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Amazon receives FDA warning letter for supplements with undeclared ingredients

fda.gov

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

#101

Post by [deleted] »

fallingknife wrote: post #95
bumby wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's a distinction in risk philosophy. The whack-a-mole approach is "continue until we find you unsafe" while the other approach is "don't start until you prove you're safe". I think both approaches can be reasonable depending on the level of risk. When it comes to supplements tainted with unlisted ingredients that can have harmful or deadly effects for consumers, I personally think the latter is the better a…

But the risk level is very low. The stats I see show less than 20 hospitalizations and 2 deaths per year due to bad supplements. https://time.com/5602125/dietary-supplements-kids/

[deleted]

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

#102

Post by partiallypro »

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.

This isn't correct, most personal injury lawyers don't charge you directly. They take a percentage of the settlement or victory. There's way more money to be made with the "no fee" model than charging hourly in these instances.

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

#103

Post by Wingman4l7 »

ta988 wrote: post #93
dec0dedab0de wrote: post #43

I don’t think Amazon should have any protections for being a marketplace. Especially since we all found out about co-mingling, and how reviews are transferable between vendors and sometimes between products. They should be liable for any damages caused by these drugs, as well as patent/copyright/trademark infringement for any counterfeit products. I don’t feel the same for ebay, reverb, or facebook. I’m not sure wher…

Reviews are transferable? I was wondering because many reviews I have seen don't seem to be for the product I am looking at at all.

It's a tactic that's been abused by third-party sellers for a long time now. They list a product, organize a bunch of paid-for 5-star reviews on another platform (you buy the product, submit a 5-star review, and they refund you the purchase cost, so you get the item for free), and then once all those 5-star reviews are in place, they eventually re-use the product page for another item entirely.

It baffles me that Amazon's item listing system ever allowed this in the first place.

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

#104

Post by 1920musicman »

ta988 wrote: post #93
dec0dedab0de wrote: post #43

I don’t think Amazon should have any protections for being a marketplace. Especially since we all found out about co-mingling, and how reviews are transferable between vendors and sometimes between products. They should be liable for any damages caused by these drugs, as well as patent/copyright/trademark infringement for any counterfeit products. I don’t feel the same for ebay, reverb, or facebook. I’m not sure wher…

Reviews are transferable? I was wondering because many reviews I have seen don't seem to be for the product I am looking at at all.

That's the biggest Amazon scam that Amazon itself allows and encourages (indirectly). In my experience, most inexpensive items from unknown brands have transferred reviews.

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

#105

Post by achanda358 »

ta988 wrote: post #90
TaylorSwift wrote: post #86

Most supplements are garbage. Since they don't actually work, most people would never know if you replaced their magnesium or calcium supplement with chalk. Some supplements do work, but since they're not regulated, they're drowned out by nonsense and noise. OK, so you don't want to be a rube?...you do your research and then piece of shit fitness influencers tell you "ohh...that vitamin you bought form Walgreens or C…

If you replace the Calcium with chalk you would still have a source of calcium so it wouldn't be that bad :D

With different bioavailability

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

#106

Post by supriyo-biswas »

ta988 wrote: post #93
dec0dedab0de wrote: post #43

I don’t think Amazon should have any protections for being a marketplace. Especially since we all found out about co-mingling, and how reviews are transferable between vendors and sometimes between products. They should be liable for any damages caused by these drugs, as well as patent/copyright/trademark infringement for any counterfeit products. I don’t feel the same for ebay, reverb, or facebook. I’m not sure wher…

Reviews are transferable? I was wondering because many reviews I have seen don't seem to be for the product I am looking at at all.

The seller often swaps the product description for some other product, capitalizing on the reputation of the first to sell the second.

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

#107

Post by mackatsol »

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…

It’s not a reliable book store either! Counterfeits, cheap reproductions, fake publishers, ai generated books, pirated content .. as well as co-mingled SKU’s. For physical and e-books!

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

#108

Post by smith7018 »

dec0dedab0de wrote: post #43

I don’t think Amazon should have any protections for being a marketplace. Especially since we all found out about co-mingling, and how reviews are transferable between vendors and sometimes between products. They should be liable for any damages caused by these drugs, as well as patent/copyright/trademark infringement for any counterfeit products. I don’t feel the same for ebay, reverb, or facebook. I’m not sure wher…

Agreed that they should be held accountable for creating a platform that elevates these scam supplements to the same level as Apple, GE, Google, GNC, etc. I know some people might argue that Amazon shouldn't be responsible for the products that are listed on its site but I think we can just as easily say Amazon shouldn't be able to offer supplements/vitamins if they can't stand by their safety.

All of this is even more troubling when you consider their purchase of One Medical. So my Amazon doctor tells me to ingest more zinc but buying zinc from Amazon might not actually have zinc in it?

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

#109

Post by ta988 »

hotpotamus wrote: post #47
dopa42365 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I don't really know the details, but I assume chromatography can detect meth no problem, so I assume that's not the problem with the story. The skepticism on GP's part is mostly that the meth was consumed unwittingly; perhaps that's just the story the players tell. But it seems plausible at least.

Yes a 3-5 min UHPLC/MS (and even a UHPLC/UV which is cheaper) can tell you that. Cost of experiment? $10 (not including human cost) Cost of equipment $200k-$400k for this kind of things. One machine and one operator can analyze hundreds of samples a day (once the sample is ready you don't have to stay in front it is fully automated).

For just detecting Meth there are much faster and cheaper methods. But the one I am talking about has the advantage to also allow for detection of other things like steroids (extremely common in supplements), opioids (same) etc

The only thing it will not work well for is anything inorganic, so if they put lead or chrome salts you will not see them and really small (solvents for example) and really large (proteins, large sugars etc)

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

#110

Post by dec0dedab0de »

ta988 wrote: post #93
dec0dedab0de wrote: post #43

I don’t think Amazon should have any protections for being a marketplace. Especially since we all found out about co-mingling, and how reviews are transferable between vendors and sometimes between products. They should be liable for any damages caused by these drugs, as well as patent/copyright/trademark infringement for any counterfeit products. I don’t feel the same for ebay, reverb, or facebook. I’m not sure wher…

Reviews are transferable? I was wondering because many reviews I have seen don't seem to be for the product I am looking at at all.

There have been articles about it, I don’t remember the details, but it is an exploit stemming from wanting the review to be about the product instead of the vendor, and the process of combining reviews from different listings of the same product.

The fact that the reviews are not limited to a single vendor is a major part of the overall problem.

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