The innovative program enhances SuppCo’s TrustScore supplement quality rating system, expanding on previous testing efforts. These past initiatives unearthed alarming findings: nearly 50% of the top-selling supplements purchased directly from stores did not live up to basic label accuracy standards.
“SuppCo was founded from my own frustration in trying to make informed choices regarding supplements, and it quickly became clear that this was not just a personal issue, but a widespread failure within the industry,” stated Steve Martocci, co-founder and CEO of SuppCo, in a recent press release. “With TESTED by SuppCo, we are establishing a definitive, independent standard for transparency and accountability, enabling consumers to finally trust their purchases while allowing responsible brands to demonstrate their integrity.”
TESTED by SuppCo is launching in collaboration with well-regarded brands such as Momentous, Thorne, Metagenics, Gaia Herbs, Designs for Health, Fatty15, Solaray, Niagen, Integrative Therapeutics, and Pendulum.
Certifying What’s Available and Highlighting Deficiencies
According to Jordan Glenn, head of science at SuppCo, the certification aligns seamlessly with the company’s previous testing of approximately 44 popular supplements sold on Amazon last year, which found that about half of these products failed to meet even basic label accuracy requirements.
Furthermore, this certification enhances the TrustScore feature, which evaluates formulation choices, manufacturing standards, and transparency practices that indicate quality before a product undergoes laboratory testing.
“TESTED reveals the actual contents of the product you purchase off the shelf,” Glenn explained. “Together, TrustScore helps users identify likely trustworthy products, while TESTED verifies whether that trust stands up in practice.”
In its initial testing phases, SuppCo examined supplements such as creatine, NAD+, urolithin A, and berberine. The results indicated that 22 of these products contained only 0% to 3% of their advertised active ingredients. Failures were particularly notable in brands claiming the highest serving sizes, which often masked weak or nonexistent active components.
“These deficiencies aren’t merely slight discrepancies; they reflect fundamental breakdowns in quality control spanning from raw ingredient sourcing to final formulation verification,” noted SuppCo in its 2025 testing retrospective.
“Whether due to manufacturing shortcuts, supplier inconsistencies, a lack of internal testing, or intentional deception within the supply chain, the outcomes remained the same: products asserting significant benefits but delivering minimal results.”
TESTED by SuppCo subjects all products to evaluation through an independent ISO 17025-accredited laboratory. Only products that meet or exceed 95% of their declared active ingredient claims receive certification. All results, irrespective of the certification status, are available on SuppCo’s product pages, empowering consumers to make educated choices.
“With over 650,000 users actively tracking their supplement intakes on SuppCo, certification results—including those that represent failures—are made visible to those making purchasing decisions,” Glenn stated. “This transparency is an essential supplement to existing certifications, which, while beneficial, were not designed with a direct consumer audience in mind.”
Testing is conducted annually to ensure ongoing compliance. Products failing to meet standards are directed through a remediation process prior to retesting. Brands incur a certification fee to cover independent testing, program operations, and licensing costs.
Addressing Systemic Issues and Closing Key Loopholes
SuppCo is not the first organization to scrutinize the supplement market for inaccuracies in labeling and product identity, especially as self-regulation and strict adherence to good manufacturing practices become increasingly critical in the industry.
“The supplement industry is at a pivotal moment,” Glenn remarked. “Consumer demands are growing, regulatory oversight is tightening, and independent verification is transforming from a distinguishing factor to a fundamental expectation.”
He emphasized that brands collaborating with TESTED at its inception recognize that transparency will be the only substantial competitive edge in an ever-noisier sector. In this context, verification, accountability, and transparency are table stakes; brands that integrate quality into their operations and corroborate it independently will define success at scale.
“It’s convenient for brands to discuss quality and make bold claims about their products, but substantiating those claims is far more challenging,” stated Jeff Byers, CEO of Momentous. “We opted to participate in TESTED by SuppCo because trust and accountability are how this industry progresses. Transparency must be standard, and brands that genuinely support their products should be willing to validate their claims.”
Similar to ConsumerLab, NSF International, and the United States Pharmacopeia, SuppCo is dedicated to ensuring supplement label accuracy, identity, purity, and quality. However, it proposes that its certification addresses a critical flaw in current testing methodologies.
“Most existing certifications depend on samples submitted by manufacturers or tests from production lots,” Glenn noted. “TESTED acquires products anonymously, from retail shelves, after typical retail aging, mimicking a consumer’s buying experience. This distinction effectively closes a significant loophole where a product might pass a certification test using a carefully selected batch, yet still fail to deliver in the bottle that a consumer opens.”
Companies in the sector—including NOW Foods—have also conducted thorough testing of supplements purchased primarily from Amazon, revealing widespread issues with labeling and potency.
Through its self-regulatory initiative, NOW has completed 19 rounds of testing on “no-name brands” acquired from Amazon since 2017, assessing ingredients such as St. John’s Wort, methyl B-12, SAM-e, resveratrol, berberine, astaxanthin, bromelain, magnesium glycinate, quercetin, CoQ10, glutathione, curcumin, phosphatidyl serine, acetyl-l-carnitine, alpha-lipoic acid, and creatine.
In many instances, NOW characterized the results as “alarming,” “abysmal,” or indicative of “persistent” issues, raising numerous red flags and warnings for consumers.
