Adulterant Screening: Find It Before the FDA Does
Undeclared pharmaceutical adulterants are one of the most serious and most underestimated risks in the industry.
Products spiked with prescription drug analogs, banned stimulants, or unapproved compounds look clean on a standard COA. They pass label claim testing. They ship, they sell, and then they trigger an FDA warning letter, a retailer delisting, or a consumer adverse event report that ends up on the evening news.
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The brands and importers who get caught are rarely the ones who knew. They're the ones who didn't test.
At Twin Arbor Labs, we run targeted adulterant screening panels by LC-MS/MS for three of the highest-risk supplement categories: sexual enhancement, weight loss, and sports nutrition. If something is in your product that shouldn't be, we'll find it.
Who Needs Adulterant Testing
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Adulterant screening is not just for brands with something to hide. It's due diligence for anyone sourcing from contract manufacturers, importing finished products or raw materials, selling on Amazon or other platforms with enforcement programs, or launching products in categories with known adulteration histories. If you didn't make it yourself from verified raw materials, you need to know what's in it.
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Sexual Enhancement Adulterant Panel
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"Natural" male enhancement is one of the most consistently adulterated supplement categories the FDA monitors. PDE5 inhibitors, the active drug class in prescription medications like Viagra and Cialis, are routinely found in products marketed as herbal or botanical formulas. These compounds are not just undeclared ingredients. They are prescription drugs with real contraindications, drug interactions, and cardiovascular risks.
Our sexual enhancement adulterant panel screens for:
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Sildenafil
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Sulfoaildenafil
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Desmethyl Carbodenafil
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Tadalafil
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Vardenafil
These include both the parent drug compounds and structural analogs specifically designed to evade standard testing. LC-MS/MS gives us the sensitivity and specificity to detect them at trace levels in complex supplement matrices.
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Weight Loss Adulterant Panel
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Weight loss supplements are a perennial enforcement target for the FDA. Prescription appetite suppressants, withdrawn drugs, and pharmaceutical laxatives have all been detected in products marketed as natural fat burners and metabolism boosters. The risk isn't hypothetical. The FDA maintains an actively updated list of tainted weight loss products, and the compounds below show up on it regularly.
Our weight loss adulterant panel screens for:
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Sibutramine (withdrawn from the U.S. market due to cardiovascular risk)
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Desmethylsibutramine
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Phenolphthalein (removed from OTC use due to carcinogenicity concerns)
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Fluoxetine
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Sports Nutrition Adulterant Panel
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Sports nutrition is one of the fastest-growing supplement categories and one of the most aggressively adulterated. SARMs, banned stimulants, and prohormone compounds appear in pre-workouts, fat burners, and muscle-building formulas, sometimes intentionally, sometimes as supply chain contamination. For brands selling to athletes, the stakes are especially high. A positive doping test traces back to the product, and the product traces back to you.
Our sports nutrition adulterant panel screens for:
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DMAA (Dimethylamylamine), a banned stimulant subject to multiple FDA warning letters
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Ligandrol (LGD-4033), a SARM classified as an unapproved new drug
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Ostarine (Enobosarm), a SARM classified as an unapproved new drug
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4-DHEA (4-androsten-3α/β-ol-17-one), a prohormone compound
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Sibutramine
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Desmethylsibutramine
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Didesmethylsibutramine
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