3 ms·

I order stuff off the Internet from time to time including taurine, is there an easy/cheap way to test things that come through the post from Amazon or another

I order stuff off the Internet from time to time including taurine, is there an easy/cheap way to test things that come through the post from Amazon or another company are Taurine and don’t contain things they shouldn’t? The supplement industry strikes me as dubious! Is there a better way to think about this?

devmor 3y ago
Order from a trusted pharmacy, rather than from 3rd parties like Amazon. With the way binning works at Amazon, you can't trust that you will get a legitimate product even if you ordered the same thing you made sure was legitimate last time.
- miked85 3y ago
  You may be correct, but I doubt there is a high enough profit for such a cheap supplement to be counterfeited and sold 3rd party.
colechristensen 3y ago
Maybe just drink Red Bull. Supplements are dubious, buying things on Amazon you consume is especially dubious. There are some signals here and there about the legitimacy of various vendors but I’m generally skeptical of all of them, just some more than others.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
nradov 3y ago
Look for supplements with the NSF Certified for Sport mark. Order direct from the manufacturer instead of Amazon which is full of counterfeit products. https://www.nsfsport.com/ https://www.nsfsport.com/
salad-tycoon 3y ago
I’ve been considering the same. I think, first off, Amazon is absolutely the worst place to buy supplements due to potential fakes. I’ve seen consumer labs.com has done some independent 3rd party testing but it’s not on everything. There are nootropic outfits that will send you the COA on request. Obviously, who knows what that piece of paper is worth. They could have bought a clean report or could have done a bait and switch. For my part I research user reviews before I buy something . If a company has been caught lying in the past, I avoid them. No affiliation, I’ve found nootropics depot and lift mode to be well regarded in the Ethernet, generally.Also, Thorne, cellcor, life extension. But again this doesn’t solve the problem of trust. Strangely a lot of internet denizens have a loyalty of their suppliers and typically users report just on what they perceive to be effects and physical properties of supplements received. I also give some weight to anabolic steroid forums. Think what you want about them but the meatheads are real citizen scientists in the realm of chemical ingestion and prone to distrust (and astroturfing on the flip side). I think some of the smaller companies just buy things off of places like Ali baba. Larger companies still source a ton of their stuff from China. The better smaller companies make an attempt to be transparent with COA, the larger ones just work off their name recognition. This lack of trust of Chinese consumables extends far beyond just supplements and even the honey industry is implicated in fake products. Recall chinas baby formula fiasco a while back or that they made aquadots out of GHB or the toxic paint they use on toys. Etc. Plenty of reasons for distrust of drop shipped or sourcing from overseas/China. It’s the Wild West out there in the supplement world and even worse in the “research chemical” peptide world. I wish we could have a crowd sourced funding for 3rd party testing.
- andy_ppp 3y ago
  I know it sounds mad but I just want a well tested drink that contains zero stimulants and plenty of good stuff like 6g Taurine, l-cystine, some good magnesium etc. if I knew the testing/provenance of this stuff I’d probably pay $5 per can.
qgin 3y ago
Best way the average person without access to very fancy lab equipment can navigate this is to source from a company that has built their brand on testing and quality. A brand like Thorne or Jarrow has a lot of motivation to test everything and make sure nothing untoward makes it out, since that reputation is the only thing that lets them charge a premium vs the commodity brands.

devmor 3y ago

Order from a trusted pharmacy, rather than from 3rd parties like Amazon. With the way binning works at Amazon, you can't trust that you will get a legitimate product even if you ordered the same thing you made sure was legitimate last time.

miked85 3y ago
You may be correct, but I doubt there is a high enough profit for such a cheap supplement to be counterfeited and sold 3rd party.

colechristensen 3y ago

Maybe just drink Red Bull. Supplements are dubious, buying things on Amazon you consume is especially dubious. There are some signals here and there about the legitimacy of various vendors but I’m generally skeptical of all of them, just some more than others.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

nradov 3y ago

Look for supplements with the NSF Certified for Sport mark. Order direct from the manufacturer instead of Amazon which is full of counterfeit products. https://www.nsfsport.com/ https://www.nsfsport.com/

salad-tycoon 3y ago

I’ve been considering the same. I think, first off, Amazon is absolutely the worst place to buy supplements due to potential fakes. I’ve seen consumer labs.com has done some independent 3rd party testing but it’s not on everything. There are nootropic outfits that will send you the COA on request. Obviously, who knows what that piece of paper is worth. They could have bought a clean report or could have done a bait and switch. For my part I research user reviews before I buy something . If a company has been caught lying in the past, I avoid them. No affiliation, I’ve found nootropics depot and lift mode to be well regarded in the Ethernet, generally.Also, Thorne, cellcor, life extension. But again this doesn’t solve the problem of trust. Strangely a lot of internet denizens have a loyalty of their suppliers and typically users report just on what they perceive to be effects and physical properties of supplements received. I also give some weight to anabolic steroid forums. Think what you want about them but the meatheads are real citizen scientists in the realm of chemical ingestion and prone to distrust (and astroturfing on the flip side). I think some of the smaller companies just buy things off of places like Ali baba. Larger companies still source a ton of their stuff from China. The better smaller companies make an attempt to be transparent with COA, the larger ones just work off their name recognition. This lack of trust of Chinese consumables extends far beyond just supplements and even the honey industry is implicated in fake products. Recall chinas baby formula fiasco a while back or that they made aquadots out of GHB or the toxic paint they use on toys. Etc. Plenty of reasons for distrust of drop shipped or sourcing from overseas/China. It’s the Wild West out there in the supplement world and even worse in the “research chemical” peptide world. I wish we could have a crowd sourced funding for 3rd party testing.

andy_ppp 3y ago
I know it sounds mad but I just want a well tested drink that contains zero stimulants and plenty of good stuff like 6g Taurine, l-cystine, some good magnesium etc. if I knew the testing/provenance of this stuff I’d probably pay $5 per can.

qgin 3y ago

Best way the average person without access to very fancy lab equipment can navigate this is to source from a company that has built their brand on testing and quality. A brand like Thorne or Jarrow has a lot of motivation to test everything and make sure nothing untoward makes it out, since that reputation is the only thing that lets them charge a premium vs the commodity brands.