The NaturPro Blog

Botanical Cost of Quality: An Economic Framework for Botanical Price Floors and Adulteration Prevention Blake Ebersole¹, Trish Flaster²¹NaturPro Scientific / Ethical Sourcing Review²Botanical Liaisons / Ethical Sourcing Review Abstract Botanical ingredients used in foods, dietary supplements, and pharmaceutical products are uniquely vulnerable to economically motivated adulteration due to long, opaque supply chains, biological variability, and…

Posted on PricePlow on May 21, 2026 — The supplement industry is pushing back. In May 2026, a group of long-tenured ashwagandha producers and regulatory experts launched the Ashwagandha Standards Alliance (ASA), a new coalition dedicated to countering misinformation about ashwagandha leaf safety, defending GMP standards, and responding to what many in the industry see as scientifically…

Does your ingredient intel know how your ingredients are made? Because a lot of platforms can tell you what’s available and trending. They can give you a possible match, what the studies say and what competitors are doing. But we’re still left hanging with the biggest question: Do you know enough about the ingredient, the…

May 3, 2026 — Did FDA fulfill its promise on radical transparency on infant formula in the widely promoted Operation Stork Speed? FDA’s recent infant formula testing results are reassuring. But in my opinion, they’re incomplete. The agency reports that it tested more than 300 infant formula samples and generated more than 120,000 data points…

The truth will set us free. Many are interpreting the AYUSH/FSSAI action differently than it actually is. The Ashwagandha Standards Alliance, a robust, growing group of responsible firms, is addressing these and other related issues one by one. Undeclared aerial-part substitution should be taken seriously. Yet ashwagandha ingredients from reputable suppliers already properly label plant…

The ashwagandha plot bubbles and thickens, and the crucible now precipitates visible impurity. The Ashwagandha Standards Alliance applauds NutraIngredients for yesterday’s article by Asia Sherman, which illustrates all together the stark contrast between one popular narrative and the science. The narrative says that root is authentic, that leaf is suspect, and that the Ministry of…

Posted by Supp.Co, April 22, 2026 — The supplement industry has a quality problem. Not a shortage of it. A definition problem. Every brand claims it. Almost none of them mean the same thing. (Read the full article here.) “Quality is like an onion with a thousand layers. By the time you get to the…

Back before I knew any better, I thought natural products were easy. I used to think sourcing was easy. Find a supplier online. Get a spec sheet. Allergen statement, SDS. Done. Then you learn that “same ingredient” can mean different countries, different processing, different adulteration risks, different documentation, different actual quality. I used to think…

Once upon a time, I was fresh. Today, I wish I had SupplySide Fresh — an industry onboarding program for new hires and newcomers to the health and nutrition industry. Learn from me and other experts, build valuable connections and accelerate growth in this dynamic field. Why choose SupplySide Fresh? Comprehensive education Learn from industry…

Linear thinking is often our default model of thought. But it’s not reality. In a supplement formulation meeting many years ago, I suggested to a top supplement brand that cyclical dosing for a certain ingredient would follow the science and might be prudent. They paused. Looked at me, then at each other. And they changed…

Food science is not broken. But people keep treating it like it is finished. I was quoted this week on the David bar lawsuit, and the bigger issue is not just a protein bar. It is partly about how badly people want to call a single scientific method a gold standard, when it might just…

What the heck is a dietary supplement, under the U.S. law known as DSHEA? A core part of the debate is whether ‘dietary substance’ was intended as the same meaning as ‘present in the food supply’. Some fringe thinkers want to paint them as the same, and rewrite their own take into law to only…

What do traditional Ayurveda and modern science have in common — other than repeated testing of hypotheses, and communication of evidence?   Answer: They both warrant the usage of many herbs for health purposes based on rigorous observation in humans.   While Ayurveda’s got nothing on our space age, it’s got its own chops as a well-developed,…

The Bad Supplements List: Failed and Prohibited Products and Brands. The Bad Supplements List documents and reviews clear and reliable evidence, using publicly available information on testing and enforcement activities on U.S. dietary supplement brands and products.

I remember the time I was called to an all-hands product development call regarding an amazing new technology. The crack team of young marketing whizzes had spent months compiling extensive market exploration research, mapping consumer needs, and diagramming product idea matrices. The culmination of this work was a groundbreaking product concept that was not only…

The brain bone is connected to the hip bone — and just about everything else in our body. So when we think about antioxidant-rich botanicals that are good for our health, chances are they’re probably good for our brain too. Luckily, the past 20 years have given us an incredible amount of data to develop…

The following list of supplements are banned for sale by Amazon as of April 18, 2023. This list did not provide business owner names or contact information. Contact Amazon or FDA directly if you would like to learn more about these prohibited brands. Visit the source page at the Amazon website for an updated list. Known Prohibited…

Untold tens of thousands of published scientific studies reveal ways to maintain a healthy body weight. Most weight management studies published in the past 20 years heavily emphasize overall diet and lifestyle, incorporating lifestyle interventions in addition to drugs or supplements. Simple lifestyle interventions—like getting a daily text reminder, recording an eating diary, and attending…

International standards and regenerative farming are at the leading edge of sustainability when discussing the sourcing of herbs and botanicals. But at essence, promoting sustainability begins with evaluating and understanding what is needed most to sustain and improve supply.

Ebersole can see the writing on the wall. “I expect the media will report that these levels reported in baby food are toxic—and sow more distrust in baby food. Meanwhile, industry looks bad, but it’s not entirely our fault without some clarity on what limits we should be setting,” he said.

As consultants for a diversity of supplement and food firms, NaturPro Scientific has qualified numerous ingredients, suppliers and products. So, we decided to share some of the products and ingredients that we have verified, within a curated supply catalog: NaturPro Verified Supply™ What’s different about NaturPro Verified Supply compared to other suppliers and manufacturers? Suppliers…

NaturPro has served an essential role in helping our clients source and evaluate ethically sourced ingredients.  Our Ethical Sourcing Assessments include elements from many recognized programs such as Fairtrade(R), and uses one of the most comprehensive set of standards guiding the evaluation of the social and environmental impact of natural products and foods. Ethical Sourcing Assessments are…

As Dietary Supplement Formulators we often are asked what we think of a product concept. The thought process to develop an answer is generally similar, regardless of the type of product, and whether its finished product, or an ingredient or raw material. A number of considerations go into formulating successful, effective, safe and compliant dietary…

Blake Ebersole, president of NaturPro Scientific, noted adulteration of natural products, especially foods and botanical ingredients, has been occurring for thousands of years. He added, “Two main classes of adulteration include economically motivated adulteration—generally the substitution or dilution of expensive ingredients with cheaper ones—and also, unintended cases of accidental adulteration or mistaken botanical identity.”