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Comment by Vladimof | Hacker News Reader

not very many people can afford to do their own research... lab tests for everything you buy?

They mean there are third party organizations that perform testing. Consumer Reports and such. Or most supplement companies pay for independent testing (some skepticism is warranted since they're the ones paying).

Not you personally, but there can be third parties companies reviewing products

while that may be true (and better then nothing), you still have to rely on companies like I said originally

You always have to rely on somebody if you don't do it yourself.

well, of course, but the Gov. would hopefully have goals better aligned with the population....

Maybe, I personally would trust the 3rd party more, but understand that opinions differ.

I think that the 3rd parties have both more at stake to get it right and are less influenced than the gov.

This is literally how all construction materials are vetted and it works great.

Underwriters Laboratories.

If it were feasible to sue retailers for damages due to fraudulent vitamins, approximately 0% of supplements sold would be fake.

The problem is there isn’t adequate scientific evidence to back the efficacy of any of these supplement which is why they aren’t regulated in the first place.

> The problem is there isn’t adequate scientific evidence to back the efficacy of any of these supplement which is why they aren’t regulated in the first place.

While I would agree that good evidence is generally lacking on supplements, that’s different than “is the product as advertised”. Just because vitamin C isn’t a miracle drug wouldn’t justify selling sugar pills as vitamin C.

https://labdoor.com/

if we can't trust a company's label, how can we test another company's testing? the incentives to deceive still exist

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