This is NOW’s 24th round of product policing since it initiated its testing program in 2017 to evaluate lesser-known brands sold online. All rounds to date have raised concerns tied to issues such as potency, labeling, contamination, adulteration and heavy metals across product testing.
“After nine years of conducting these rounds of marketplace testing, it is deeply disappointing to still see so many substandard products being sold to consumers,” said Dan Richard, NOW’s vice president of global sales and marketing.
What’s in and not in its gummies
For this latest round, the Illinois-based company purchased two samples of 25 brands that it suspected of questionable labeling on Amazon in June 2026.
The samples were then analyzed in-house and the at ISO 17025-accredited independent laboratory Alkemist Labs. Both quantified abscorbic acid by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) using a validated reverse-phase method to ensure chromatographic specificity.
For comparison, NOW and Alkemist also analyzed NOW’s vitamin C gummy which launched earlier this year, as well as legacy brands Mary Ruth’s, Nature’s Way, New Chapter, Nordic Naturals and Solgar. All passed potency testing with extra overages.
“Results showed that 48% of the non-legacy brands’ products failed potency testing, with nearly no detectable vitamin C, and an additional 16% would likely fail before their expiration date,” NOW reported.
Notably, the five brands that claimed 1,000 mg or more of vitamin C per gummy had the poorest potency results. Each contained less than 2 mg total vitamin C—significantly less than the 1% of the amount claimed on label.
In addition, all of these five brands labeled their products with what NOW described as “ridiculous claims of very high potencies, using liposomal forms of vitamin C and unrealistically high amounts of various synergistic ingredients.”
“It is sad to see such dishonest marketing being used and permitted to fool consumers,” Richard said.
Highlighting analytical method and stability studies
NOW stressed the importance of choosing the correct testing method since non-specific methods, such as spectrophotometric assays, can be influenced by other constituents in gummies including flavorings and sugars.
“These methods may artificially inflate potency results, making products appear compliant when they are not,” NOW stated. “In contrast, HPLC can separate and identify vitamin C from closely related compounds, providing an accurate and reliable measure of product quality.”
The gummy matrix in particular also consistently presents stability challenges, where moisture, heat, oxidation, pH and structural changes over time can all interfere with the active ingredient securing label claim at expiration even if properly dosed at confection.
NOW’s own studies have shown that vitamin C levels in gummies can decline by approximately 20% a year, underscoring the need for relatively high overages at the time of manufacture.
Call to action
NOW says that it will continue to purchase and test products sold on major online platforms and publicly share testing results to encourage higher quality standards across the supplement industry.
This includes sending results to both the Food and Drug Administration and Amazon, along with a request to remove these “bad actors” from the marketplace—a call that, to date, has not led to action.
“After over 20 rounds of testing internally and externally, neither Amazon nor FDA have taken steps to address the issues NOW has raised,” Richard said, noting that some brands from its initial testing of 400mg CoQ10 dry capsules in 2017 were retested multiple times and continue to fail at under 30% potency.
“NOW has brought these up repeatedly to both parties, yet the failing and cheating brands continue to be widely sold on Amazon today,” he added. “FDA seems to turn a blind eye to the problem. We have been told that FDA will not address potency issues unless a person has a health problem.”
