Hi —
Eight to ten manufacturing facilities in the US make most of the wellness gummies you’ve ever bought.
The brand on the bottle is a label and a marketing budget. The actual product is being made on contract by one of those facilities — and that facility is making the same gummy with slightly different flavors and colors for thirty other brands at the same time.
That’s not bad on its own. A good facility makes a good product. The problem is the bad facilities — which are also making products for thirty brands. I’ve spent years inside this industry. Here’s what that means for what’s actually in your gummies.
Affiliate disclosure: Some links below are affiliate. Commissions don’t decide my picks.
The study that made me distrust gummies
Some researchers bought thirty melatonin gummies off the shelf and tested them. Twenty-six of the thirty had melatonin content significantly different from the label. Some had over 500% of what the bottle claimed. None of those brands were trying to defraud anyone. They just never bothered to audit what their contract manufacturer was actually putting in.
That’s the whole industry. Brands don’t make the product. Brands hire someone to make the product. And the auditing — when it happens — is the difference between a brand you should trust and a brand you shouldn’t.
Four signs a gummy brand is doing it right
First, per-lot COAs. Not generic. Scan the QR code on the bottle, get the lab report for that specific lot.
Second, the COA tests more than just the active ingredient — heavy metals, microbials, residual solvents.
Third, they disclose who manufactures or at least where. Brands that won’t are hiding something.
Fourth, the active is dosed at the high end of effective, not the low end of plausible. Most multi-active gummies dose each ingredient at 10–20% of what the studies use. Sugar pill with a label.
This week’s pick
cbdMD Broad Spectrum CBD Gummies.
Two reasons. First, per-lot COAs that test for heavy metals, microbials, and pesticides — not just CBD potency. Second, the dosing is honest. The 25mg gummy is actually 25mg in the lab — which sounds basic until you read the melatonin study above. I have direct knowledge of who runs their manufacturing and the audit process. It’s real.
Flavor is fine. Texture is right. The point isn’t that it’s the tastiest gummy — it’s that you’re not eating something else.
My gummy pick: https://track.flexlinkspro.com/g.ashx?foid=156074.10393.2102752&trid=1476186.213856&foc=16&fot=9999&fos=6
If you want variety
Diamond CBD’s Build Your Own Bundle lets you mix gummies, oils, and topicals at a bundle discount, stacked with their new-customer 50% off. Quality isn’t cbdMD-tier on sourcing transparency but it’s defensible for trying multiple categories cheap.
Diamond CBD bundle: https://track.flexlinkspro.com/g.ashx?foid=24.212261.6666623&trid=1476186.212261&foc=16&fot=9999&fos=6
Or new-customer 50% off on a single product: https://track.flexlinkspro.com/g.ashx?foid=24.212261.6658000&trid=1476186.212261&foc=16&fot=9999&fos=6
The skip
“Sleep + stress + immunity” multi-active gummies. Five effective doses don’t physically fit in one piece of candy. Brands solve this by dosing each ingredient sub-therapeutically. You’re eating expensive sugar with marketing copy.
Also: if a gummy tastes incredible, be suspicious. Good ones taste between fine and okay. Sugar masks bad ingredients.
Three small wins
First, check the QR code on every supplement bottle you own. No per-lot COA? Replace next time.
Second, read the supplement facts panel, not the front. Front is marketing. The panel is FDA-regulated.
Third, new to CBD gummies? Start at 25mg. Cut a gummy in half if 25mg feels like a lot. Hold for 10 days before adjusting.
One thing I get asked
“Gummies or capsules?”
Capsules, almost always. Gummies have to fight three constraints capsules don’t — bioavailability in a sugar matrix, dose ceiling (you can’t fit much in a candy), and stability (some actives degrade in the heat used to make gummies). Use gummies for adherence — the ones you’ll actually take — and capsules for everything that needs a real dose.
Next Sunday
The supplement I’d take if I were starting over with $50 to spend. (Hint: it’s not in the wellness aisle.)
— Dan