Testing & Analysis
Our labs ensure you get pure, safe natural products that work
To ensure you’re getting what you’re looking for in a natural product, we use comprehensive laboratory testing. At NOW® we’ve made a significant investment in in-house labs so we can test our products at multiple stages during production. We’re one of the few manufacturers that have this kind of in-house testing capability.
In just one month, we may perform as many as 16,000 individual tests. We test in order to meet US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requirements for dietary supplement manufacturing. But we also go beyond these requirements.
- You want natural products that you feel good about.
- You want to know they’re contaminant-free.
- And you want to be sure they contain the ingredients you saw listed on the label.
Here’s what we test, and why…
We test all raw materials
We make sure that the raw materials that come through our facilities’ doors, as well as supplements formulated and manufactured off site, meet GMP standards.
- We test to make sure there are no mold, bacteria or other biological contaminants.
- We test to ensure the raw materials we get are what the supplier says they are and match the ingredients we use in our formulations.
- We test to make sure our raw materials do not contain harmful levels of heavy metals.
- We test to make sure our raw materials are not adulterated.
And we don’t stop with the materials arriving at our doorstep.
We test our manufacturing facilities
To make sure the products you buy from us with confidence are contaminant-free, we test various sites throughout our manufacturing plant for the presence of unwanted microbes.
We test the final products
And finally, when everything is mixed and packaged, we test our finished products according to the testing requirements set out in the FDA cGMPs. This final round of testing ensures the product matches our specifications and is contaminant-free at the end of the production line.
Accurate testing depends on excellent equipment and skilled staff
You can test all you want. But if you don’t pay attention to two factors, the tests aren’t worth much at all.
We have the right instrumentation.
NOW’s recently renovated and expanded laboratory facilities feature state-of-the-art testing instruments. This includes inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometers (ICP-MS), high performance liquid chromatographs (HPLC), a new Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometer (FTIR) and an ultraviolet/visible spectrometer (UV/VIS). Primary analyses are also performed in-house using gas chromatography (GC). In addition we have added a new super high tech time of flight liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (TOF-LCMS) that will help us test difficult to test products.
Lab instruments are only as good as the people who use them.
NOW’s analytical chemists are widely recognized as being among the industry’s best and most accomplished. Our expert team of highly qualified scientists and technicians work in tandem to develop new and improved analytical methods with the highest accuracy and precision possible.
You can be confident NOW’s products are among the best the market has to offer thanks to the extensive testing we do every step along the way.