I'm one who likes to chew the gel caps and spit out the peeling... why do I need to put a gel cap in my body, it doesn't make sense, go ahead laugh, you're not the only one who has.  BUT, I wasn't laughing when I bit into a gel cap today and there was nothing inside, I bit into another one and NOTHING, so then I got out my scale and weighed each of the remaining caps.  I realize most people wouldn't do this, but THEY SHOULD.  I got robbed, there were 50 caps in the bottle, other family members took some, I had about 10 and there was 29 left and 7 of the ones remaining according to my scale were empty.  My scale was not able to accurately weigh small quantities as I would have liked, but nevertheless there was too large a variance which told me that OOPS, they left out THE BEEF!

BUT IT WASN'T BEEF OF COURSE IT WAS CoQ10

So I drove to the Village Green Mall in Vernon BC, and went into Lifestyle Natural Foods.  Two ladies having a marvelous time, laughing and carrying on when I walked up to the counter.  I told them my story about the caps and finding nada, and showed them the bottle and the caps I had weighed, and the little plastic bag with the caps that were much lighter than the rest.  The ladies still having such a wonderful day seemed to think I was trying to be funny, but nope not this time... no funny.  One of the ladies suggested that it was an old bottle, and yes, take a look for yourself at the date stamped on the price tag, it shows 11-04-02.

"BUT" I said... the date stamp on the bottle says AU 2005!  And I was thinking to myself and today is February 22nd, 2005 LADY which means it is supposed to be good for SIX MORE MONTHS (as if that should make any difference)... the ESSENTIAL INGREDIENT AS ADVERTISED ON THE LABEL WAS NOT IN THE PRODUCT.  Then the lady said that there was not much she could do about it, and stood back a bit from me and my bottle.  Then I said, I work in the Health Food Business... (as if that was going to give me any clout)... but they both seemed to think that was even more amusing.  The lady offered that I should leave the bottle with her and she would look into it, but it seemed like it was going to be WAY TOO MUCH TROUBLE for her so I thought it best not to put her out and do my own due diligence.  So I said ok fine, I'll post my story on the net and see if there are others who've had the same experience with these gelcaps.

I spent a few full days last week emailing Members of Parliament of Canada about CODEX and discussing with some of them about how Canadians need their freedom to choose their own supplements, and about the benefits of supplements and then I get this bull?  I don't know about this SISU company, the people, the products, the results or whether they're hot and heavy after the almighty dollar, like the big druggies we all love to hate. 

I thought, I'm going to SEE for myself what's inside these things and here it is folks!

I had two witnesses who first were scratching their heads wondering what I was doing,

then the drama unfolded...

Why would I do this?

Because NO ONE LIKES TO GET RIPPED OFF, these things cost nearly a buck a hit and the fact of the matter is I never got what I paid for.  How many others will never know that they DIDN'T GET WHAT THEY PAID FOR EITHER?

There were 29 caps left out of 50

4 of the caps had very little in them

3 caps had from 1/3 to 1/2 of the labeled dosage

21 of the caps had a full dose.

I don't trust SISU and I wouldn't recommend you do either.

We should make a habit out of checking out our supplements.

TOO many products on the market have been found to have NO active ingredients.

IF YOU HAVE A SIMILAR EXPERIENCE WITH THIS OR ANY OTHER PRODUCT

PLEASE CONTACT ME AND I WILL BE MORE THAN HAPPY TO VOLUNTARILY POST YOUR STORY

EMAIL

February 23, 2004

Dear Sir/Mdm,

I discovered that you don't fill your gelcaps as full as you advertise on the bottle. I've been working in this industry since 1996, I know nothing about your company but I've used and seen your products on store shelves. On the one hand I'm thinking its a bit of a fruit salad thing, on the other I'm mad because I've been cheated. I put the story up on the Web as promised the lady at the health food store where I bought them. The impression I got from the store tells me I will not be making a purchase there anymore, I would appreciate hearing your comments and knowing what you as the manufacturer will do about this.

My experience is posted at:
http://www.drugfreehealth.com/wheresthebeef.htm

Baruch (Bruce) Gorovenko
Vernon BC Canada

Dear Mr. Gorovenko,

The SISU Co Q-10 Extra soft gelatin capsules, lot # 20824 were manufactured in August 2002.  The product was shipped to Lifestyle Natural foods in November 2002. You did not mention when you purchased it, but judging by the stock turnover in that store and packaging changes in the interim, you probably purchased it in 2003.

The Co Q-10 soft gels, lot # 20824 were manufactured by Banner Pharmacaps, a multi-national pharmaceutical company.  Their manufacturing procedures are to the highest standards and include the verification of weight variation and content numerous times throughout the manufacturing run as well as at the end of the run, before the finished soft gels are shipped.

When we received these capsules in August 2002, we put them through our testing procedures including fill weight and variation, which were documented as per GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) regulations.  Lot 20824 met the fill weight specification & passed the weight variation tests. The net fill weight of a capsule is calculated by carefully measuring the difference between the filled capsule weight & the empty shell weight. (This information is available on U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP) under the section of weight variation of nutritional supplements if you would like further information about this test.)

The average fill weight calculated on that lot was 508.3 mg per capsule and the weight variance was 97.6 - 102.6 % of the mean capsule weight. The weight variation results are well within the 10% variance as prescribed in the USP.

In response to your complaint, we performed these tests again using our retained sample of lot 20824, which has been stored at room temperature in our warehouse since we received it, in August 2002.  Both the average fill weight & the weight variation revealed very similar results to those of the original batch documents.  The average fill weight of the capsules in our retained sample is 509.2 mg per capsule, and the weight variation is 97.2 - 103.0 %.

We asked the manufacturer what kind of conditions would lead to the loss of content that you noticed in the capsules in your bottle.  In their extensive experience with soft gelatin capsules, they have found that high temperature and/or humidity will result in degraded integrity of the capsule shells. When the shells reach an equilibrium with a high temperature/high humidity ambient environment, the shells become very soft, and begin to break down in as little as 24hrs.  When break down occurs, there is leakage and evaporation, which would result in low fill.

The recommended storage conditions for this product are 15-25 degrees Celsius and less than 65% relative humidity. In the intervening time since you purchased this product, it must have been exposed to high temperature and/or humidity, perhaps storage near a heat source, or in the bathroom.  This explains why, after the same amount of time, but at moderate storage temperatures, our retained sample of the same lot still passes all of the quality tests it did when it was just manufactured.  This is true of all of our products.  We guarantee their potency at the expiry date, not at the date of manufacture, assuming proper storage conditions.  Clearly, proper storage is an important factor in the stability of any product and incorrect storage will invalidate the original expiry date.

We greatly appreciate the opportunity to address your concerns and trust our response meets with your satisfaction.  If you return your old bottle to us, to my attention, and remove your inflammatory comments from the internet, I would be happy to replace your old bottle with a new one.

All the best,

Juliette Lehder
Product Information
1 800 663 4163, extension 3

SISU Inc.
104A - 3430 Brighton Avenue
Burnaby, BC  V5A 3H4
 

REPLY TO SISU:

February 25, 2005

Dear Juliette,

I have carefully read and considered your thoughts, I was not aware that Banner Pharmacaps, a multinational pharmaceutical company was responsible for manufacturing the product I purchased.  SISU is the only company mentioned on the label.  You are telling me that my Flax Oil and Co Q-10 have evaporated, the bottle is perfectly clean inside, there is no staining otherwise I may have believed you that it was faulty capsules, I'm appalled that you would suggest the fault lies with me, it is now 6 months before the expiration date.  You suggest that I return the bottle and retract "inflammatory comments" and you will replace my old bottle with a new one.  I'm sorry, but what "inflammatory statements" would you be referring to?  Perhaps that I don't "trust" your products?  No, I don't believe you that my product evaporated.  First of all,  I chewed on two of capsules quite vigorously to attain that sweet nectar of health, it was unusual because usually a few rubs with the molars and I'm in the heavenly realm.  No, this time it was munching, munching, crushing, bouncing like a little rubber ball and at the end there was NOTHING in the capsule and two of them appeared quite a bit thicker than the rest.

     The MAC 38MM cap that comes on the bottle has a pressure sensitive liner, with only a bit of torque the liner tenaciously sticks to the top of the bottle, it still makes that telltale disengagement noise when removing the cap, this product has been tightly sealed and stored well.  But so far I am the only person on the planet who has experienced gel caps which leaked Flax Oil through plastic into the air.  I see that I have connected to "the new science at SISU", blame and BS the customer.  No I don't appreciate being lied to, no one does really.  This is not only about the wasted money, it's about honesty and integrity in putting out your products, you accept no liability whatsoever and then insult the intelligence of consumers?  No, I am not interested in obtaining a replacement product from your company.  I suggest that you send a check for $10,000.00 and an apology for treating me rudely.  I'll consider your act of good faith as fair and reasonable compensation for my total loss incurred while doing business with your company.

     No, what you could have said was: 

     Mr. Gorovenko, we are shocked by your report and assure you that though man and machine do their very best, we do not live in a perfect world, the commoners refer to this as "shit happens".  Please accept our apologies, we have done our due diligence here and strongly believe that yours was a very rare and unusual experience with our product.  Please return the bottle to the store a new one is waiting for you OR we will refund you half the value of the product being as you did receive a benefit from us.

     But no, you blame me?  I'm now wondering how many other customers are out there that you have blamed because YOU never put the essential ingredient in the product!

Your perturbed ex-customer,

Baruch (Bruce) Gorovenko
Vernon BC Canada