Be careful: “Corona marketing” for food supplements is becoming popular

Due to the corona crisis, demand for food supplements is increasing. The global crisis is raising awareness about the importance of health – more effectively than ever. Even people that usually spend a lot time inside suddenly miss being outside to breath fresh air. Unfortunately, some companies see the current situation as an opportunity to advertise their products, counterfeit and fake products among them, to increase their profits. In some cases they spread misleading and false information.

Would you trust a company that exploits corona as a marketing tool?

Here are a few things you should be aware of if you want to buy food supplements. You will also find some important links and tips on what you can do:

1. Food supplements do NOT protect against
virus infection!

They are certainly NOT a cure for the disease triggered by COVID-19! There are some supplements that can support the immune system and the immune defense or have an antibacterial and “internally disinfecting” effect. Symptoms such as fever can also be alleviated by natural means, such as feverfew.

BUT: The corona virus is a completely new virus and there is NO data on how effective these natural or synthetic remedies are in defending and alleviating symptoms caused by the corona virus. There is NO known drug that can protect against an infection or cure the disease caused by the virus!

What you can do to protect yourself and others as best you can, you can read for example here.

2. There are NO studies that show efficacy
against COVID-19!

The studies on the new coronavirus that have already been carried out have so far not focused on any food supplements, but on the priorities of the global crisis. They investigate questions such as

  • Who belongs to the risk group?
  • How does the virus spread?
  • How contagious is it?

So if a manufacturer or seller of dietary supplements claims that the efficacy of his product has been verified by “studies”, he most likely is NOT talking about studies on the coronavirus. At best he is talking about studies on other viruses.

Furthermore: Whoever talks about “studies” but does not mention or link to any of these “studies” does not have much to say… ALWAYS be careful here!

3. If you come across a post on Instagram or Facebook, for example, which advertises a product using the keyword corona or the hashtag #corona, you should report it, as it is not only misleading but also ILLEGAL in many countries to exploit corona as a marketing-tool. The Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture in Germany for example clearly states:

Health-related advertising such as “protects against viruses” is prohibited.

Every single one of us who reports such a post makes sure that manufacturers and sellers like these are blocked. And more importantly: You might help people who don’t know as well as you do by preventing them from falling for a corona advertisement. You’re helping the global community to sort out products that are potentially harmful to our health and protect others from consuming dangerous supplements.

4. Especially with high-dose products,
as before, caution is advised!

Especially when they are aggressively advertised in a sales-promoting manner – as by means of “corona marketing”. Too high a dose can be harmful to health even with the apparently harmless natural supplements!

An example: Ginkgo biloba.
Ginkgo is not just ginkgo. The advertising claims about the drug ginkgo, which is used for example in dementia, cannot simply be transferred to any dietary supplement containing ginkgo. The ginkgo extracts in dietary supplements are not standardized and can differ considerably from one another. Positive effects on concentration and memory performance have NOT been proven for individual dietary supplements. They have only been proven for the drug ginkgo. Side effects such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and allergic skin rashes are possible. High doses of ginkgo acids are also potentially cell-damaging and mutagenic. The vitamin B6 antagonist 4-methoxypyridoxine can lead to symptoms of poisoning, especially in children, if consumed in excess. An increased risk of bleeding is also a consequence of taking higher doses of the preparation.

Products from other countries that can be ordered online (e.g. on ebay) do not always meet the guidelines or adhere to limits that we have here in Switzerland or Germany. In Switzerland, products can be tested by the Swiss Quality Testing Services (SQTS), for example. But not all countries have service providers like SQTS.

Golisan feverfew extract is controlled by Swiss Quality Testing Services (SQTS).

Golisan feverfew extract is controlled by Swiss Quality Testing Services (SQTS).

In Switzerland, manufacturers can avoid the strict controls by trustworthy service providers such as SQTS, because unlike with medicine, the regulations for food supplements are much looser. This can lead to the fact that natural food supplements are sometimes more dangerous than medicines with similar effects.

You can tell by the SQTS seal on the product packaging whether a food supplement has been tested and meets the highest possible Swiss quality standards. It is then “trustworthy” – one of the marketing trend words next to “100% natural, herbal & vegan”. Without appropriate seals and labels, these are just empty words that serve as profit-enhancing marketing tricks. Here too, caution and research are called for.

Research tip: Search the internet for the advantages and disadvantages of an active ingredient AND compare the online product you want to buy with other products sold in pharmacies: What is the active ingredient’s content of the official supplement from the pharmacy? – If the online product has a much higher content and there seem to be health disadvantages, you should look for a less high-dose product with proper certification, of course.

Back to the gingko example from above: The drugs from the pharmacy contain e.g. 150 mg ginkgo biloba. On Amazon you will find supplements with a daily dose of 2000 mg (!).

5. Food supplements are still no substitute
for a healthy, balanced diet!

Especially multi-vitamin preparations, which increased in popularity due to corona, can also be harmful! They often contain twice or even three times the recommended daily allowance of all vitamins and minerals or certain combinations.

Synthetic vitamins, as in most dietary supplements, are not at all like natural vitamins either: It is almost impossible to eat so much fruit and vegetables that a vitamin overdose occurs. By contrast, the regular intake of synthetic vitamins in very high doses can even lead to a dangerous vitamin overdose in the worst case.

You should therefore find out exactly which vitamins and minerals you urgently need and choose a less aggressive dietary supplement that can specifically cover a certain vitamin or mineral requirement.

Quarantine Tip: We all stay at home as often as possible and many get creative. Have you ever thought about a small garden or a useful houseplant? More than just the classic pot of basil? The quarantine period is an opportunity to get detailed information and take some seeds with you when you go shopping next time. Radishes, for example, can be planted from April onwards. You can also grow chillies indoors or mushrooms in the cellar or garden. Once you get into the habit of plant care, it will be much easier for you to take care of a small garden in addition to your daily work. Train your green thumb now that you have the time to, it will be much easier for you! And you can eat even healthier.

Work-life-balance is hard quest if you are not used to working at home. What do you do to be productive in your home office? Do you drink more coffee than usual? Leave a comment below. We are looking forward to answering you soon!

Work-life-balance can be a really hard quest if you are not used to working at home. What do you do to be productive in your home office? Do you drink more coffee than usual? Leave us a comment below. We are looking forward to answering to you soon!

6. Other products are also aggressively advertised
with corona hashtags

…from sweaters and socks to handmade Disney articles on Etsy – there, for example, products relating to the corona virus have already been removed. The major marketplaces Amazon and Ebay are also taking action against the corona traders. Amazon has already blocked and deleted tens of thousands of corona articles and sellers, taking advantage of the uncertainty of customers and advertising their products with usurious prices.

Everybody has to know for himself if he wants to support a company that does “corona marketing”… But for me it is clear what kind of company I am dealing with. This is an absolute No Go.

With this contribution Golisan distances itself from manufacturers and sellers who take advantage of the crisis to increase their profit, because the health of each individual is important to us.

What can YOU do?

Keep your eyes open and report articles or posts that exploit the corona virus for marketing and advertising. Inform others about the risks or send this blog entry to give them the relevant information! You are very welcome to share this blog post on your social media to help spread this very important information and to help raise awareness.

More security for Golisan products with iVault

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“Protect what’s yours.” is the motto of ivault.

In this blog article, we explain how Golisan and ivault work together and what it will bring to every single buyer of our products –no matter whether you have been using our herbal extracts for a long time or are still looking for convincing reasons to try them out.

In the past few weeks, ivault has built a custom Blockchain solution to protect our supply chain. With the help of the ivault app developed by the pioneer company, absolutely anyone can now easily check whether a purchased product, such as Golisan saffron extract, is an original or a perhaps even health-endangering counterfeit product.

1. What is ivault?

On their website you can read the following:

ivault is solving the world’s security challenges with state-of-the-art fraud protection powered by a ground-breaking technology: The Blockchain. We built an easy to use platform for registering and identifying assets of any kind, with the highest level of cybersecurity possible.

We help businesses secure their supply chain and protect their products from counterfeit and plagiarism. In addition, companies can also track and manage their complete product life cycles easily through our application.”

2. Why do we use ivault?

In a nutshell, ivault takes supply chain management to an unprecedented level of security, making our herbal extracts 100% counterfeit-proof.

In the last blog post we informed about 3 facts and the 3 labels printed on the packaging, which account for the quality of Golisan herbal extract drops. Unfortunately, it is especially the valuable saffron – but also the real Ceylon cinnamon – that is one of the most susceptible to forgery. We cannot (yet) change this situation.

On the other side, saffron is certainly one of the most powerful plants on this planet. You should therefore not have to do without high-quality saffron products such as our Golisan saffron extract.

The safety of our products is very important to us – safety, as offered by the ivault Blockchain, when it comes to protecting the supply chain of companies with an innovative anti-counterfeiting solution using Blockchain technology. Thanks to this technology not only Golisan saffron extract drops, but also all other extract drops in our product range are absolutely counterfeit-proof.

The reason why we want to use ivault becomes even clearer, when we consider that, in the worst case, counterfeit products such as fake medication can have fatal consequences. The regulations concerning the production and testing of nutritional or dietary supplements as well as herbal extracts are, however, considerably lower than the corresponding regulations in the medical sector. This makes the herbs and spices market particularly attractive to counterfeiters, as they are much more likely to get away with their stings than in the more strictly controlled pharmaceutical sector.

However, ivault now makes it possible – for both the pharmaceutical industry as well as the food industry – to detect counterfeits and illegal activities in the shortest possible time and take action against them before they cause major damage.

We use ivault to guarantee even greater security for our products.

3. How does ivault work for you?

iVault itself has already revealed many details about the functionality of the blockchain and web application ivault.app:

Step by step, the way you will benefit from it looks like this:

  1. The product is manufactured: The manufacturing process has several steps. For example, one of the important components of Golisan extract drops is a special Swiss mineral water that is added to our well-known vials. It is important that with each of these steps, such as adding the water, all relevant data is stored in the blockchain – by us and our partner companies involved in the production process. Once information is entered, it can no longer be manipulated because it is stored on a decentralized server. Counterfeiters obviously have a hard time in infiltrating counterfeit products into the supply chain. It would immediately attract attention.
  2. You would like to buy our product Golisan saffron extract, but you have just heard about another saffron scandal in which counterfeit products were sold without even the producer knowing. You can order the Golisan saffron drops worry-free and without hesitation. You can then download the iVault app application free of charge or register via the ivault.app web application very easily.
  3. Meanwhile, at the end of the manufacturing process, a QR code is printed on the packaging before it leaves our premises and is sent to Amazon. This QR code is of utmost importance for you when using the online application ivault.app.
  4. An Amazon pack of our Golisan saffron extract arrives at your door. On the package you will find the QR code, which you can scan immediately with the iVault app on your smartphone. The app tells you first and foremost whether it is an original product or whether it could be a counterfeit. In the first case, after scanning you will see the information “Product is genuine” as displayed in the screenshot below.ivault.app Funktionsweise für Golisan
  5. After this relief, all data concerning your product can be viewed: What exactly are the ingredients and where do they come from? Since Golisan products, unlike medicines, have no side effects (unless you are allergic), we do not include a leaflet with the packs. However, you can still find out everything you want to know about them in the iVault app. In addition, it is conceivable that we will be offering many more interesting articles and information about the app in the future, such as the example above with information on how to easily identify saffron counterfeits.

What do you think of the benefits iVault offers? Would you use the iVault app? Leave us a comment or ask questions. We look forward to answering your questions.

3 facts about Golisan extract drops

This entry gives you a brief overview of the 3 things you need to know about Golisan products. It’s about the simple question: What makes Golisan extract drops high quality products?

  1. Golisan products are 100% vegan and are produced with high-quality raw materials from trustworthy cultivation.
  2. Our products comply with the GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) certification standard.
  3. Golisan products are strictly controlled in Switzerland and certified by ivault verified.

1. 100 % plant-based

Many natural remedies or dietary supplements do not meet any vegetarian or vegan standards. For us it is crucial to offer vegetarian dietary supplements that can be ethically and morally supported.

Golisan extracts are 100% plant-based. We only use high-quality plants, such as genuine Ceylon cinnamon or original saffron, that come from trustworthy agriculture. All 6 vegan Golisan products offered in our shop are labelled accordingly, see for example, Golisan saffron drops or Golisan ginger drops drops.

In addition, our products contain no artificial additives, caffeine or other stimulants. Golisan drops are delivered in a dark glass bottle, which protects the ingredients from light and keeps them fresh.

We want to make something we would buy ourselves. So we can definitely say, we are living the change we want to see in this industry.

 

2. GMP certificate

The GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) label guarantees our customers that Golisan products comply with the guidelines recommended by authorities that control the approval and licensing of manufacture and sale. It is awarded for food and beverages, cosmetics, pharmaceutical products, dietary supplements, such as our Golisan drops, and medical devices.

It plays a central role as quality deviations can have negative effects on health. Therefore you should always pay attention to this label on the products you use.

 

3. Swiss mentality and the ivault verified Label

The distribution of products from Switzerland is an essential part of our corporate philosophy, that is inspired by the Swiss nature we live in. Our products are strictly controlled in Switzerland and certified by ivault verified.

Thus, products such as our Golisan saffron drops benefit from quality testing and the highest product safety possible to date. They are also assessed for compliance with current legislation. This is a huge advantage for our customers, because with this label you can be sure that you are buying a high quality product – and not a fake product!

These 3 labels should show you that Golisan herbal drops are trustworthy and healthy.

Would you like to know more about the labels or our products in detail? If so, leave a comment below and let us know. We look forward to answering you as soon as possible.

In the next blog article, we will discuss the new label on Golisan products: ivault verified by Vault Security Systems AG.  With a tailored blockchain supply chain solution their a new and innovative product helps us to fight counterfeit and fake products and provide product safety and supply chain transparency.