Half of Top-Selling Supplements Don’t Contain What’s on the Label. This Company Has a Solution.

When you purchase the top-selling creatine gummies on Amazon, you expect to get what you pay for. But a recent study found that four out of six popular brands contained virtually no creatine at all. In the case of the worst offender, customers would need to consume 2,000 gummies to get the advertised 5-gram dose. Still, combined these products sell over 50,000 units monthly and boast 4.4+ star ratings.

The study was conducted by SuppCo, a health tech startup that gives personalized supplement recommendations and quality ratings through its app and website. SuppCo purchased all products anonymously from Amazon, and what they found exposed a pattern of deception that extends far beyond creatine gummies. Across all their testing, roughly half of top-selling supplements didn’t actually contain what the label promised.

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The trust deficit

The supplement industry has a snake oil problem. Despite generating over $50 billion annually in the U.S. alone, it operates in a regulatory Wild West. Minimal oversight and false advertising leave consumers guessing about what they’re consuming.

Unlike prescription drugs, which have to go through rigorous FDA approval processes, dietary supplements get about as much government oversight as a lemonade stand. The FDA can only take action after problems are reported. This creates a “buyer beware” marketplace.

“The supplement industry has grown exponentially, but the regulatory framework hasn’t kept pace,” explains Dr. Tod Cooperman, president of ConsumerLab.com, which has been independently testing supplements since 1999. “There’s a massive information asymmetry between what companies know about their products and what consumers can reasonably determine.”

Some supplements contain significantly less of their advertised active ingredients, while others may include unlisted compounds or contaminants. For consumers trying to address specific health concerns, these inconsistencies can mean the difference between real health benefits and really expensive candy.

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Taking on the fraud

Now SuppCo is launching an ambitious solution: TESTED by SuppCo, an independent certification program that anonymously purchases supplements off retail shelves and tests them for ingredient accuracy.

Products that meet or exceed 95% of their labeled claims earn certification, while products that fail are also listed publicly. 

“SuppCo was born out of my own frustration trying to make informed decisions about supplements,” explains Steve Martocci, the company’s co-founder and CEO, who previously co-founded GroupMe before it was acquired by Microsoft for $85 million. “I quickly realized this wasn’t a personal challenge, but a systemic failure of the industry.”

A new solution to an old problem

SuppCo combines their app technology with independent testing enabling them to scale. The company’s app already provides users with personalized supplement recommendations and quality ratings through its TrustScore system. The new TESTED certification extends this mission by providing third-party verification through ISO 17025-accredited laboratories.

The program debuts with backing from established supplement brands including Momentous, Thorne, Metagenics, Gaia Herbs, Designs for Health, Fatty15, Solaray, Niagen, Integrative Therapeutics and Pendulum—companies that see independent verification as a badge of honor rather than a threat.

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The independence question

“It’s easy for brands to talk about quality and boast big claims about their products, but it’s much harder to prove it,” says Jeff Byers, CEO of Momentous, a supplement company that supplies products to professional sports teams. 

This funding structure isn’t uncommon in certification programs across industries, from organic food to energy efficiency ratings. Companies pay certification fees to cover testing costs, program operations, and licensing—creating a situation where the certifying body derives revenue from the brands it’s supposed to independently evaluate.

SuppCo addresses these concerns through several of its own safeguards: anonymous product purchasing (so companies can’t game the system), public disclosure of all results regardless of outcome, and annual re-testing requirements. Products that fail initial testing can undergo remediation and re-testing to rule out lab error or sample variability, but results that still fail remain publicly visible, along with guidance from SuppCo on how to improve product quality.

The road ahead

SuppCo’s certification launch reflects a simple reality: When you can buy a top-selling creatine gummy on Amazon and get zero creatine for your money, something is fundamentally broken.

In an industry where the federal government is asleep at the wheel, SuppCo is betting that private certification can fill the void.

If successful, the program could encourage broader industry changes. By creating a visible certification, much like organic food labels or Energy Star ratings, it may pressure other manufacturers to improve their quality or risk being left behind.

“Transparency should not be optional,” Byers notes, “and the brands that stand behind their products should be willing to step up to the plate and prove it.”

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