How Products Were Selected:
Products tested 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 companies. Products were not accepted directly from manufacturers.Testing Methods:
- Total Dietary fiber including percent insoluble and soluble dietary fiber by digestion and extraction (AOAC 991.43).
- Light filth: Manual extraction, separation by sieve and microscopic evaluation for insect infestation (AOAC 975.49).
- Analyses for lead, arsenic, and cadmium by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectroscopy (ICP-MS) for all products.
- Disintegration of tablets (excluding chewable, sublingual, and time release formulations) using United States Pharmacopeia (USP) <2040> methodology.
The identities of the products were not disclosed to the laboratories performing the testing.
ConsumerLab.com may modify or use other appropriate test methods if necessary, to test special product formulations.
Passing Score:*
To "Pass", a product had to meet the following requirements:- Total dietary fiber, insoluble fiber, and soluble fiber found, if claimed, must each be within 0.5 grams or 20% of claim, whichever is greater.
- Light Filth: Powdered Psyllium husk: no more than (NMT) 400 insect fragments including mites per 25 g sample. Whole Psyllium husk: NMT 100 insect fragments including mites per 25 g sample. (Organic Impurities USP40).
- Heavy Metal Contamination: Products must not exceed the following limits:
Lead**:- Products marketed for use by children may not exceed the State of California's Prop 65 limits for lead in dietary supplements of 0.5 mcg per recommended daily serving with an additional allowance of 0.8 mcg if the product contains more than 1,000 mg/day of calcium.
- Products with a single serving weights of less than 5 grams that are not marketed for use by children, may not exceed the State of California's Prop 65 limits for lead in dietary supplements of 0.5 mcg per recommended daily serving with an additional allowance of 0.4 mcg if containing 250-999 mg/day of any combination of elemental calcium, magnesium and potassium or 0.8 mcg if containing more than 1,000 mg/day of any combination of these minerals. An additional allowance of 0.5 mcg is provided if containing 250-999 mg/day of whole herb (not extract) or 1.0 mcg if containing 1000 mg/day or more of whole herb (not extract). However, total lead allowance must not exceed 2 mcg.
- Products with single serving weights of 5 grams or more that are not marketed for children may not exceed 2.5 mcg per serving nor 4.0 mcg per daily serving.
- If marketed for use by children, may not exceed 3.0 micrograms of cadmium per recommended daily serving (based on Canada's limit for a child weighing 75lbs). If not marketed for use by children, may not exceed 4.1 micrograms of cadmium per recommended daily serving (based on the State of California's Prop 65 limit).
- Contain less than 10 micrograms of total arsenic and no more than 5 micrograms of inorganic arsenic per daily serving (EPA limit - based on 1 liter of water).
- Meet recommended USP <2040> parameters for disintegration of dietary supplement tablets (excluding chewable, sublingual and time-release products).
- Meet FDA labeling requirements.
** The State of California's Prop 65 limit. California requires supplements exceeding this limit to bear a warning label.
