Product Review:Vitamin E Supplements and Skin Care Products
How Products Were Tested
How Products were Selected: Products were selected to represent those commonly sold and/or available nationally in the U.S. ConsumerLab.com purchased products on the open market through retail stores, on-line retailers, and direct sales or multi-level marketing companies. Products were not accepted directly from manufacturers.
Testing Method: Vitamin E products were tested for their identity and amount of vitamin E. All products were first analyzed for various vitamin E forms including mixed tocopherols using a HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography) Tocopherol assay in an independent laboratory. Products not passing this initial assay were tested in a second independent laboratory utilizing a similar HPLC assay (USP 26)(United States Pharmacopeia). Products claiming to contain natural forms of vitamin E were analyzed by optical rotation also utilizing the USP 26 assay and a HPLC chiral separation. Disintegration of non-chewable and non-time release formulations was analyzed utilizing USP (United States Pharmacopeia) <2040> recommendations entitled "Disintegration and Dissolution of Nutritional Supplements."
The identities of the products were not disclosed to the laboratories performing the testing.
Passing Score: * To achieve a "Pass" in the testing, a product had to:
Contain at least 100% and no more than 120% of its claimed amount of its labeled form of vitamin E.
If claimed to contain natural vitamin E, the product had to meet recommended USP parameters for the specific rotation for natural vitamin E supplements (not less than +24º) and contain no synthetic vitamin E (d-alpha-tocopheryl acid succinate and acetate are stabilized forms of natural vitamin E).
Clearly and accurately state the amount of vitamin E in the labeling.
Meet recommended USP parameters for disintegration of nutritional supplements (excluding chewable and time-release products).
A "Pass" was based on passing each criterion in any one of the analyses.
* Passing scores allow for specific margins of technical error associated with each analysis. ConsumerLab.com reserves the right to disqualify a product at any time from passing its testing if it considers such product to present a safety risk or to provide misleading or inaccurate information in its labeling.
