by Bob Flaws

Yesterday I heard about a Chinese company importing granule extracts from China. When asked if they intended to do U.S. product testing for heavy metals, microbes, and pesticides, the company spokesperson said no, that that would be too expensive and cut into the profit margin. I cannot convey how very short-sighted I believe such a decision is. U.S. consumers are already leery of Chinese manufacturing standards. Here at Blue Poppy Herbs, we test everything two times: once in China and once here in the U.S. at an FDA-approved, GMP-certified independent facility. This allows us to double-check Chinese test results which, to be honest, sometimes don't tally. Blue Poppy Herbs have sent back whole shipments of various extracts to our manufacturers in China which did not meet our quality control standards.

So, if you are buying granular extracts from an Asian company, I strongly encourage you to ask your supplier if they are testing in China or the U.S. Blue Poppy Herbs is happy to send our customers copies of our U.S. test results for any formula we sell. We all know about the recent melamine problem in China. Happily, there's no reason that I know of to put melamine in any Chinese herbs. But this recent problem is indicative of a larger Chinese problem concerning Western standards of transparency, public responsibility, and quality control. Since we are prescribing our medicines for internal consumption, this is serious business, and I would never trust any company that puts its bottom-line before their end-users well-being.

Caveat emptor, let the buyer beware. Be sure you ask these kinds of questions. It's just too important not to.

Copyright Blue Poppy Ent. Inc. 2009. All rights reserved.