supplement sourcing

 

OUR PHILOSOPHY

We continue to manage G&G with the same ethos instilled into it by our Founder, David Gaiman, back in 1965. A fundamental part of of that philosophy is simply this: make it right, or don’t make it at all. This means we make our products with integrity, favouring high quality and effective products over a quick buck. We will never make false claims about a product. We will never use marketing and gimmicks to mask a product’s shortfalls.

Most importantly, we will never release a product that is not, to the best of our knowledge, as good as it can possibly be. It’s not always the quickest, easiest or most profitable road to take, and indeed may be the one less travelled. It is, however, the one we set out on over fifty years ago, and we’ve never looked back.

 

HIGH QUALITY, NO COMPROMISE

The purity and sustainability of ingredients are of the utmost importance. If ingredients don’t meet these standards they will not be made. Sourcing good quality, non-GMO ingredients is a primary focus when formulating, and every ingredient we use comes to us with full traceability, right back to the soil or laboratory it was created in.

G&G focus on where raw materials come from, and investigate with extensive research and testing to verify ingredients are what they purport to be. Pathology, biotransformation, bioavailability, and interactions lead on to formulating the best complexes possible. We don’t just “make supplements”; we create them with care.

Staff at G&G have in-depth knowledge and experience of ingredients and how they respond to encapsulation, so can always find the best way to maintain a high quality and high purity without the need for excipients. There is no compromise in quality when sourcing ingredients, and at G&G we won’t settle for anything less than the best so that each stage of the manufacturing process is of the highest standard.

 

CAPSULES VS TABLETS

You may have noticed that we don’t do tablets. This is also a part of our ‘make it right’ philosophy. It’s cheaper and quicker to make tablets than encapsulated supplements, but those tablets have one significant drawback; they have to be stuck together – and then they have to taste good, dissolve at the right speed and be preserved from oxidative damage.

The result is often a list of twenty ingredients, and often these excipients and additives can cause undesirable effects, especially when it comes to gastrointestinal health. Tablets are poorly digested and absorbed, which compromises the full potential of the active ingredients.

Since our capsules don’t require excipients and binders, and we also avoid sweeteners and additives, our individual vitamin and mineral products contain just the one, pure ingredient, enabling effective absorption in the body.

In some cases where a formulation doesn’t quite fill the capsule up, we’ll mix in a little rice flour. This is a neutral and natural gluten-free filler that won’t affect the active ingredient levels.

plant based supplement capsules

 

PLANT BASED CAPSULES

The capsules that G&G use are made from either plant derived hydroxyl propyl methyl cellulose (HPMC) or vegetable pullulan. HPMC capsules are pH-independent, and so have delayed disintegration with enteric properties. This ensures a higher survival rate of active ingredients from the stomach acid, so they can be absorbed in the intestines.

HPMC capsules meet both religious and dietary exclusion standards, allowing them to be suitable across a broader range of people. The capabilities of creating unique and beneficial blends are diverse and flexible, even with small amounts of natural fillers like alfalfa or whole food powders. Meticulous encapsulation methods such as these give therapists confidence in a purer product for their patients.

 

OUR FACTORY

We manufacture our supplements in our very own ISO Class 8 cleanroom, based on-site at our headquarters in East Grinstead. The cleanroom has been designed to cater for the manufacturing of a diverse range of nutraceutical products for not only the G&G own brand products, but also our many contract customers, in keeping with their individual requirements.

We pride ourselves on our Class 8 cleanroom standards, which is one class higher than is necessary for supplement manufacture. Our cleaning procedures are so effective that when tested, our cleanroom in fact met air quality levels of an ISO Class 7 cleanroom. This is thanks to our effective air filtration system, which undergoes twenty complete air changes every hour.

Our semi-automatic encapsulation machines can produce over 3.5 million filled capsules per week, using our patented Trufil® technology. This process enables us to successfully encapsulate high-quality supplements without the inclusion of excipients and binders like magnesium stearate.

supplement manufacture

 

QUALITY

G&G has 4 HACCP (Hazard analysis and critical control point) trained staff members and a HACCP system in place to guarantee the safety of products. Part of this system includes testing incoming herbal ingredients before use for microbial contamination by an independent lab to ensure they are safe and fit for human consumption and do not contain harmful bacteria.

Ingredients are also checked for other criteria and only get released for production if they conform to all specified criteria. We have a strict quality control procedure in place with our Quality Inspectors performing regular QC checks along the production line to ensure complete compliance to the product specification and accepted quality standards. Capsules that do not meet the standards are rejected. Documentation of every batch is kept for complete traceability and products are only released after each passes rigorous quality checks.

 

CERTIFICATIONS

G&G are proud to be certified by the MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency), who validate our Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) procedures. In addition, G&G are members of the Health Food Manufacturer’s Association, and are certified by the Soil Association for the manufacture of organic products, the Vegetarian Society for the production of vegan and vegetarian products. G&G have also passed inspections from a number of private and government agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, Health Canada and Environmental Health.