingredients and excipients.
• We expect vendors to supply product whose labels will include common allergens, as well as consumer warnings, cautions, contraindication and interaction information when appropriate
• We encourage vendors to include a "best before" date on product packaging.
• We encourage vendors to include consumer storage instructions to help keep the product fresh after purchase.

Environmental Considerations

We expect vendors and manufacturers to seriously consider their impact on the earth. In addition to supporting sustainable, organic farming practices through the purchase of certified organically grown herbs and foods, we encourage vendors to use environmentally-friendly shipping materials.

Social Considerations

At every stage in the production and distribution of dietary supplements, we expect vendors to support and uphold socially responsible business practices that guarantee workers a living wage, reasonable working hours, and a work environment free of exploitation. It is incumbent upon all vendors to ensure that these principles are followed by all of their raw material suppliers.