Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Amazon receives FDA warning letter for supplements with undeclared ingredients

fda.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 433 posts

Re: Amazon receives FDA warning letter for supplements with undeclared ingredients

#51

Post by gehwartzen »

notyourwork wrote: post #35
thedougd wrote: post #32

Do American grocery stores have better controls or does their broker model just happen to filter the junk?

I wonder the same thing. It seems like something that at Amazon scale we pick on but at physical store scale we discard as not possible.

I haven't hear about these problems at Walmart and would think the scale of stuff sold is comparable. I think the main problem, as others have mentioned, is that Amazon commingles products from various suppliers (so everything that comes in from a manufacturer or a true vetted wholesaler + 1000's of "flip stuff from china" garage operations get mixed up at Amazon warehouses before being sold).

Re: Amazon receives FDA warning letter for supplements with undeclared ingredients

#52

Post by enlightenedfool »

throw__away7391 wrote: post #5

Nothing bought on Amazon should be consumed or applied topically or otherwise come into prolonged contact with your body. I learned this the hard way a few years back with some counterfeit shampoo that severely burned my scalp after a single use.

Did you take any action at all? Sounds serious enough for legal action.

Re: Amazon receives FDA warning letter for supplements with undeclared ingredients

#53

Post by baryphonic »

jdksmdbtbdnmsm wrote: post #49
bryanrasmussen wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

obviously if Amazon sold something that damaged someone it would be grounds for suit under tort law, in which case the sky's the limit, and guessing the easy to find details of their behavior over the years any American jury would punish them.

Only a tiny few Americans can afford filing such types of lawsuits, and only a tiny few of those people are interested in pursuing such things.

Personal injury is serious business, and many personal injury attorneys work on contingency. Amazon has "deep pockets," so I doubt this is the reason.

Re: Amazon receives FDA warning letter for supplements with undeclared ingredients

#54

Post by baby-yoda »

dopa42365 wrote: post #36
pbj1968 wrote: post #16

Heard a talk once by someone that managed nutrition for an NFL team. She said periodically clusters of players would pop positive for meth and inevitably it would be some new supplement that was giving them results and they told all their teammates about it. They’d just tell them to quit using it and move on. Interesting story, possibly true.

Any even remotely WADA compliant drug testing uses chromatography, this story is most likely false.

As of a couple years ago the NFLPA doesn’t comply with WADA (the current CBA runs until 2030)

https://journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/lawandarts/a...

Re: Amazon receives FDA warning letter for supplements with undeclared ingredients

#55

Post by tikkun »

arcticfox wrote: post #37
noodlesUK wrote: post #26

I think with the state of things, Amazon should be completely banned from selling anything that might be construed a supplement. They have such lax controls that your protein powder or vitamin pills might contain pretty much anything. Even reputable brands bought from their brand storefront might be counterfeit [1]. You’d be shocked at the number of things that are counterfeit. A friend of mine recently bought a nich…

I used to think my wife was silly for spending more at beauty stores for her skincare products, but after realizing how insane Amazon's quality controls are, I think someone needs to actually shut them down. I wonder if there are any grounds for lawsuits. The number of counterfeit products they sell, even under "Sold by Amazon.com" is WILD. Zero supply chain discipline.

Can you elaborate about counterfeit products being sold under "sold by amazon.com"? That's surprising to me, I treat that as a sign of something being non-counterfeit.

Re: Amazon receives FDA warning letter for supplements with undeclared ingredients

#56

Post by coconut08 »

dboreham wrote: post #29
jeffrallen wrote: post #4

Cool! Now do their crappy cords that are likely to burn down your house. Amazon Basics should be terminated with prejudice.

Nanny state socialism! The market should take care of dangerous products. Nobody is going to buy such a cord twice.

without regulations the next differently branded unregulated cable might also burn your house down.

Re: Amazon receives FDA warning letter for supplements with undeclared ingredients

#57

Post by dawnerd »

noodlesUK wrote: post #26

I think with the state of things, Amazon should be completely banned from selling anything that might be construed a supplement. They have such lax controls that your protein powder or vitamin pills might contain pretty much anything. Even reputable brands bought from their brand storefront might be counterfeit [1]. You’d be shocked at the number of things that are counterfeit. A friend of mine recently bought a nich…

The solution is to stop allowing third party sellers. The idea that any random person can get an Amazon seller account and scam their way into being approved for certain categories and just send in anything as long as it has a label is insane (it’s incredibly easy to forge the invoices they request). There’s zero control at Amazon, they frequently put returned products back into new inventory as well which makes buying trading cards and Lego a massive gamble. Computer parts get swapped and resold all the time too. I can’t imagine trusting them with anything that goes in your body.

Edit: if anyone hasn’t seen just how lax they are, search YouTube for FBA. Literally random people driving around to drug stores picking up nearly expired clearance items to send in for FBA.

Re: Amazon receives FDA warning letter for supplements with undeclared ingredients

#59

Post by techbrovanguard »

dboreham wrote: post #29
jeffrallen wrote: post #4

Cool! Now do their crappy cords that are likely to burn down your house. Amazon Basics should be terminated with prejudice.

Nanny state socialism! The market should take care of dangerous products. Nobody is going to buy such a cord twice.

[flagged]

Re: Amazon receives FDA warning letter for supplements with undeclared ingredients

#60

Post by enlightenedfool »

mrweasel wrote: post #25
duxup wrote: post #18

More and more Amazon just seems like a "you're on your own" scam site. I can't figure out what I'm getting anymore. Half the listings are sponsored ads when I search. I searched for "Lego" this past Christmas and on the first page I got a bunch of products that were in what looked just like Lego boxes with Lego fonts and numbering ... but were not made by Lego and were clearly made to deceive. I noticed some items I…

The good thing about Amazon is that they've made it increasingly easy to stop buying from them. Finding the things you need is increasingly difficult and even if you find it, most of it seems like obvious scams. Amazon went from a bookstore to the "everything store" and back to being just a book store, because those are the only items you can reasonably find and trust to not be scams. It must be rather difficult to b…

Books cannot be trusted too. I have purchased books which have such cheap paper and bad print and cover that feels like someone makes them in their garage. It wasn’t worth the price.
Post reply on HN