My trip to NutraBio.
As readers who have followed my stuff over the years know all too well, I have been a consumer advocate for decades. I have tried to educate people on issues such as proprietary blends, how companies source their ingredients, or whether they test their products regularly for purity, dose, and contaminants. I have also written a number of articles and made videos on how products are really produced, passed the marketing hoopla and claims. Most also know I rarely recommend any companies, and if I do, it’s few and far between. When I do, it’s because I personally know the owner, or have done some consulting work for the company and know how it operates, where and how products are sourced and produced, and so forth. One company I have recommended over the years was NutraBio. NutraBio was perhaps the first company in the sports nutrition space to take a “no proprietary blend” position with their formulas, and is generally transparent about their sourcing. They also go through great lengths and expense to produce products with no fillers and excipients where ever possible. If you look at the label of various supplements, you will see “other ingredients” that may contain binders, fillers, flow agents, coatings & glazes, and so on. You will not see that with NutraBio products. It should be noted, those often added excipients are not generally harmful, but NutraBio has decided they want to offer as pure a product as is possible. To be clear, excipients found in some supplements are not necessarily a negative nor dangerous, tend to be found in very small amounts, and some products simply can’t be produced without them. I do not feel people need to go out of their way to avoid supplements that have added excipients, but for those who want to use products that don’t contain excipients or have sensitivities or allergies to them, NutraBio is an easy choice. Currently, I use NutraBio L-Tyrosine for my Bomb Proof Coffee recipe for example.
On the surface, sounds great, but is it true or just a marketing angle? Many companies will make similar claims, but it’s more often than not, nothing more than BS marketing claims. I sent the owner of the company an email with some probing questions about some of the claims made and such for my own research and his response was “come see for yourself Will.”
Hence, I decided to see for myself per his offer, so off to New Jersey I went to meet with owner of the company, Mark Glazier to get a tour and see if their claims passed the smell test. It should be noted NutraBio is a true manufacturer, which is rare in the industry. Vast majority of the time I go to visit a company for work or pleasure, it’s to see a corporate office and maybe a warehouse. I give a basic explanation of how that works in my vid “how your supplements are really made” for those who want more info on that. Mark and I did a vid that gets into the full details of how he goes about producing a product worth a watch that gets down to much more granular level, and allows people to see just how invested he is in the process that I will also post once done.
I spent approximately two days at the company touring the facility, doing some vids, talking with the employees and so forth. Summary finding? NutraBio is the real deal and a company that goes above and beyond minimum Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) as a manufacturer, and tests its source ingredients and final products extensively, well passed any FDA GMP requirements. To produce some of the products with no excipients for example, is both time consuming and expenses to do, but that’s what Mark wanted to offer to consumers, and seeing it in person, impressed on me it’s more than a simple marketing claim. Be it a forum, a company, or a military organization, the culture starts at the top, usually with one person. Mark struck me as a perfectionist in all things and his work ethic (he’s a member of Hall Of Fame of Martial Arts for example) comes through in every aspect of his company.
NutraBio started out as a single ingredient company selling in bulk, and more recently moved onto offering their own formulas, from pre workouts to protein blends and so forth.
Conclusion
If you’re looking for a company that produces their own products and goes above and beyond what’s required of them by law to guarantee what’s on the label is in the product, in the doses listed, using quality ingredients that are tested extensively, NutraBio has that covered.
Will Brink is the owner of the Brinkzone Blog. Will has over 30 years experience as a respected author, columnist and consultant, to the supplement, fitness, bodybuilding, and weight loss industry and has been extensively published. Will graduated from Harvard University with a concentration in the natural sciences, and is a consultant to major supplement, dairy, and pharmaceutical companies.
His often ground breaking articles can be found in publications such as Lets Live, Muscle Media 2000, MuscleMag International, The Life Extension Magazine, Muscle n Fitness, Inside Karate, Exercise For Men Only, Body International, Power, Oxygen, Penthouse, Women’s World and The Townsend Letter For Doctors.
He’s also been published in peer reviewed journals.
Will is the author of the popular e-books, both accompanied by private members forum access , Bodybuilding Revealed & Fat Loss Revealed.
You can also buy Will’s other books on Amazon, Apple iBook, and Barnes and Noble.
WHOOP WHOOP! Cool beans Will! I only buy from NutriBio (on Markus’ recommendation years ago and Protein Factory (although I wonder if they’re in the same league?)
Good deal man 😉
I’ve been using NutriBio for over a year now due to their seemingly legitimate claims of purity and strict manufacturing. Glad to see, especially you, Will go and verify the claims are true.
In reviewing their Grass Fed Whey Isolate, I noticed some things that concern me:
Claim #1 Vegetarian; A strict Vegetarian will not consume any animal-based products. But a Lacto-Ovo Vegetarian will consume dairy.
Claim #2 Non-GMO Verified; By whom? Otherwise this is just an unsubstantiated marketing claim without independent third party validation. There is a certification process via the USDA or private companies registered / licensed to offer this.
Claim #3 Cold Processed; Another misleading marketing claim. As best as I could find, the USDA requires all dairy-based products to be pasteurized at or above a minimum temperature of 145 degrees Fahrenheit depending on the heating time. 145 degrees is not cold!
Claim #4 Natural Flavors; This is a catch-all label that denies the consumer their specific claim that, “As Always, our labels are fully transparent.” Natural flavors can be consist of numerous substances that can be isolated and altered in the lab and that concerns me.
Claim #5 Grass-Fed; Again, another unverifiable marketing claim. There are now certification programs to confirm this.
Item #6 Test Results are not available on the website until AFTER you purchase a product and enter a batch number. This information should be accessible BEFORE you purchase.
(( You will note I don’t cover or mention specific marketing terms and so forth, simply production, sourcing, etc, all of which was excellent. I will attempt to respond to those comments however ))
In reviewing their Grass Fed Whey Isolate, I noticed some things that concern me:
Claim #1 Vegetarian; A strict Vegetarian will not consume any animal-based products. But a Lacto-Ovo Vegetarian will consume dairy.
(( And a lacto ovo vegetarian will be well aware of that no doubt, but it’s not a vegan/vegetable derived, that’s true )))
Claim #2 Non-GMO Verified; By whom? Otherwise this is just an unsubstantiated marketing claim without independent third party validation. There is a certification process via the USDA or private companies registered / licensed to offer this.
((( There’s is a verification process for non GMO but I view it as more a marketing angle than useful info personally as I really don’t have concerns over GMO. Generally, protein sources as non GMO, and or rBST/hormone free and antibiotic free are sourced from farms certed at such, just as organic does have a cert etc. I will investigate that one some more. Knowing the owner of Nutrabio, I would not be surprised at all if he didn’t personally go to those locations to check it out as he does for other ingredients. )))
Claim #3 Cold Processed; Another misleading marketing claim. As best as I could find, the USDA requires all dairy-based products to be pasteurized at or above a minimum temperature of 145 degrees Fahrenheit depending on the heating time. 145 degrees is not cold!
((( Low temp “cold” processing takes place during the whey processing from milk phase. Yes, it’s become a marketing buz term companies feel is needed to market whey, but quality whey is produced at low temps, and it’s also been found higher temps for shorter periods preserve the labile proteins in the whey better than lower temps/longer times. Major producers of whey are well aware of all that, but there’s also a lack of compartive research looking at one whey vs another on GSH and immunity which is dependent on preserving the sub fractions. It gets complicated from there )))
Claim #4 Natural Flavors; This is a catch-all label that denies the consumer their specific claim that, “As Always, our labels are fully transparent.” Natural flavors can be consist of numerous substances that can be isolated and altered in the lab and that concerns me.
((( The exact flavoring they use is right on the bottle, and they give exact mg of each used, which most companies do not. Under “supplement facts” on the site, so that seems a non issue to me )))
Claim #5 Grass-Fed; Again, another unverifiable marketing claim. There are now certification programs to confirm this.
((( I’m not crazy about the grass fed claim either as it’s usually more marketing than useful, the USDA still evaluates and approves grass-fed claims, claim isn’t tightly regulated by the government. Specific definitions do exist via orgs such as the American Grassfed Association, which helped the USDA develop its official definitions for it. Some countries such as New Zealand, that have some strict laws on use of anti biotics, grass fed, etc, are where such whey comes from, but not always )))
Item #6 Test Results are not available on the website until AFTER you purchase a product and enter a batch number. This information should be accessible BEFORE you purchase.
((( So? If it did not pass, it would not exist for sale, so I’m unclear what the issue is there. I think that’s a pretty impressive, not to mention time consuming and expensive, thing to offer buyers, but sure, you need to purchase the product first )))
Hi Patrick,
Hi Patrick. Thanks for taking the time to comment.
#1. If you review the “Dietary Restriction” section on the webpage for the Grass-Fed, it states “Lacto-ovo vegetarian.” We do not claim it to be vegetarian only Lacto-Ovo. Please let me know if you see that misstated elsewhere and we’ll have it corrected, but as far as I can see it only states Lacto-ovo.
#2 and #5. The protein brand we use is “Truly Grass Fed” which is Non-GMO Project Verified. All credentials can be found on this page https://www.trulygrassfed.com/. At this time we claim that the product is “MADE” with Non-GMO Verified protein. We do not claim the finished product is verified as we are still in the process of registration. The label has no claim of verification because of this reason.
#4: This is definitely not a catch-all label; it is the most transparent label in the industry. It discloses every active ingredient along with its dosage. It discloses the dosage of the flavor and sweetener components. It further discloses the exact amount of each source protein, which in this case is only one, along with the yield of complete from each source. We were the first in the industry to remove proprietary blends from our products, disclose dosages of all actives, and disclose protein source and yield dosages. The component of the flavor system itself is the only ingredient that is not fully disclosed.
#6 Third-party Test Results are available on the website by individual lot number so as long as you know the lot number you can look it up. At stores you can look up the results for the lot that is on the shelf before you purchase, if you purchase from us directly, you can call customer service and they will give you the lot number of the bottle we are shipping you, so you can check it before you purchase.
Good info Mark 😉
Thanks,
I was considering That company and your review was very helpful.
Glad the info helped.
Will,
I checked out there site, since you recommend them, but there creatine does not have creapure as you recommend . who or where do you recommend to buy creatine.
Thank you
Lewis
Currently I Use Jarrow and linked in BPC article: https://brinkzone.com/the-science-of-bomb-proof-coffee/
A simple Google search will turn up companies useing Creapure as their source.
I bet Nutrabio’s creatine if fine too knowing what a stickler for testing the owner is.