Where supplement brands on iHerb are made, who owns them and who runs the factory

Country and owner: 14 brands in one table

Nearly every popular brand on iHerb is registered in the US. A US address and a US owner aren’t the same thing, though. Doctor’s Best belongs to China’s Kingdomway and Nature’s Way to Germany’s Schwabe Group. Solgar and Garden of Life are Nestlé brands, and since October 2026 Thorne has belonged to Procter & Gamble.

Each row combines what a company says about itself with deal details from press releases. “Not disclosed” means we couldn’t confirm the point from a public source.

Full reviews of the first five brands are linked in the table, and our criteria for comparing manufacturers are on the supplement brands page.

Is NOW Foods FDA approved?

No. Neither is Solgar, Thorne or any other supplement. Under the US supplements law (DSHEA), the FDA has no authority to approve supplements before they go on sale. Safety and an honest label are the maker’s and distributor’s job, and the FDA steps in once a product is on the market.

What does apply to everyone is the good manufacturing practice (GMP) rulebook, 21 CFR Part 111. It covers anyone who makes, packs, labels or holds supplements for the US market, imports included, and the FDA inspects those factories.

What US law gives you as a buyer:

• the bottle should contain the ingredient and amount on the label;
• the factory must control purity, composition and production conditions;
• the company must pass reports of serious adverse reactions on to the FDA.

What GMP doesn’t promise:

• that you need the supplement or that it will work;
• that an independent lab has tested every batch;
• that the dose stays within UK and EU safety limits.

A vitamin sold as “FDA approved” is a red flag, because that status doesn’t exist for supplements. Every supplement factory has to register with the FDA, and registration isn’t approval.

For UK shoppers these US rules still count. Most products on iHerb are made for the US market, so the factory that made them has to follow Part 111.

What “Made in USA” and the address on the bottle tell you

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) allows an unqualified “Made in USA” only when a product is “all or virtually all” made in the US, ingredients included. If some ingredients are imported, the label should say so, in the style of the FTC’s own example, “Made in USA of U.S. and imported parts”.

With supplements that’s routine. Nordic Naturals makes all its fish oil in Norway and fills the softgels in California. Life Extension openly says that 99% of its supplements are made in the US from ingredients sourced worldwide. A qualified “Made in USA” tells you where the product was made, but not which ingredients came from where.

Read the address on the label with the same care. If the brand didn’t make the product itself, US law requires wording such as “Manufactured for” or “Distributed by”. A company may also give its head office instead of the factory address. So a Californian address on the bottle doesn’t mean it was filled in California.

Try it on a sample: tap the lines on the back of this made-up bottle.

Own factory or contract manufacturer

A contract manufacturer makes products that are sold under someone else’s name. That’s how California Gold Nutrition works: iHerb vets the suppliers and factories but doesn’t name them. Even brands with their own plants have some lines made elsewhere. In 2024 NOW recalled two lots of phosphatidyl serine after the powder was unevenly mixed at a contract manufacturer (see our NOW Foods review).

Contract manufacturing isn’t a problem in itself. 21 CFR Part 111 applies equally to the contract plant and to the brand that only puts its label on the bottle. What differs is visibility: a company usually says more about its own factory, while with a contract product you only see the brand name. That’s where independent batch testing earns its keep.

iTested and other independent checks

iTested is iHerb’s own programme. Batches of products in it are tested for identity, purity, potency, microbes and heavy metals by independent US labs accredited to ISO/IEC 17025, and iHerb publishes the batch results. The badge appears only on products in the programme, mostly iHerb’s own brands such as California Gold Nutrition.

Since the retailer runs it, don’t confuse it with a USP or NSF seal, where an outside body that doesn’t sell the product does the checking. Nordic Naturals offers something similar: a certificate of analysis for your batch on its website, looked up by lot number. Life Extension provides a certificate for any product, but only if you ask.

How to check a brand before you order on iHerb

1. Find the brand in the table above: who owns it and whether it has its own factory.
2. Look at the back of the bottle in the product photos. “Manufactured for” or “Distributed by” means a contract maker.
3. Look for a USP, NSF or Informed Sport seal on the bottle itself, not on the brand’s website. The supplement brands page explains what each one covers.
4. For fish oil and iTested products, open the report for your lot number.
5. Check the form and dose in the Supplement Facts panel with our guide on how to read a supplement label.
6. Keep the bottle with its lot number until you finish it, so you can check if that batch is ever recalled.