PHARMAVITE LANDS CONSUMERLAB SEAL.

Byline: Evan Pondel Staff Writer

NORTHRIDGE - ConsumerLab.com, a company that tests the potency of food supplements, has approved 22 of Pharmavite's products - a move the vitamin maker says will bolster its credibility in an industry riddled with controversy.

With more than a dozen different kinds of vitamin C on the market these days, Pharmavite's attempting to stand tallest on the shelves. The Northridge-based company, which controls around 9 percent of the nation's vitamin and mineral industry, recently paid ConsumerLab.com an undisclosed amount of money to test the legitimacy of its products. In return, ConsumerLab.com will add Pharmavite to its ``CL List of Approved Quality Products.''

``It's really difficult to select the right supplement in a chain drugstore,'' said Tom Zimmerman, vice president of business development for Pharmavite. ``And being a part of ConsumerLab.com is very positive. Buying one of our products will now be like buying an extension cord with a UL (Underwriters Laboratories Inc.) stamp.''

As gingko biloba and conjugated linoleic acid make the shopping lists of more and more consumers, several new seals of approval are surfacing on food supplement labels. Nonprofit foundations and even the Good Housekeeping Institute are pushing around official-looking stamps. Among the most coveted seals: USP, which stands for U.S. Pharmacopia.

In a $16.7 billion industry, a seal of approval can go a long way, especially when consumers become bleary eyed due to the clutter of choices, Zimmerman said. The USP mark ensures that the product was manufactured in a sterile environment; its contents are reflected on the label; it is free of common contaminants and it dissolves quickly enough in the stomach for the active ingredient to be absorbed. The USP stamp will begin to appear on Pharmavite's Nature Made products by the fourth quarter.

Unlike a USP stamp, approval from ConsumerLab.com entails comparing a manufacturer's strain of ginseng with other roots in the industry. Companies can pay ConsumerLab.com between $2,500 and $4,000 in order to include their product in testing, reports said. Companies must also pay around $2,000 to $10,000 to use the ConsumerLab.com seal to advertise on their bottles.

Whether the influence of money is detrimental to the viability of the industry has yet to be determined. However, Kim Shapira, a registered dietitian in West Hills, said everyone has to pay for approval in this world. And the dietary-supplement industry is no different.

``I do trust the Nature Made label,'' said Shapira, a vegetarian who takes a multivitamin every day. ``The only thing that makes their supplement different from another is the USP label.''

Centrum is one such company that doesn't have a seal of approval on its products. The laissez-faire regulatory environment doesn't require that dietary supplements brandish a seal. For this reason, companies have experienced some shaky outcomes with their products. This year, European countries pulled kava from the shelves after several people developed liver ailments from taking the herb.

`'Just because something is herbal doesn't always make it natural and healthy,'' Shapira said. ``And if there's a USP label, that also doesn't necessarily mean what they say is on the label is actually in the product.''

For Pharmavite, the ideal regulatory environment will have to stem from the industry. Instead of having a number of companies affixing their stamps to different supplements, Zimmerman said, one industry leader would be enough.

``But for that to happen, the whole industry is going to have to get behind one of the seal programs and include them on a variety of products,'' he said. ``And that could take some time.''