New Advertising Standards Agency Ruling Bans Brand Claims of ‘Liposomal’ Vitamin C Without Sufficient Evidence

The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) made an important ruling making it illegal for brands to claim to be a ‘liposomal’ Vitamin C without having sufficient clinical evidence.

 The ASA upheld the complaint against supplement brand YourZooki – stating that YourZooki’s claims of its VITAMIN C ZOOKI product being a “liposomal vitamin C” are unsubstantiated and misleading.

This ruling comes as a result of lengthy and detailed investigation by the ASA into YourZooki for the liposomal claims for VITAMIN C ZOOKI, with the committee finding this week that the YourZooki claims of a “liposomal” delivery system are misleading and unsubstantiated. This is an important victory for the wider vitamin supplementation industry, as the ruling ensures that industry standards are upheld and that the end consumer is protected.

The ASA went on to state that “we had not seen conclusive evidence confirming the presence of liposomes in YourZooki’s product and concluded that the claims “liposomal vitamin C”, and similar claims about the liposomal content of the product, were misleading and had not been substantiated.” The YourZooki marketing claims were deemed to have breached the CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 (Misleading advertising) and 3.7 (Substantiation) and in future they must not refer to "liposomal vitamin C" or make similar claims about the liposomal content of the product unless they hold suitable evidence to substantiate the claim.

Abundance & Health, Altrient’s distributor and retailer, independently tests liposomal brands for quality. “In September 2020 four different liposomal brands were tested, including YourZooki. YourZooki and one other brand returned negative tests for liposomes. Two other brands showed very low liposome levels. On this basis, we made a complaint to the ASA about the liposomal claims of YourZooki.  The consumer will have no way of determining which product is genuine based on the marketing message. We are grateful that the ASA has taken this matter seriously and completed a thorough investigation.   We believe that this ruling will force the remaining brands who are falsely marketing their products as liposomal” to remove their liposomal claims for the benefit of consumers and true liposomal producers” , says Tim Orchard, Director of Abundance & Health. “At Altrient®, we are proud of our scientific heritage and believe in an ethically-led approach to marketing. – our claims are backed by robust scientific evidence, including double-blind placebo-controlled trials, which is why we are confident in the quality and efficacy of our supplements.”

Dr. Thomas Levy, cardiologist, vitamin C expert and consultant for LivOn Labs says “This is an important day for the liposomal vitamin industry and for consumers. Liposomal supplements are a fascinating technology for delivering maximised absorption, but ‘buyer beware’ there is more fraud in liposomal supplements than in any other type of supplement I have seen. Brands just slap the word ‘liposomal’ on the product and try to make as much money as they can, until and if they get called out on what they are doing. Unfortunately, too many people want to make too much money and have no significant ethics. Taking a product that you believe to be liposomal but isn’t deprives people of the absorption benefits of true liposomal vitamin C. It is terribly unfair to consumers who are paying for a very specific technology that in many cases simply isn’t utilised in the product! Making a high-quality, high-tech, liposomal vitamin C is not a fast, easy, cheap or simple process, and the industry needs to be better regulated to avoid this kind of misleading behaviour. We are delighted that the ASA have taken such a keen interest in this case and are taking decisive action to protect consumers.”.

Statement on behalf of YourZooki

“We have co-operated fully with the ASA following an initial request to substantiate our liposomal claims and have supplied all the necessary evidence for review, to both the ASA and the Laboratory of the Government Chemist. This includes information on our GMP and FDA-certified manufacturing processes, product composition and particle analysis.

“In respect of the points raised by the ASA, we have undertaken considerable additional testing to overcome the quality control challenges identified. Our tests covered Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), Electrophoretic Light Scattering (ELS), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Cryo-Transmission Electron Microscopy (Cryo-TEM). All of which can show that our products demonstrate the characteristics associated with liposomes.

“We’re confident this research will move the supplements market forward with regards to liposomal testing, and we will continue working alongside independent scientific experts to review such techniques in the future.

“It goes without saying that YourZooki is wholly committed to providing our customers with the highest quality products and accurate information regarding our ranges. This process has enabled us to take our testing to the next level as we continue to create products that our customers love worldwide.”