Protein companies dirty tricks

As everybody knows FDA does not require supplements companies to conduct a pre-selling test to check the safety and effectiveness of the products, to make things much worst FDA does not confirm the Label Claims. What does that means? You can literally sell sugar in a tube labeled 80% whey isolate (it actually happened…). In the following I will reveal some dirty tricks used by dirty companies to fool and cheat costumers.

The tricks are divided into two categories. “Legal tricks” that exploit the Inattention and trust of the costumers and illegal tricks that take advantage of the unenforced laws. I will starts from easy to spot trick to deadly ones.

Cheap filling, this is most common in mass gainers but also exist between protein powders in other forms. to achieve the 5 lbs weight some manufacturers desperately add anything but what you really need. 

Those are two weight gainers of the same category, the 5lbs tube of Gain Fast contains 770g of sugars! Almost 1lbs.

 Most Bodybuilders blend oats with gainers to add more calories. MHP, however, already added oats to the gainer.

Proprietary blends Proprietary blends and the hidden ratios of proteins is a major problem among almost all brands. Manufacturers say it’s protect their original blends from being copied. Any Lab, However, can reveal the real ratios, so the proprietary blends are not against other companies it’s just a way to make more money since whey isolate costs about 7.5$ per Kg while the whey concentrate is under 2$ per Kg.

Amino Spiking: this is the most evil trick ever done. Like the whey concentrate isn’t cheap enough some companies add amino acids to their protein powders to achieve their promised Protein content. You may ask yourself why they would do that, well the amino acids costs 1$ less and since the protein content is checked through measuring Nitrogen Content, a simple Lab Test can’t tell the Aminos from the whey.

Fake Reviews: reviews play an important role in the buyer’s decision, the supplements manufacturers understood so and worked hard to launch a large scale fake reviews campaign. Everyday supp companies hire more and more scums through freelancer.com and upwork.com to post fake reviews on every possible website, from Youtube to bodybuilding.com paid scums all around.

Fake Studies:  this a good point, manufacturers tend to quote a study that backs their formulas. Some formulas, however, already proven ineffective. This is where the company has to fund a study that claims otherwise!

Fake Labels: You may think this is common among unpopular cheap brands and you are safe as long you stick with well-known products, this is absolutely wrong. here i quote from consumerlab.com and labdoor.com two trusted labs.

Misleadings Labels: the regulation is that main ingredient must be stated first then the second and so on. so if a product contains 50% whey concentrate, 40% soy protein and 10% whey isolate the must looks like Protein Blend (Whey concentrate, soy protein, whey isolate). some supp companies, however, like to mention the whey isolate first then whey concentrate and put the soy down between artificial flavors to mislead the buyer.