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Solgar® Food Supplements in Georgia, Public Health Institute of Georgia (PHIG)Position Statement

Solgar

Date: 24 November 2025

Status: Expert public-health opinion based on publicly available evidence

1. Mandate and scope of this statement

The Public Health Institute of Georgia (PHIG) is an independent, non-commercial public-health organization whose core mandate is to protect population health, promote evidence-based practice, and support Georgian authorities and consumers in making informed decisions about health products. This includes informing the public through platforms such as SheniEkimi.ge, SheniAmbebi.ge and Supplement.ge.

This statement sets out why PHIG does not recommend the use of Solgar® food supplements in Georgia at this time, and why PHIG considers Solgar to be a high-risk brand from a public-health perspective, particularly when marketed through mass media and major pharmacy chains.

This is not a ban and does not substitute for the powers of national regulators (National Food Agency, State Regulation Agency for Medical Activities, Competition and Consumer Agency, and the Georgian National Communications Commission – GNCC). It is an independent expert risk assessment intended to guide:

  • Consumers
  • Healthcare professionals
  • Georgian regulators
  • Distributors and retailers (including PSP Pharma as Solgar’s official Georgian distributor)

2. Corporate structure: Solgar as part of Nestlé Health Science

Solgar is widely marketed as a “premium” brand of vitamins and supplements founded in 1947 and “The Gold Standard in Vitamins.”[1,2] However, Solgar is not an independent small scientific company:

  • Solgar is one of several brands of The Bountiful Company, a large U.S. dietary supplement conglomerate.[3]
  • In 2021, Nestlé Health Science, a division of Nestlé, acquired the “core brands” of The Bountiful Company, explicitly including Solgar.[4,5]

Therefore, Solgar is now part of the Nestlé corporate group. This context matters because Nestlé has a long history of high-profile controversies in nutrition-related products:

  • Systematic exposure of violations of the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes by multiple companies, including Nestlé, has been documented in a global scoping review.[6]
  • Nestlé has itself published a report responding to 169 allegations of non-compliance with the Code, acknowledging the need to investigate alleged violations.[7]
  • In 2024–2025, a French Senate inquiry and multiple media reports revealed that Nestlé Waters used unauthorized filtration treatments on “natural mineral water” brands such as Perrier, Vittel, Hépar and Contrex, contrary to EU rules that prohibit such treatment for water sold as “natural mineral water” or “spring water.” Nestlé acknowledged the violations and paid a €2 million fine, and the scandal is now the subject of a criminal investigation in France.[8–11]

These documented patterns of aggressive marketing and regulatory non-compliance in other product lines are highly relevant for assessing the credibility of Solgar’s self-presented image as “The Gold Standard in Vitamins.”[1,2,12–14]

3. Documented serious safety incidents involving Solgar products

3.1. ABC Dophilus® Powder: fatal gastrointestinal mucormycosis in a premature infant

In 2014, a Solgar product marketed specifically for infants, ABC Dophilus® Powder, was implicated in a fatal case of gastrointestinal mucormycosis in a premature infant in the United States:

  • The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported a case of fatal gastrointestinal mucormycosis in a premature infant in Connecticut, associated with a contaminated dietary supplement.[15] The corresponding MMWR report describes the case and investigation in detail.[15,16]
  • CDC’s investigation and the archived outbreak page explicitly link the fatal infection to Solgar ABC Dophilus® Powder, with contamination by Rhizopus oryzae, a mold known to cause mucormycosis.[16]
  • The U.S. FDA and international regulators reported that testing identified Rhizopus oryzae in 50 g containers of Solgar ABC Dophilus Powder and that the product could cause serious infections, particularly in premature infants, children and immunocompromised individuals.[16,17]
  • Solgar, Inc. initiated a Class I voluntary recall of specific lots of ABC Dophilus Powder worldwide due to this contamination.[16,17]

From a public-health and legal perspective, this incident shows a critical failure of manufacturing quality and sterility control in a product specifically marketed to the most vulnerable population (premature infants).

3.2. Salmonella-contaminated Digestive Aid tablets

Earlier, in 2001–2002, Solgar recalled “Digestive Aid 100 Tablets” because of suspected contamination with Salmonella:

  • The U.S. FDA announced that Solgar Vitamin and Herb was recalling more than 750 bottles of its Digestive Aid 100 Tablets because the product might contain Salmonella, which can cause severe gastroenteritis and typhoid-like illness.[18]
  • Reports noted that the recalled products had been distributed in the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Israel, demonstrating the international scope of risk.[18,19]

These two events, in different decades and involving different contaminants (a dangerous mold and Salmonella), indicate systemic quality-control vulnerabilities in Solgar’s manufacturing and supply chain.

PHIG considers this pattern sufficient to classify Solgar as a high-risk brand in terms of microbiological safety, especially when its products are targeted at infants, pregnant women and chronically ill patients and advertised to Georgian consumers via platforms and pharmacies.

4. Marketing claims: “The Gold Standard” and “research centers” without transparent evidence

4.1. “The Gold Standard in Vitamins”

Solgar’s official brand pages and numerous retailers consistently use the slogan:

“When it comes to quality, Solgar is The Gold Standard.”[1,2,12–14,20–22]

For example:

  • The official UK site presents Solgar as “The Gold Standard In Vitamins Since 1947.”[2]
  • Multiple retailers (pharmacies and online stores) repeat that “When it comes to quality, Solgar is The Gold Standard” and describe Solgar as “the gold standard in vitamins since 1947.”[12,14,20–22]

Important legal and scientific clarifications:

  • “Gold Standard” is a marketing slogan, not a recognized certification. There is no evidence that Solgar has been designated a “gold standard” by an independent regulatory authority (FDA, EMA, EFSA) or by a recognised standards body.
  • There is no publicly available body of product-specific randomized controlled trials demonstrating that Solgar products are clinically superior in efficacy or safety to comparable alternatives.

Under the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s Health Products Compliance Guidance, health-related claims about efficacy or safety must be supported by “competent and reliable scientific evidence.”[23,24] Broad superiority claims (e.g. “Gold Standard in Vitamins”) risk being misleading if they are not backed by such evidence.

4.2. “Solgar Nutritional Research Center” / “Solgar Besin Araştırma Merkezi”

Solgar and its distributors frequently refer to a “Solgar Nutritional Research Center (SNRC)” founded in 1978:

  • The Turkish Solgar site’s “Altın Standart” page states that, “with this logic, in 1978 the Solgar Nutritional Research Center (SNRC) was established.”[25]
  • Industry texts and personal profiles refer to researchers working “at the Solgar Nutritional Research Center” on issues such as fats and chronic disease.[26–28]

However:

  • There is no clear independent institutional website or public registry detailing the legal status, governance, or accreditation of this “center.”
  • There is no accessible, comprehensive list of peer-reviewed clinical trials explicitly carried out by the SNRC on identifiable Solgar formulations in major scientific databases.

PHIG therefore considers the “research center” narrative to be insufficiently transparent and potentially misleading, especially when used to imply that Solgar products are backed by a robust, independent research infrastructure comparable to a university or public research institute.

For legal precision, PHIG does not claim that the SNRC “does not exist.” Rather, PHIG states that its structure, governance and scientific output are opaque and inadequately documented by internationally accepted standards of scientific transparency.

5. Georgian market context: PSP Pharma and aggressive supplement marketing

Solgar itself lists PSP Pharma as its partner in Georgia on the official “Worldwide” page, giving PSP’s Tbilisi address as its Georgian contact.[3] PSP promotes Solgar under a dedicated brand section on the PSP website as a food supplement line for multiple health indications.[29]

PSP is one of the largest pharmacy chains and advertisers in Georgia, and has introduced multiple foreign health and cosmetic brands to the market.[30] This gives PSP, as Solgar’s official distributor, significant influence on how Solgar is perceived by Georgian consumers.

At the same time:

  • The Georgian Law on Advertising aims to protect public interests and consumers’ rights and to prevent “improper advertising.”[31]
  • The Georgian National Communications Commission (ComCom) is mandated to regulate broadcasting and to protect the public from covert or misleading commercial communication.[32,33]
  • ComCom and expert partners have highlighted that covert advertising (“surreptitious advertising”) is widespread in Georgian TV space and that content disguised as editorial can mislead audiences.[34,35] In 2025, ComCom formally cautioned broadcaster BMG for product placement rule violations because the commercial nature of content was not clearly indicated.[36]

PHIG is concerned that Solgar marketing in Georgia – driven by a powerful pharmacy chain and using “Gold Standard” language – may exploit the same systemic weaknesses: insufficient separation of editorial content and advertising, and limited scientific scrutiny of the claims used to sell supplements to the public.

For the Georgian public, evidence-based information and independent analysis on supplements will continue to be provided via SheniEkimi.ge, SheniAmbebi.ge and Supplement.ge.

6. Regulatory framework and the precautionary principle

Under Georgian and international law, several key principles support a cautious stance toward Solgar:

  1. Right to health and safe products
    Georgian citizens have the right to safe food and health products, and to clear, non-misleading information about them, under national law and EU-aligned food-safety and consumer-protection standards.
  2. Prohibition of misleading and unsubstantiated health claims
    In the EU and many other jurisdictions, food and supplement claims must be truthful, not misleading and supported by appropriate scientific evidence. The FTC’s health-product guidance explicitly requires “competent and reliable scientific evidence” for health benefit and safety claims.[23,24]
  3. Precautionary principle
    When there are reasonable grounds for concern about possible harms to health, even if full scientific certainty is not yet available, public-health bodies may act to prevent or minimize risk.

Applying these principles to Solgar:

  • There are documented serious contamination events (Rhizopus-contaminated ABC Dophilus Powder associated with a fatal infant mucormycosis case; Salmonella contamination leading to Digestive Aid recalls).[15–19]
  • There are strong marketing slogans claiming “The Gold Standard in Vitamins” that are not supported by transparent clinical evidence of superiority.[1,2,12–14,20–22]
  • There is an opaque research narrative around the Solgar Nutritional Research Center, without clear, independently verifiable documentation of its clinical research outputs.[25–28]
  • The parent company, Nestlé, has a documented track record of regulatory violations and consumer deception in other nutrition-related products (breast-milk substitutes; bottled water marketed as “natural mineral water” despite illegal treatments).[6–11]

Taken together, this body of evidence justifies application of the precautionary principle by an independent public-health institute such as PHIG.

7. PHIG’s official position on Solgar in Georgia

7.1. Non-recommendation of Solgar products

Based on the evidence available as of 24 November 2025, PHIG does not recommend the use of Solgar® food supplements in Georgia for:

  • the general population,
  • pregnant or breastfeeding women,
  • children (including infants),
  • patients with chronic conditions or weakened immunity.

This non-recommendation is based on:

  • Documented past serious contamination events linked to Solgar products;[15–19]
  • The absence of transparent, product-specific clinical evidence demonstrating superior efficacy or safety that would justify the “Gold Standard” branding;[1,2,12–14,20–22]
  • The opaque nature of Solgar’s so-called research centers and the lack of accessible peer-reviewed clinical data from them;[25–28]
  • The risk profile of the parent company Nestlé, including recent findings of illegal bottled-water treatments and long-standing controversies over infant-formula marketing.[6–11]

7.2. Warning regarding marketing and claims in Georgia

PHIG considers that:

  • Use of slogans such as “The Gold Standard in Vitamins” in Georgian advertising (television, online, social media) may mislead consumers into believing that Solgar products have been independently certified as superior or uniquely safe, which is not supported by publicly available evidence.[1,2,12–14,20–22]
  • Any advertising, sponsorship or product placement of Solgar in Georgia must strictly comply with:
    • The Law of Georgia on Advertising, which aims to prevent improper advertising and protect consumers;[31]
    • Relevant provisions of Georgian consumer-protection and food-safety law on truthful, non-misleading information;
    • GNCC and related regulatory guidance prohibiting covert or surreptitious advertising and requiring clear separation between editorial content and commercial communication.[32–36]

PHIG urges regulators to scrutinize Solgar-related content in broadcast and online media, especially where the brand is presented as a “gold standard” or “clinically proven” without clearly referenced, high-quality scientific studies.

7.3. Obligations of the official distributor (PSP Pharma)

As the official distributor of Solgar in Georgia,[3,29] PSP Pharma has a heightened responsibility to:

  • Provide regulators, and where feasible the public, with independent quality and safety documentation (e.g. Certificates of Analysis from accredited laboratories, GMP certificates, contaminant test results) for Solgar products sold in Georgia;
  • Ensure that all promotional materials comply with Georgian and international standards on health-product advertising, refraining from unsubstantiated therapeutic claims or exaggerated superiority slogans;
  • Refrain from any covert advertising or inappropriate product placement in collaboration with media outlets, in line with GNCC decisions and EU-aligned guidance on surreptitious advertising.[34–36]

As of this statement, PHIG is not aware of any comprehensive, independent dossier that demonstrates Solgar’s superior safety or efficacy across its product line and is publicly available in Georgia.

7.4. Clinical use and professional responsibility

PHIG recommends that Georgian healthcare professionals:

  • Avoid prescribing or recommending Solgar products when safer, better-documented alternatives exist, particularly for vulnerable groups (infants, pregnant women, immunocompromised patients);
  • Inform patients that Solgar’s “Gold Standard” status is self-declared marketing, not a regulatory or scientific designation;
  • Report any suspected adverse events associated with Solgar products to national pharmacovigilance and food-safety authorities.

8. Recommendations to Georgian regulators

8.1. National Food Agency and health regulators

  • Review the registration and monitoring status of Solgar products sold as food supplements in Georgia, with particular attention to microbiological and chemical contaminant testing.
  • Consider targeted sampling and independent laboratory testing of Solgar products on the Georgian market, in light of previous international recalls for Rhizopus and Salmonella contamination.[15–19]

8.2. Competition and Consumer Agency

  • Examine whether Solgar-related advertising claims (e.g. “Gold Standard in Vitamins”, “most effective”, “clinically proven”) meet the standard of truthful, non-misleading commercial communication.
  • Issue guidance or take enforcement action as needed to prevent exaggerated or scientifically unsupported health claims in the supplement sector.

8.3. Georgian National Communications Commission (GNCC)

  • Continue and intensify monitoring of covert advertising and product placement involving food supplements and pharmaceutical-adjacent products, including Solgar;[34–36]
  • Ensure that TV and online content involving Solgar is clearly identified as advertising or sponsorship where relevant, and does not present promotional content as neutral editorial material.

9. Legal robustness of PHIG’s position

PHIG’s non-recommendation of Solgar is grounded in:

  • Documented, verifiable facts from official sources (CDC, FDA-related notices, international regulators, legislative texts, and recognized media coverage of Nestlé’s conduct);[3,6–11,15–19,31–36]
  • Publicly available marketing materials produced by Solgar, its distributors and retailers, which are cited directly;[1–5,12–14,20–22,25,29]
  • Widely accepted legal and ethical standards for the marketing of health products, including the FTC’s requirement for competent and reliable scientific evidence for health claims.[23,24]

PHIG does not allege that every Solgar product currently on the Georgian market is contaminated or illegal, nor that Solgar has been formally banned by Georgian regulators. Instead, PHIG states – based on the precautionary principle and the weight of available evidence – that:

Solgar’s historical safety failures, aggressive and potentially misleading marketing claims, opaque research narrative, and association with a parent company with documented nutrition-related controversies together justify a clear, public non-recommendation for the Georgian population, until substantially stronger, independently verifiable evidence of safety, quality and transparency is made available.

This is a protected expert opinion on matters of public health, expressed in good faith and based on sources that can be independently verified.

Sources:

  1. Solgar. About Solgar – The Gold Standard In Vitamins Since 1947 [Internet]. Solgar UK; c2022 [cited 2025 Nov 24]. Available from: https://solgar.co.uk/pages/about-solgar
  2. Solgar. 75 Years as the Gold Standard in Vitamins [Internet]. 22 Jun 2022 [cited 2025 Nov 24]. Available from: https://www.solgar.com/blog/lifestyle/75-year-anniversary
  3. Solgar. Worldwide – Explore Solgar® Global Presence [Internet]. c2024 [cited 2025 Nov 24]. Available from: https://www.solgar.com/worldwide
  4. Nestlé. Nestlé Health Science to acquire core brands of The Bountiful Company [Internet]. 2021 [cited 2025 Nov 24]. Available from: https://www.nestle.com/media/pressreleases/…
  5. Nestlé Health Science. Nestlé Health Science completes acquisition of core brands of The Bountiful Company [Internet]. 2021 [cited 2025 Nov 24]. Available from: https://www.nestlehealthscience.com/newsroom/…
  6. Becker GE, Zambrano P, Ching C, et al. Global evidence of persistent violations of the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes: a systematic scoping review. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022;19(9):5397. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9113471/
  7. Nestlé. Responses to IBFAN Report “Breaking the Rules – Stretching the Rules 2007” [Internet]. 18 Feb 2009 [cited 2025 Nov 24]. Available from: https://www.nestle.com/…/responses_to_ibfan_report_2007.pdf
  8. Euronews. French government covered up Nestlé’s illegal treatment of bottled water, inquiry finds [Internet]. 19 May 2025 [cited 2025 Nov 24]. Available from: https://www.euronews.com/…/french-government-covered-up-nestles-illegal-treatment…
  9. Associated Press. An inquiry says France’s government covered up Nestlé’s illegal treatment of bottled water [Internet]. 19 May 2025 [cited 2025 Nov 24]. Available from: https://apnews.com/article/ec05af578d705a6f06d5df99ae1e85c8
  10. Le Monde. Nestlé’s fraud allegedly netted the industry giant over €500 million [Internet]. 20 May 2025 [cited 2025 Nov 24]. Available from: https://www.lemonde.fr/en/environment/article/2025/05/20/nestle-s-fraud…
  11. Reuters. Is Perrier “natural” mineral water? French court to decide [Internet]. 18 Nov 2025 [cited 2025 Nov 24]. Available from: https://www.reuters.com/business/is-perrier-natural-mineral-water…
  12. Nirvana Health. Solgar [Internet]. c2024 [cited 2025 Nov 24]. Available from: https://www.nirvanahealthfood.com/solgar
  13. Pearl Chemist Group. Solgar Supplements Online in the UK [Internet]. c2024 [cited 2025 Nov 24]. Available from: https://www.pearlchemistgroup.co.uk/brands/solgar.html
  14. Cloud 10 Beauty. Solgar is the gold standard in vitamins since 1947 [Internet]. c2024 [cited 2025 Nov 24]. Available from: https://www.cloud10beauty.com/collections/solgar
  15. Vallabhaneni S, Walker TA, Lockhart SR, et al. Notes from the field: Fatal gastrointestinal mucormycosis in a premature infant associated with a contaminated dietary supplement—Connecticut, 2014. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2015;64(6):155–6. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6406a6.htm
  16. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fatal Gastrointestinal Mucormycosis in an Infant Following Use of Contaminated Dietary Supplement [Internet]. 2015 [cited 2025 Nov 24]. Available from: https://archive.cdc.gov/www_cdc_gov/fungal/outbreaks/rhizopus-investigation.html
  17. Drug Office, Department of Health, Hong Kong SAR. The United States: ABC Dophilus Powder by Solgar, Inc.: Recall – Risk of Infection [Internet]. 18 Nov 2014 [cited 2025 Nov 24]. Available from: https://www.drugoffice.gov.hk/…/ABC%2BDophilus%2BPowder…
  18. SupplySide. Solgar recalls supplement because of suspected Salmonella contamination. SupplySide [Internet]. 2001 Apr 27 [cited 2025 Nov 24]. Available from: https://www.supplysidesj.com/…/solgar-recalls-supplement-because-of-suspected-salmonella-contamination
  19. ConsumerLab. Recall of Pepsin-containing Digestive Supplements [Internet]. 18 Jan 2002 [cited 2025 Nov 24]. Available from: https://www.consumerlab.com/recalls/10005/recall-of-pepsin-containing-digestive-supplements/
  20. Federal Trade Commission. Health Products Compliance Guidance [Internet]. 14 Dec 2017 [cited 2025 Nov 24]. Available from: https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/health-products-compliance-guidance
  21. Covington & Burling LLP. FTC issues new guidance on health-related claims to replace the dietary supplements advertising guide [Internet]. 5 Jan 2023 [cited 2025 Nov 24]. Available from: https://www.cov.com/…/ftc-issues-new-guidance-on-health-related-claims…
  22. Solgar Türkiye. Altın Standart [Internet]. c2024 [cited 2025 Nov 24]. Available from: https://solgar.com.tr/kurumsal/altin-standarti
  23. Enig MG. Interview and commentary in: Know Your Fats [Internet]. 2000 [cited 2025 Nov 24]. Excerpt referencing Solgar Nutritional Research Center. Available from: https://ndl.ethernet.edu.et/bitstream/123456789/17953/1/98.pdf.pdf
  24. Passwater RA. The New Super-Nutrition [Internet]. c2010 [cited 2025 Nov 24]. Excerpts available from: https://www.everand.com/book/224757686/The-New-Super-Nutrition
  25. ISOM. Richard Passwater – Profile [Internet]. 2023 [cited 2025 Nov 24]. Available from: https://isom.ca/profile/richard-passwater/
  26. PSP. Solgar – სოლგარი [Internet]. c2024 [cited 2025 Nov 24]. Available from: https://psp.ge/brand/solgar
  27. Global Idea. PSP serving customers with top-notch products and services for over 30 years [Internet]. 15 Jun 2024 [cited 2025 Nov 24]. Available from: https://globalidea.ge/psp-serving-customers-with-top-notch-products-and-services-for-over-30-years/
  28. Parliament of Georgia. Law of Georgia on Advertising [Internet]. 1998 (as amended) [cited 2025 Nov 24]. English text available from: https://assets.tobaccocontrollaws.org/…/Georgia-Law-on-Advertising.pdf
  29. European Commission. Georgia 2023 Report [Internet]. 8 Nov 2023 [cited 2025 Nov 24]. Available from: https://enlargement.ec.europa.eu/…/SWD_2023_697%20Georgia%20report.pdf
  30. Media Development Foundation. Surreptitious Advertising [Internet]. 12 Oct 2011 [cited 2025 Nov 24]. Available from: https://mdfgeorgia.ge/uploads//Surreptitious_Advertising-ENG.pdf
  31. Georgian National Communications Commission (ComCom). EU media expert: “Harmful practice of covert advertising is widespread in Georgian TV space” [Internet]. 30 Apr 2024 [cited 2025 Nov 24]. Available from: https://comcom.ge/en/yvela-siaxle/eu-media-expert-harmful-practice-of-covert-advertising…
  32. Georgian National Communications Commission (ComCom). ComCom cautions BMG for product placement violation [Internet]. 2 May 2025 [cited 2025 Nov 24]. Available from: https://www.comcom.ge/en/yvela-siaxle/comcom-cautions-bmg-for-product-placement-violation.page
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