NOW Foods’ (Bloomingdale, IL) latest round of testing turned its attention to creatine gummies, identifying significant product failings, according to the company. Creatine is a compound produced in the body to give muscles short-term energy popularly used in dietary supplements.

According to NOW, there was a disconnect between claimed dosages and technical capabilities. NOW has one of the few industry labs that can test gummies accurately, meaning its independent outside laboratories couldn’t test the gummies, the company stated.

NOW tested the creatine content in gummies from 12 different brands, purchased either from Amazon or direct from the brands, through high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Creatine label claims varied between 750 mg and 5,000 mg per serving. The number of gummies per serving varied between one and five and the grams of creatine per serving was between 250 mg and 1,700 mg.

NOW determined six brands met label claim whereas six failed to meet label claim, resulting in a 46 percent failure rate.

“We were surprised that none of the third-party labs we typically use, which we consider the best, said they were able to test the gummies,” said NOW Senior Director of Quality Katie Banaszewski. “Given the rapid growth of that delivery system and the regulatory requirement to confirm label compliance, the industry needs to find a solution to this dearth of testing capacity.”

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