How Products Were Selected:
Products were selected to represent those commonly sold and/or available nationally in the U.S. ConsumerLab.com purchased products on the open market through retail stores, on-line retailers, and direct sales companies. Products were not accepted directly from manufacturers.Testing Methods:
- Quantification of the percentage of total gingerols, and shogaols by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) (AOAC 2018.04).
- Analyses for lead, arsenic, and cadmium performed by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectroscopy (ICP-MS) for products containing whole herbs and/or more than 250 mg of minerals per daily dose.
- Disintegration of non-chewable, non-capsulated, non-time-release formulations was analyzed using United States Pharmacopeia (USP) <2040> methodology.
ConsumerLab.com may modify or use other appropriate test methods if necessary to test special product formulations.
The identities of the products were not disclosed to the laboratories performing the testing.
Passing Score:*
To pass, a product must:
- Contain at least 100% of its claimed and minimum expected amounts of total gingerols and shogaols. Root/rhizome powders and extracts are expected to contain a minimum of 1% (wt/wt) of total gingerols and shogaols (AOAC 2018.04). Gingerols are calculated as the sum of 6-gingerol, 8-gingerol, and 10-gingerol. Shogaols are calculated as the sum of 6-shogaol, 8-shogaol, and 10-shogaol.
- Heavy Metals: Products containing whole herbs and/or more than 250 mg of minerals per daily dose must not exceed specific limits for lead, arsenic and cadmium. Lead: Not exceed the following limits for elemental lead:
- Products marketed for use by children may not exceed the State of California's Prop 65 limits for lead in dietary supplements of 0.5 mcg per recommended daily serving with an additional allowance of 0.8 mcg if the product contains more than 1,000 mg/day of calcium.
- Products with a single serving weights of less than 5 grams which are not marketed for use by children, may not exceed the State of California's Prop 65 limits for lead in dietary supplements of 0.5 mcg per recommended daily serving with an additional allowance of 0.4 mcg if containing 250-999 mg/day of any combination of elemental calcium, magnesium and potassium or 0.8 mcg if containing more than 1,000 mg/day of any combination of these minerals. An additional allowance of 0.5 mcg is provided if containing 250-999 mg/day of whole herb (not extract) or 1.0 mcg if containing 1000 mg/day or more of whole herb (not extract). However, total lead allowance will not exceed 2 mcg.
- Products with single serving weights of 5 grams or more which are not marketed for children may not exceed 2.5 mcg per serving nor 4.0 mcg per daily serving.
- If marketed for use by children, may not exceed 3.0 micrograms of cadmium per recommended daily serving (based on Canada's limit for a child weighing 75 lbs.). If not marketed for use by children, may not exceed 4.1 micrograms of cadmium per recommended daily serving (based on the State of California's Prop 65 limit).
- Contain less than 10 micrograms of total arsenic and no more than 5 micrograms of inorganic arsenic per daily serving (EPA and state of New Jersey limits - based on 1 liter of water).
- Meets recommended USP <2040> parameters for disintegration for dietary supplements (excluding capsule, chewable, sublingual and time-release products).
- Meet all FDA labeling requirements.
* Passing scores allow for specific margins of technical error associated with each analysis. ConsumerLab.com reserves the right to disqualify a product at any time from passing its testing and/or receiving its Approval if it considers such product to display unacceptable variation in quality, demonstrate unacceptable organoleptic properties, present a safety risk, or provide misleading or inaccurate information in its labeling.
