美国保健品零售商宣布更严格质量标准

GNC, the country’s largest specialty retailer of dietary supplements, has agreed to institute sweeping new testing procedures that far exceed quality controls mandated under federal law.

全美最大的膳食补充剂专业零售商GNC已经同意采用全新的测试流程，其质量控制标准将远超联邦法律的强制要求。

The action to be announced Monday comes after the New York state attorney general’s office accused GNC and three other major retailers of selling herbal supplements that were fraudulent or contaminated with unlisted ingredients that could pose health risks to consumers.

该公司本周一宣布开展此项行动。之前纽约州总检察长办公室曾指控GNC以及其他三家主要的零售商售卖的草本保健品存在欺诈，或受到标签中未注明的成分的污染，可能会对消费者健康造成不利影响。

Experts said the announcement marked an initial but significant step forward for the $33 billion-a-year supplement industry, which is loosely regulated and plagued by accusations of adulteration and mislabeling.

专家表示，该公司此举是一个初步行动，但对于每年330亿美元规模的保健品行业却意义重大。这个行业面临的监管颇为宽松，掺假和乱贴标签的指控令其声誉大受损失。

“This should be a standard across the entire industry,” said Dr. Pieter Cohen, a professor at Harvard Medical School who studies tainted supplements. “Today we finally have one first step taken by one retailer, and only after the very aggressive intervention by the New York attorney general’s office.”

“这应该成为整个行业的标准，”哈佛大学医学院教授彼得·科恩(Pieter Cohen)博士说，他研究过受污染的膳食补充剂。“现在，在纽约总检察长办公室非常积极的干预之后，零售商总算才采取了第一步行动。”

GNC, which has more than 6,500 stores nationwide and annual revenue of $2.6 billion, said that its herbal products had passed several rigorous quality-control tests and that it stood by their quality. But as part of its agreement with the attorney general, the company said it would in the next 18 months put in place additional quality-control measures to restore the trust of its customers and set new standards for the rest of the industry.

GNC在全国拥有6500家门店，年营收逾26亿美元。该公司说其草本产品已通过多次的严格质量控制测试，其质量是可靠的。但鉴于和总检察长签署的一份协议，该公司表示它将在未来18个月采取额外的质量控制措施，重新获得顾客的信赖，为行业中的其他公司设定新的标准。

The company said it would use advanced DNA testing to authenticate all of the plants that are used in its store-brand herbal supplements, and extensively test the products for common allergens like tree nuts, soy and wheat. In addition, GNC will submit semiannual reports proving that it is complying with the attorney general’s demands.

该公司表示，它将利用先进的DNA测试技术，来鉴定其自有品牌的草本保健品中所用植物的真假，并且大量测试常见的过敏原，比如坚果、大豆和小麦等等。此外，GNC将每半年提交一次报告，以便证明它在遵循总检察长的要求行事。

The company said it would also display signs at all of its stores and post statements on its website explaining to customers how the ingredients in its supplements were processed and what, if any, chemical solvents were used to make them.

该公司还表示将在所有商店里摆放标志，并在其网站上张贴声明，向消费者解释其补充剂的成分是怎样进行处理的，如果生产过程中使用了化学溶剂的话，又包括那些溶剂。

Eric T. Schneiderman, the attorney general of New York, would not comment on whether he was in talks to reach similar agreements with the other retailers included in his investigation — Walgreens, Wal-Mart and Target. But, in a statement, Schneiderman said he had urged those retailers, “as well as all herbal supplements manufacturers, to join GNC in working with my office to increase transparency and safeguard the wellness of their customers.”

对于是否正在与其他受调查零售商-——沃尔格林(Walgreens)、沃尔玛(Wal-Mart)和塔吉特(Target)——会谈，以便达成类似的协议，纽约州总检察长埃里克·T·施耐德曼(Eric T. Schneiderman) 不予置评。但是，在一份声明中，施耐德曼说，他曾敦促零售商“以及所有草本保健品生产商像GNC一样和我的办公室合作，增加透明度，保障顾客的健康。”

The attorney general’s investigation was prompted by a 2013 article in The New York Times that referred to research suggesting that dietary supplements labeled medicinal herbs frequently contained little more than cheap fillers like powdered rice and weeds, or evidence of soybeans, tree nuts and other unlisted ingredients that can be hazardous to people with allergies.

《纽约时报》2013年的一篇文章引发了总检察长的这项调查。该文章称，研究表明膳食补充剂虽然在标签上标明了草本药材，实际上只不过是粉状大米和杂草这样的廉价填充料，或是含有大豆、坚果以及其他未列明的成分，对于过敏人群来说这是很危险的。

The attorney general’s office tested 78 bottles of popular, store-brand herbal supplements that it purchased at a dozen Wal-Mart, Target, Walgreens and GNC locations across New York state. Using an advanced DNA testing procedure, the investigators found that 4 out of 5 bottles contained no detectable genetic material from the plants advertised on their labels.

总检察长办公室测试了78瓶现在热销的自有品牌草本保健品，分别在纽约州各处十几家沃尔玛、塔吉特、沃尔格林和GNC门店购得。研究人员使用先进手段进行了DNA测试，但在每五瓶中，就有四瓶检测不到标签注明的植物成分的DNA。

But there was frequently evidence of unlisted plants and other ingredients. At GNC, for example, the investigators found bottles of ginseng pills, promoted for “vitality and overall well-being,” that tested negative for any DNA from the ginseng plant. But the tests did indicate the presence of powdered rice, wheat, pine and houseplants.

而测试中还经常发现一些标签没有列出的植物和其他成分。例如，在GNC声称可以“提高活力和整体元气”的人参丸中，研究人员没有检测出任何人参DNA，但却发现了粉状大米、小麦、松树和某些室内植物的成分。

Last month, the attorney general ordered the four retailers to pull the products from their shelves in New York, and a flood of lawsuits from consumers across the country followed.

上个月，总检察长命令四家零售商从纽约货架上撤下产品，全美各地消费者随后发起的诉讼像洪水一般涌来。

The industry has countered that many of the supplements examined by the attorney general were herbal extracts, and that they would not contain DNA from the plants advertised on their labels because DNA is damaged during manufacturing and extraction.

该行业的业内人士反驳说，总检察长检查的很多膳食补充剂是草本精华，所以不会包含标签中注明的植物DNA，因为DNA已经在制造和提取过程中遭到破坏。

For GNC, the settlement satisfies the attorney general’s concerns about consumer safety and brings his investigation of the company to a close. The company has maintained all along that its products were not adulterated, and in the agreement with the attorney general there is no admission or mention of wrongdoing.

对于GNC来说，达成和解不仅满足了总检察长对于消费者安全的关注，而且也给他对该公司的调查画上了句号。该公司一直坚称其产品没有掺假，总检察长的协议中没有提到不法行为，该公司也未承认有不法行为。

The company said that it had commissioned a series of tests that confirmed the quality of its products, and that it would continue to defend against the many lawsuits it is facing, which it said were without merit.

该公司表示，它已经委托其他机构进行了一系列测试，证实其产品的质量是可信的，它将继续迎战其面临的大量诉讼；该公司表示这些诉讼缺乏法律依据。

“As our testing demonstrated, and this agreement affirms beyond any doubt, our products are not only safe and pure but are in full compliance with all regulatory requirements,” Michael G. Archbold, GNC’s chief executive officer, said in a statement.

“我们的测试证明，GNC的产品不仅安全纯净，而且完全符合所有监管要求，这个协议毫无疑问这证实了这一点。”GNC公司首席执行官迈克尔·G·阿奇博尔德(Michael G. Archbold)在一份声明中表示。