Who Manufactures aPY Approved Products?

Confused Geeky Woman

Hi. I’m Geek2, also known as the Geek In Charge of working with manufacturers around here, to make sure that they are supplying the finest possible supplements.

We’ve gotten several questions lately about who those manufacturers are, so I was asked to write this post.

Most people don’t realize this, but there is a huge battle in the supplement world over suppliers.  More specifically the manufacturers ability to get their hands on the raw ingredients necessary to produce products.

This is precisely why many brands are actually manufactured by 2 or even 3 different manufacturers, in case a competitor gets to one of them.

It’s also why you see so much ‘watered down’ product in the marketplace.  If a manufacturer can’t get enough of an ingredient because a competitor with deep pockets is attempting to buy it all and control it, then they can add another ingredient or extract it or whatever.

You might be surprised to learn that it’s actually quite easy to push smaller brands completely out of a market.  Especially if you know which manufacturer they are using.

For example: We once discovered a product we were VERY excited about. We found a manufacturer that was doing everything right, and they produced a version of this product that was the highest quality we’d seen anywhere.  But they couldn’t find any retailers willing to put a $50 bottle on their shelves, all thought there was no way it would sell. The product has a lot of science behind it, and could really benefit a lot of people.

So we called up our contacts over at aProvenProduct and they began carrying the product on their web site. So we began recommending it.  And as we did, we pointed out why this version was better than other versions in the marketplace. That is what we do – educate people. Well this same supplier had another HUGE client that bought a lower-grade version of the product. That client didn’t like what we were saying, and realized where the product was coming from.

What happened? aProvenProduct can no longer get that product. Worse, nobody else has come along and offered it – to this day there is nobody in the market offering the higher quality version. Could this product have helped you? Perhaps. But because a competitor knew where it was coming from, you may never have access to it.

Another example is the Krill oil market. For instance, with krill oil there are only 3 companies in the entire world licensed to fish krill in antarctic waters.  So if I’m a big company and I see a smaller one gaining ground I can pressure their manufacturer and drive up their costs for raw products, etc.  In fact 2 of the 3, Aker and Neptune, have had a number of quite public (and childish) battles over this very issue. (Such as showing up at trade shows with armed police and confiscating the literature the other has on display.)

And that’s just one example, in one market, this is happening all the time in virtually every market.  Did you know that genes in your body can be patented? In fact, roughly a quarter of the genes in the human genome have been patented.   … how can a company own a gene in your body? [http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2011/s3386897.htm , http://www.genome.gov/19016590 ]

Now in the long run manufacturers realize this isn’t good for them or the brands they produce, so most require a non-disclosure agreement.

It’s my job around here to research manufacturers, find out who they are, where they are and any infractions they may have had in the past, etc.  And we hope that you will help by sharing any research you find with us.

Of course, we think all this fighting does nothing to make any of us healthier, so we aren’t about to encourage it by sharing manufacturer names publicly and we hope you don’t either. (And in fact, some have prevented us from doing so).

One of the first things I look for is that the manufacturing facility is GMP certified and meets ALL applicable legal standards. All of the manufacturers of the products that are RTR Geek Approved are located in the US, and all the products are bottled here as well.

Some of these manufacturers are large companies, some are much smaller. Absolutely NONE of them is owned by any pharmaceutical company, as has been suggested in some blog posts claiming natural products are a waste of money. (By contrast, Citracal is owned by Bayer. Some of the mass-market brands you buy in the corner drugstore are owned by large conglomerates. It TAKES a large conglomerate to have the power to get a product on the shelves at mass-market retailers.)

The fact of the matter is that the FDA is very much involved with enforcing GMP requirements. One New Jersey company is the most recent to discover this, with multi-million dollar fines and stiff prison sentences over their violations.

Meanwhile, what about label claims that are inaccurate? What about third-party testing? Well, I’m here to tell you that no company sells supplements with inaccurate labels without knowing it. Every single shipment that goes to the warehouse comes with a “batch report” containing exactly what goes in each pill. This is double checked by the bottler and the encapsulator. Both of which are third parties. Reputable manufacturers insist on seeing a label and approving the supplement facts before it’s even printed to go on the bottle.

These are the companies which we recommend. They must meet this standard before we ever allow that RTR Geek Approved logo on their label. It’s the entire point of having that logo there in the first place — and we can have it removed if we ever find anything we don’t like in the future.

So we hope this helps shed some light on what can be a very confusing topic.

Leave a Reply