Are You Taking Contaminated Herbal Supplements? Mislabeled Consumer Products May Cause Adverse Events.

Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman of New York recently asked GNC, Target, Walgreens, and Walmart to stop sales of certain store brand herbal supplements due to the failure of DNA testing on the detection of plant materials listed on product labels.

Cease and desist letters were sent after most store brand herbal supplements had only 21% DNA results from plant species listed on product labels. Alarmingly, 79% of material in the package proved to not have any DNA from plants related to what is labeled, or, worse is contaminated with other plant material. Walmart’s products tested the worst.