ConsumerLab/Vitamin Shoppe dispute
This article was originally published in The Tan Sheet
Executive Summary
The Vitamin Shoppe voluntarily removed its "Especially for Women" multivitamin from store shelves after allegations there are trace quantities of lead in the product, the firm says Jan. 23. The North Bergen, N.J.-based company says its efforts to fully investigate the allegations have been "hampered by the unwillingness of the company making the allegations to share its complete results and testing methodology with us." ConsumerLab.com says it assumes the "allegations" refer to the online testing firm's "findings of a significant amount of lead in the product" and calls the comments by Vitamin Shoppe "false and highly misleading." ConsumerLab.com says "within three hours" of a request from Vitamin Shoppe the firm faxed over a two-page report of the lead test results from two independent laboratories. ConsumerLab's business model has been criticized by industry representatives in the past and the firm attempted to sue CRN in 2006 (1"The Tan Sheet" Nov. 20, 2006 In Brief)...