Building Trust in the Natural Products Industry

The natural products industry has been taking steps to build consumer trust and spotlight quality. One of the latest efforts: CoQ10 Score. “The CoQ10 Association was founded on the values and principles provided by Trust Transparency Consulting (TTC) leadership,” says Scott Steinford, Executive Director, CoQ10 Association. “TTC and The CoQ10 Association have taken a proactive approach to address the lack of rigorous FDA testing for dietary supplements, specifically CoQ10. CoQ10 as an ingredient is one of the more expensive ingredients, providing enhanced economic benefit to a brand that wants to cut corners to increase profits.”

As Steinford explains, without accountability for CoQ10 brands, the responsibility to ensure the safety and quality of the products ends up falling on consumers. “However, most consumers lack the tools and testing to personally evaluate supplement quality effectively," he says. “The CoQ10 Association committed to bridge the gap and empower consumers by promoting transparency and presenting results in an easy 1 to 5 scaled score as provided on the website Q10Score.com as well as CoQ10Association.org. Q10score.com provides feedback supporting the quality of the industry overall by highlighting and reviewing every brand, not just the likely failures. The CoQ10 Association believes in the importance of not only calling out the brands that do not meet label claim, but also reinforce the fact that many brands are reliable.”

Currently, Q10Score includes 200+ SKUs from 122 brands, and there are plans to expand and test all CoQ10 products available for purchase in the consumer market. In addition to making it easy for consumers and brands to compare supplement quality, another primary focus of this effort is to hold brands accountable, Steinford explains. “The Q10Score uses a blind test method in our third-party lab to show unbiased results. We also give brands notice of failure if results are below label claim and give them opportunity to rectify the situation. Our goal is to recognize the companies that do meet label claim, with the top score of 5 out of 5, so consumers can rest assured that their CoQ10 supplement is exactly what it states on the label.” 

CoQ10 is just the start. Steinford aims to raise awareness and garner support from the natural products industry to grow. While Q10score is funded by the CoQ10Association, the goal is to expand the concept so the natural products industry can present as much information as possible to consumers, and in turn increase both product quality and consumer trust in the industry. 

“Q10score.com has received immediate recognition from consumers and industry stakeholders," says Steinford. “The success of Q10score.com has prompted TTC and its supporting industry partners to utilize Q10score.com as a benchmark idea to expand into other ingredients. It is our belief in transparency that Q10score.com, and the upcoming ingredientscore.com, are an important evolution for the transparency and trust this industry has the responsibility to provide to consumers.” WF