ConsumerLab.com, White Plains, NY, recently tested various green and whole food supplements for heavy metals, microbes and pesticides, and found only five of the 11 products selected met quality standards. Green and whole food supplements can be powders or pills containing wheat grass, alfalfa, kelp, spirulina, leafy vegetables and other chlorophyll-containing ingredients. Powders that failed testing were contaminated with lead, arsenic or bacteria, and one pill failed to break apart properly.

ConsumerLab.com found 6 mcg to 11.6 mcg of lead per daily serving in three of the greens supplements, representing significant and unnecessary exposure. One powdered product contained a high level of arsenic. A single serving of the powder (to be mixed in a cup or half-cup of liquid) contained 24.3 mcg of arsenic, which is more than twice the amount allowed by the U.S. EPA in a liter (4.3 cups) of drinking water. Another product contained a large amount of bacteria, suggesting unsanitary handling. A product in pill form failed to break apart properly in disintegration testing.

In an examination of bilberry extract, a popular ingredient that may help improve vision and offer other health benefits, ComsumerLab.com found that only 75% of the products surveyed passed testing for authenticity, purity and the ability of tablets to disintegrate properly. One supplement contained only 62% of its promised bilberry compounds and appeared not to be authentic, and another failed to break apart fast enough in disintegration testing.

The use of non-authentic bilberry is well known in the supplement industry, driven by the relatively high cost of European bilberry and the availability of less expensive, non-authentic ingredients, particularly from China. European bilberry has a distinctive profile of antioxidant anthocyanoside compounds. Non-authentic bilberry ingredients are generally spiked with anthocyanosides from other plants, such as other species of berries or even black soybean hull.