The great Australian Made deception

The source of Supplements, which are classed as a food, is absolutely crucial, not only when it comes to supporting local business, but also when ensuring that your nutrition needs are coming from countries with strict quality controls.

While Australia is known to have one of the best quality farming controls in the world, numerous symbols and ratings are coming under increasing scrutiny.

Last year the ‘Health Star’ rating came under fire after multiple revelations.

It showed that the stars placed on numerous Australian products are actually rated at the discretion of the companies, while popular “sports nutrition” cereals like Milo, Nutri-Grain and Uncle Toby’s Plus Protein were not as healthy as their four-star ratings indicated.

The other system that is not all that it seems is the ‘Australian made’ label – which proudly features the green and gold of Australia with the distinctive national animal, the Kangaroo.

Most foods now have this on their logos, but don’t glance at this and assume all ingredients are from Australia.

The little graph underneath actually can actually indicate that less than 10% of ingredients are from the sun-burnt country.

It is so important to read the label.

When it comes to supplements, the source nation is critical.

Chinese supplements for example, can be extremely dangerous and toxic due to the lack of quality controls that exist in many regions around the world’s most populous country.

The source of supplements is most easily summed up by the ‘Made in the USA’ label, with American supplements long considered the highest quality in the world thanks to the multi-billion dollar budget of the Food and Drug Administration.

The FDA is considered the world’s best regulator, considerable ahead of it’s Australian equivilent, , the TGA (Therapeutic Goods Administration) in terms of new drug approval, transperancy and overall quality controls.

However when it comes to supplement origins, certain countries lead the way.

For example the best proteins and amino acids are from the USA, while nothing beats German creatine when it comes to quality.

Asian amino acids for example are mostly sourced from animal hair.

While unlabelled or cheap protein is almost guaranteed to be Chinese.

Protein and milk infant formula for example are usually whey dominant, and the 2008 Chinese milk scandel (which caused kidney damage in over 300,000 babies) showcased the dangers of taking falsely packaged powders.

This is why Australian made baby formulas have such a strong reputation, alongside American made protein powders.

Over 95% of Supplement City’s proteins are Made in the USA.

Buying bulk cheap proteins is fraught with danger, as is buying products that may appear to be made in Australia at first glance – when closer inspection shows that a heavy percentage of their ingredients have overseas origins.