Can consumers assume that a USP-verified supplement is effective?
USP’s Verification Program will not accept a dietary supplement into its program if it does not have the proper performance characteristics (e.g. dissolution or disintegration). Products certified by USP will be required to dissolve or disintegrate properly, meeting USP monograph requirements, thereby releasing the nutrients to dissolve and making them available to the body.USP’s Verification Program does not comprehensively address the issue of efficacy of a dietary supplement. The efficacy of dietary supplements can vary between consumers. There is not a single or simple way to completely characterize efficacy of a dietary supplement. Studies of dietary supplement efficacy require governmental, financial, educational, and industrial resources, likely on an international level, to thoroughly address the issue.
