Manufacturing facilities and Procedures
Most people do not consider where their supplements come from, or how they are made. Generally people believe that their supplements are made in research laboratories, by people in white coats, manufactured in pharmaceutical grade facilities.
The truth is that in the UK anybody can set up as a nutritional supplement manufacturer mixing and formulating in their kitchen.
In the United States, Good Manufacturing Process (GMP) regulations and requirements came into effect in June 2010, extending those requirements to any foreign (UK) facility that supplies to the States. This means that regardless of what country you are based in, if you supply to the US, you need to comply with these regulations.
GMP shows that suppliers and manufacturers have Standard Operating Procedures in place to ensure the identity, purity, quality, strength and composition of all finished products. These same procedures also apply to raw materials, ensuring that the quality of the materials are verified at an independent laboratory before they are used for manufacturing. All finished supplements are quarantined pending a second round of independent lab tests. Once complete the finished supplements are released for sale. These strict testing procedures ensure the release of a pure, high quality, clean, uncontaminated supplement for the consumer.
Metabolics has invested heavily into GMP manufacturing and pharmaceutical grade manufacturing facilities, including clean room manufacturing systems. Metabolics manufactures everything on site here in the UK. We only sell our own products and we don’t manufacture for any other companies so you won’t find the same quality anywhere else. All of our supplements are traceable from start to finish in their production process, giving us full control over the quality of the finished product.
Supplement Ingredient Quality and Source
Most ingredients on the market are available without any validation of the quality or purity of the raw material.
Quality of these ingredients can vary considerably and may originate from countries without the strict quality controls we expect. A good manufacturer will validate the quality of a raw material by independent analytical laboratories.
All Metabolics ingredients are validated in this way and are certified as non-GM and as non-irradiated. Irradiation is used to prolong the shelf life of some company’s products.
Supplement Formulations
Formulations may be misleadingly marketed to make people believe that professionals design them. Many products produced by certain companies made formulated without any evidence of efficacy at all, only on whether the product looks good and whether it is profitable.
Metabolics supplements, particularly the more specialist formulations, are designed by Dr William Davey, Physician to the Queen for 15 years and based on sound research, keeping abreast of all the latest findings.
Metabolics considers the dose of vitamins and minerals very carefully, ensuring there is neither too much from a safety aspect, in a dose nor too little to be effective. Unlike with many other MVMs, dosing of the constituents of multiple formulae at Metabolics is considered for long term ingestion to ensure no toxicity occurs.
All Metabolics ingredients are natural where possible, in a form that the body utilises quickly and does not need to convert itself, using up other valuable nutrients of the body.
Many food supplements currently on sale in Europe, particularly those imported from the US, are now actually illegal for sale in the EU due to European Legislation. Metabolics ensures the use of legally compliant raw materials in the manufacture of food supplements.
Additives and Other Supplement Ingredients
Additives include lubricants, binders, coatings, colourings and fillers.
Lubricants
Most supplements contain stearates in the form of Magnesium Stearate. It is used to lubricate and coat adjacent particles of the food supplement ingredients. This makes the ingredients slip over each other more easily, so speeding up production time. Lubricants like magnesium stearate, stearic acid and talc are added to raw materials so that production machinery can run at maximum speeds. Many materials are hygroscopic, absorbing moisture from the surrounding air that makes them sticky to run, which can bring machinery to a halt.
Metabolics uses semi automatic machines that require skilled operators, creating a premium product without the need to resort to lubricants or excipients.
Although scientific agreement based on strong evidence suggests that Magnesium stearate is safe for consumption it may affect the absorption and bioavailability of nutrients in a compromised digestive system. As a result of coating with Magnesium Stearate, the delivery of the active ingredient may be much further down the intestinal tract than the site originally intended. This would result in the nutrient being delivered distal to its optimal absorption site so why add a lubricant if you don’t need to, other than to speed up production time?
Metabolics does not add stearates.
Some machine lubricants are deceptive, for example Ascorbyl palmitate (palmitic acid). This may appear as a source of vitamin C, but is actually added for its lubricant properties.
Metabolics does not add Ascorbyl Palmitate
Binders
These are substances that glue or bind tablets together. These can be so effective at binding the tablet that unless the tablet is crunched in the mouth, they may pass undigested through the intestines (The x ray below shows tablets sitting undigested.)
Metabolics does not manufacture tablets.
Coatings
Many tablets and capsules have “coatings”. These coat the tablets to allow them to be swallowed more easily. They may be protein or corn derived. Our high quality, plant cellulose capsules are easy to swallow so don’t require additional coatings.
Colourings
These may be added by companies for cosmetic reasons and are entirely unnecessary.
Flavours
These may be added by companies to make the product taste more pleasant. This is particularly relevant to children’s products where children may be very sensitive to flavourings.
Fillers or bulking agents
Fillers are used to fill space in capsules and where the dose of the ingredient is particularly small. Companies may use lactose (milk sugar), sugars such as glucose or sucrose, wheat derivatives, vegetable fats or oils such as Magnesium Stearate. These can be potential allergens for some people.
Metabolics uses only inert plant cellulose
What is not on the label?
Minor manufacturing additives are not required to be listed on the label if they make up less than 1% of the bulk of the ingredients so many of the dietary ingredients in some manufacturers supplements remain undisclosed despite stricter labelling regulations.
This means that many manufacturers are using materials with lactose, corn starch, sorbic acid, sodium benzoate, dextrose ,maltodextrin and others which, because they are less than 1% of the ingredients are not required for declaration on the label.
Metabolics is transparent, declaring all ingredients. If you don’t see it on our label, it’s because we haven’t included it in the product.
Ask the Question...
If you do buy your supplements online or on the highstreet, why not ask them some of the question featured in this article. At the end of the day you need to be 100% confident that what you placing into your body is doing your body good, rather than harming your body, or in a worse case manufactured in unclean environments.
