Health Canada Recall – Product Quality Is More Important than Ever

“Unfortunately, the window of reliable natural brands is shrinking, and customers need to do their homework about the brands they want to support with their purchases. We remain after 38 years a family-owned company; we would encourage customers to vote with their dollars, and support like-minded companies.”

According to the latest news, several multivitamins and supplements are being recalled because they may contain metal fibres. The recalled multivitamins and supplements are sold under the following brand names: Kirkland Signature, Life, Option+, Webber Naturals, Wellness by London Drugs, Equate, Wellquest, VegiDay, and Natural Factors. Government of Canada issued a public advisory which states that “Factors Group of Nutritional Companies Inc. is recalling various multivitamins and supplements sold under a variety of brand names due to the potential presence of metal fibres. The affected products may contain metal fibres which, if ingested, may cause injury to the digestive system. The risk of harm due to the presence of iron is higher in individuals with a peptic ulcer, regional enteritis, ulcerative colitis, iron allergy, or for those taking high doses of iron supplements, levodopa, and/or levothyroxine.”[1]

Unfortunately, not just the brands listed above are affected; we got painted with the same brush stroke, too. We have already talked about Bill C-47, and how the liberal government wants to restrict natural health products, increase their fees and put them in the same category as pharmaceutical drugs. If everything goes according to their plan, Health Canada will regulate everything thanks to Bill C-47: they will be able to recall products, require labelling and packaging modifications, disclose confidential business information, increase fines and penalties and do so much more in the name of “safeguarding public health”. We know properly made vitamins are ultra safe but when companies are using the cheapest synthetic feed grade material sourced from China, there is no assurance of quality since they have no quality standards.  It is extremely difficult to separate ourselves from the low quality brands, because apparently, we “make the other brands look bad.” What has our industry become when product quality cannot be discussed to protect brands with low quality for greater sales?

Now it seems clearer than ever that vitamins are not the same. Unfortunately, most of the B-vitamins other than our Next Generation Super Multivitamin are synthetic, sourced from fossil fuel, coal tar, and feed grade[2] ingredients sourced from China. It is true that China played a large role in drowning out the US market for vitamin B1, B2, B6, B12, and folic acid. However, disclosing the country of origin is not a requirement for vitamin supplement labelling. This is concerning, as food safety scandals are commonplace in China—their top vitamin and supplement production areas are among the world’s most polluted. Stateside protections for these products are also weak, at best: only 2% of all vitamins and supplements are inspected, and even USDA organic standards place no limit on heavy metal contamination for certified organic foods.

We just touched on what I call the China Syndrome: presently, they control 90% of the feed grade raw materials used in vitamin supplements and drugs. China managed to eliminate most raw material producers and suppliers with lower product quality, e.g. by replacing fermented vegan amino acids to chemically extracted ones made from sewage sludge, human or horse hair or duck feathers. They forced out producers in America, Japan and European manufacturers by undercutting the raw material prices and with such power, they have begun to exercise their power of control on all health-related products: both supplements and drugs.

Synthetic vs. Natural

For the producers of pharmaceutical preparations, synthetic vitamins offer many advantages: the chemical process allows production to be faster, inexpensive, and more lucrative. Moreover, these artificial preparations are considerably more chemically stable, thus offering the possibility of longer storage.

“The fact is that most mineral and vitamin brands on the market are synthetic, i.e. made from oxide minerals and other chemical substances. These products contain harmful substances, for example: preservatives, fillers, binders, coal tar, bitumen, gelatin, waste products etc. Consequently, these products cannot be digested by the human body and therefore cannot be assimilated. Moreover, they do not have a synergism due to being industrial-made and thus cannot find their way out of the body and thus get lodged in the tissues of the body causing disease or enhancing present diseases.”[3]

Ingredients that actually originate from natural foods (vegetables, germs, herbs, fruits, fermented amino acids etc.) are extremely rare. The reason is that both plants from organic farming and their extraction process are relatively complex, and therefore costly. In this case, the extraction of the carrier plants is made with the aid of a biological solution of nutrients from other plants. These ingredients are in the active form. They are bioavailable and do not need metabolic transformations to be used by the body’s cells.

This is why we use the highest-grade raw materials. Our No. 1 issue is creating awareness to the public by comparing product quality and synergistic delivery in our formulations: it is organic growth, slow and steady. When the customer is educated, they will never go back to the synthetic products they once believed in.

Why Does the Source of the Vitamins Matter?

There is a huge difference in the efficacy of compounds that are produced synthetically as to those that are derived from natural sources. An excellent example is found in common vitamin B1. When derived from a natural source such as spirulina, the bioavailability to cells is 90%, with an absorption rate of 95% to the cells. Compared to its synthetic counterpart, the bioavailability drops dramatically to 25% with an absorption rate of 30% to the cells.

Today, experts raise doubts about whether the synthetic form of vitamins, as found in supplements, is as effective as their natural analogues, for the following reasons:

  • Many vitamin supplements are formulated using precursors of vitamins, which need several metabolic transformations in the body to be active.
  • Synthetic is not bioidentical for cellular absorption; they first need to be converted once ingested through the use of enzymes, which are already in low supply in most individuals.
  • Synthetic vitamins lack the transporters and co-factors associated with naturally occurring vitamins because they have been isolated. Some experts even argue that vitamins in general are not isolated substances but, in fact, a synergistic complex of nutrients.
  • The worst case is that many vitamin precursors are artificial substances completely non-existent in nature. That is why, in some cases, taking an artificially isolated molecule (or vitamin) can be ineffective, and harmful to the body.
  • Synthetic vitamins are also poor in necessary oligo minerals (trace minerals) and must use the body’s own mineral reserves instead, which may lead to dangerous mineral deficiencies.

What Indicates that a Vitamin Is Synthetic?[4]

  • “dl” in the prefix
  • words that end with “ate” or “ide” in the list of ingredients
  • the vitamin is listed as the vitamin itself, such as “vitamin D”
  • label stating the product is “natural” but not “100% natural”
  • it has a high or unnatural potency

From time to time, we may be out of stock on certain items but this is the result of added wait times for USP pharmaceutical grade raw materials. In some cases, we order one year in advance for our raw materials because of the global demand. The cost is sometimes ten times greater compared to the Chinese sourced feed grade raw materials that are, by the way, readily available.

This is very disappointing, especially when we are fighting Health Canada with Bill C-47. As an industry we are fighting this bill on the bases of vitamin safety but this gives Health Canada the kind of fuel they need to press their agenda and to limit the sale of natural vitamins.

Where does this leave the consumers? Unfortunately, the window of reliable natural brands is shrinking, and customers need to do their homework about the brands they want to support with their purchases. We remain after 38 years a family-owned company; we would encourage customers to vote with their dollars, and support like-minded companies. For the sake of the natural health industry, we must return to our roots of origin, and once again stand to be different from Pharma. This applies on so many levels today, the life of our very roots depend on it.

Additional Reading:

References:

[1] Government of Canada. 2024.

[2] There are three basic categories of ingredients: USP grade, food grade and feed grade. USP grade is the highest level of quality, as it meets or exceeds requirements of the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) and indicates exceptional levels of purity. Food grade is sufficient for human consumption, but the quality is lower than that of the USP grade ingredients. Feed grade is suitable for animal consumption.

If you want to ensure that you are purchasing quality natural health products, look for “USP Grade” on the label. A company that sources this level of quality, when available, for their ingredients will certainly communicate that to its customers, as those ingredients are far more expensive than the lower grades: the price difference can be greater than 10x the price of the lower grade.

[3] Nikolić, Goran et al. 2015.

[4] Myers, Cheryl Grace. n.a.