BUYER BEWARE - UNSAFE LEVELS OF HEAVY METALS
***BUYER BEWARE***<br />Sharing this for my fellow pregnant and breastfeeding moms. Re-posted from Debora's Natural Gourmet:<br /><br />(You're looking at a photo of the last of our Rainbow Light products, in the dumpster behind the store.  We no longer feel safe selling them).<br /><br />After more than a quarter century, Debra’s Natural Gourmet is sad to announce we will no longer carry products from the Rainbow Light company.  This is matter for us both of principle, and of safety.  Twice now, we’ve obtained lab documents from the company itself which show potentially unsafe variances from label claim.  Furthermore, they have at least once provided a certificate of analysis that we discovered to be false.  Given an opportunity to address these serious issues, Rainbow Light refuses to.<br /><br />In 2012, concerns were raised about the purity of a particular raw material used by a number of manufacturers, including Rainbow Light.  We take these things seriously at Debra’s.  So we requested certificates of analysis (COAs) from all the companies we dealt with that used this ingredient.  While the other COAs we received appeared credible, Rainbow’s immediately raised red flags: simply put, the lab results were too perfect to be true -- everything accurate to the hundredth of a milligram.  That simply doesn't happen in the real world.<br /><br />Upon follow-up, Rainbow admitted that &#34;their&#34; data did not actually come from them.  Rather, it came from an third party lab, who, Rainbow Light asserted, was independent and beyond reproach.  Rainbow simply transcribed it onto their own letterhead, and signed it.<br /><br />We asked to review the source document, and Rainbow provided it to us (and then asked for it back!)  Two things were immediately obvious.  First, the so-called “independent third party” was actually the raw material supplier in question.  And second, Rainbow’s transcribed COA did not match the source document.  It was not even close.<br /><br />After an initial round of denials, Rainbow eventually conceded that their COA was inaccurate.  However, they insisted this was still okay, since the certificate of analysis was not actually a certificate of analysis: the bold font across the top that said “Certificate of Analysis” was a typo.  Typo or not, this still left us holding a product that did not meet label claim – diverging in some cases by more than 700%.  And it left us with serious concerns about Rainbow’s attention to detail, quality control, honesty, and ethics.<br /><br />Normally, this would have been the end of our dealings.  But we gave Rainbow a second chance.  We did this because of their 20+ year history in our industry, their trade association memberships, and the fact that the product in question was no longer on the market.  In retrospect, this was a mistake.<br /><br />Fast forward to June of 2017, when Rainbow again brought a product to market using a similar raw material.  Rainbow initially offered to provide a COA, but then later balked, asserting that all their lab work was now “confidential.”  [Note: no other company we've encountered makes such a claim].  After some veiled threats to talk openly about our concerns, Rainbow relented, and finally sent the COA they had offered almost two months previously.  Unfortunately, this COA was incomplete, unsigned, post-dated – and still showed one nutrient with potential for toxicity at 261% of label claim.  Most troubling of all, despite repeated insistence that the company rigorously tests for heavy metals like mercury, arsenic, cadmium, and lead – all of which are anticipated with this type of raw material – that they test both the raw materials coming in, and the finished product going out, these test results were entirely omitted from the COA.<br /><br />This, for a product marketing explicitly to pregnant women.<br /><br />On our end, we can not imagine any reason not to share lab results if all they do is confirm label claim, and establish that toxic heavy metals are within legal limits.  (Imagine if your kid says he got straight A's -- but won't show you the report card).  No other company in our experience has taken this inexplicable a stance.<br /><br />For almost a month now, Rainbow Light has refused to respond to both phone calls and e-mails asking after the missing heavy metal testing, and following up on other discrepancies.  All the while, their official marketing continues to insist we can all trust them for their “transparency.”  For us, this is unacceptable.  There are too many companies out there to choose from, ones that not only talk the talk, but also walk the walk.  Companies that don't have so much to hide.<br /><br />To our customers, thank you for your continuing support.  And thank you for understanding if we have ever recommended to you anything that did not meet yours (or our) standards.
Rating: 1 stars