Earlier this year, supplement company NOW publicly announced a number of quality issues with many products that are available on Amazon, following tests it conducted using its in-house labs, in addition to third-party partners. It found that numerous CoQ10 and SAMe products, for example, contained lower quantities of the active ingredients than what were present on labels, and several products delivered the active ingredients in unstable forms.
 
Following these investigations, NOW purchased and tested a number of Phosphatidyl Serine (PS) products that were available on Amazon. It chose to conduct tests on supplements claiming to contain this ingredient for a number of reasons, such as the fact that SPINS data considers NOW to be a leading seller of PS in natural food stores, and NOW staff noticed its PS sales were declining on Amazon. With the test results in, the company is now raising the alarm bell on another category of natural products available on the e-commerce giant.
 
NOW discovered that the top selling brands on Amazon were offering prices that averaged 70% below NOW’s prices, which the company reports were already discounted. Since the prices appeared too good to be true, NOW said it made sense to determine the potencies of competing products, given that prior investigations into Amazon products showed that semi-private brands sold low-quality products with misleading labels in the past. NOW reports that most quality brands sell 100 mg PS per capsule as a standard potency, and found it questionable when brands advertised potencies as high as 400-500 mg.
 
“NOW’s initial analysis of simply reading label information found multiple problems,” the company said. “Phosphatidyl Serine is a complicated supplement, which makes it easier to have confusion. Many of the brands included in this report list a high potency, such as 500 mg, on the front label (and Amazon’s keyword) panel, yet the side panel often states that amount per 2 or 3 capsules. Others were more deceptive by adding things such as “Phosphatidyl Serine Complex” in order to show a high potency value, even when the actual potency of PS would only be 20% of that number.”
 
Some examples included Absonutrix, which was labeled as “Phosphatidylserine Complex 500 mg,” Naturebell which was labeled as “Phosphatidylserine 20% 400 mg per 2 Cap serving.” Other labels were also totally unclear in how much Phosphatidyl Serine was in each capsule.
 
“Correct labeling should be ‘Phosphotidyl Serine 100 mg (from 500 mg Sunflower/Soy lecithin Complex)’ if the raw ingredient is 20% PS from complex, or simply “Phosphatidyl Serine…100 mg,” NOW said.
 
NOW purchased a total of 43 samples on Amazon, generally, three bottles of each brand, and tested each to verify the results. The three NOW brand samples contained 100% to 108% of the label claims. NOW found that two of its competing brands had test results which revealed 2.5 times the label potency claim, and it is suspected that these supplements were spiked with added Serine in order to fool testing. Only two samples passed potency, and so, were not included in the report. However, NOW is reporting 36 of the samples which failed to pass.
 
17 of the products which NOW claims are faulty contained less than 10% of the labeled value. Each product was either tested by NOW’s in-house laboratory, or by Eurofins, a third-party testing facility, using high-performance liquid chromatography.
 
“That’s a shockingly poor failure rate, but not really a surprise based upon our previous experience testing supplements sold on Amazon,” Dan Richard, vice president of NOW global sales and marketing, said. “Amazon has to find a way to raise the bar on products they sell, especially today with people buying more supplements from Amazon in order to stay healthy.”

Products in Question
Here are the brands that were tested by either NOW or Eurofins, in addition to the percentage value of PS that was present in each sample which failed to meet the testing standards.
 
Absonutrix: <2% (x3)
BoostCeuticals: 8%, 34%
Doublewood: 45%, 32%, 16%
Dr. Maxwell: <2% (x3)
GLS Nutrition Formula: 13%
Havasu Nutrition + Gingko: 59%, 18%
Intelligent Labs: 18%, 18%, 29%
Longlifenutri: 27%, 13%, 15%
Mental Refreshment: 82%, 28%
Mono Herb: 7%, <2%
Naturebell: 17%, 14%, 3%
Naturetition: 5%, <2%, <2%
NUSA: 5%, <2%, <2%
Superior Health: 3%, 6%, <2%
We Like Vitamins: 83%
 
Phosphotidlyl Serine is an amino acid that is fat-soluble, and is found in high amounts in the brain. It has been researched for its potential benefits to improving cognitive function and athletic performance, and is available in both pill and powder formulations.