Multivitamins: How we tested dollar-store brands
Our November 2004 report on dangerous products found that dollar stores and other cut-rate outlets often sell defective goods.
So we randomly bought and then analyzed 18 multivitamin brands from outlets such as The Dollar Store, Family Dollar, and Big
Lots.
We tested for vitamin/mineral content and dissolvability, which indicates whether the pills break down fast enough to be absorbed.
We also checked for the heavy-metal contaminants arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury. An outside lab conducted the nutrient
and contamination tests; we tested dissolvability in our labs.
Our tests were designed to evaluate the reliability of such brands in general. We did not assess enough lots of specific brands
to rate them individually because consumers might find it difficult to locate particular dollar-store products. But the overall
results of our tests were compelling.
None of the dollar-store products had harmful levels of the heavy metals we tested. But eight failed to meet the label claim
for one or more nutrients, and three of those eight didn’t dissolve properly. Moreover, three of the substandard products
said USP on the label, which by law is supposed to mean that the maker guarantees the product meets USP standards of quality
and purity.
In contrast, major multivitamin brands proved so reliable the last time we tested them that we didn’t bother evaluating more
than two such brands this time. Those products, Centrum from A to Zinc and Bayer One A Day Maximum, did indeed meet their
label claims and were free of the tested contaminants.
Even if the cut-rate multivitamins were reliable, they offer savings of only about $3 to $21 a year over name-brand products;
even less, if any, over major store brands. We recommend sticking to those better-known brands of multivitamins.
