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The aloe vera gel many Americans buy to soothe damaged skin contains no evidence of aloe vera at all.
Samples of store-brand aloe gel purchased at national retailers Wal-Mart, Target and CVS showed no indication of the plant in various lab tests. The products all listed aloe barbadensis leaf juice — another name for aloe vera — as either the No. 1 ingredient or No. 2 after water.
[...] Aloe’s three chemical markers — acemannan, malic acid and glucose — were absent in the tests for Wal-Mart, Target and CVS products conducted by a lab hired by Bloomberg News. The three samples contained a cheaper element called maltodextrin, a sugar sometimes used to imitate aloe. The gel that’s sold at another retailer, Walgreens, contained one marker, malic acid, but not the other two.
A related article from FatPhil discusses herbal supplements which, upon analysis, did not contain the ingredients their labels claimed.
Caveat emptor.
(Score: 2) by fishybell on Monday November 28 2016, @12:17AM
An enterprising lawyer should buy a chemical analysis company just to run class-action suits against manufacturers claiming various ingredients. I don't think anyone is surprised that this was going on, hence why someone decided to have products tested, likely to fuel a lawsuit.
I think — at least in modern American society — lawsuits like this is the only thing keeping companies honest. "Let the free market decide" is what gives us non-products in the first place, so "let the free market decide" how much risk companies should take on their dishonesty.
For now, I'm rooting for the lawyers.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Monday November 28 2016, @01:28AM
Maybe that would attract the same kind of people that use various techniques to determine who has downloaded a song illegally then send them copyright violation letters...
But then an angered corporation has teeth. A scared teenager does not have much defense.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by jcross on Monday November 28 2016, @08:17PM
Corporations have teeth but the teeth cost money. Also they tend to have money. The best strategy would be to get them to settle to avoid a lawsuit and/or a public disclosure of their fraud. Think patent troll rather than copyright enforcement.
(Score: 2) by fishybell on Friday December 02 2016, @02:16AM
I'm still okay with lawyers suing companies for false advertising.