Moringa Powder Amazon Safety: Is Moringa Powder Safe To Buy On Amazon?

Why Buying Moringa Powder On Amazon Can Be Risky

Amazon.com has two different ecommerce businesses. There is Amazon the retail store, where Amazon buys, warehouses, and quality controls products before reselling them to consumers. This is the same business model as a normal store, whether Walmart or the local hardware store.

Then there is the Amazon third-party marketplace, a semi-regulated platform where anyone can apply to be an Amazon seller, and offer goods through the Amazon.com site. Amazon does not buy or quality control these goods, outside of limited policing of counterfeiting and openly dangerous products like weapons. This third-party bazaar makes up more than 50% of the total sales on Amazon. 

Because of this, consumers should use extra caution when buying products on Amazon that affect their health, wellness, and finances. The Amazon platform is designed to make it not totally clear who you are buying from, as you can see below:

The Unwinder’s Amazon Safety Index helps buyers shop for supplements safely on Amazon. We analyze the potential of fake or counterfeit products, low-quality products, products that pose health risks, and products from fly-by-night or illegitimate sellers and non-branded resellers. 

When possible, we recommend the safest versions of a product to buy on Amazon, and offer other reputable places to buy. 

The Unwinder’s Amazon Safety Index helps buyers shop for supplements safely on Amazon.

This review applies the Safety Index to Moringa Powder on Amazon. Moringa Powder is a botanical dietary supplement, derived from the Moringa tree, also known as moringa oleifera, horseradish tree, benzoil tree, benzolive tree, drumstick tree, saijan, or West Indian Ben.

What The Amazon Safety Index Looks Like

The Unwinder’s Amazon Safety Index has two scales. The first is simply how safe the supplement would be to buy on Amazon.

Rating	Description
Safe	You can basically buy any of the products on Amazon and be sure that the product authentic
Probably Safe	There are many legit products on Amazon, but not enough that you shouldn’t choose carefully
Potentially unsafe	There are so many illegitimate products on Amazon that you need to do extremely thorough research on each one if you even want to risk buying one
Unsafe	There are no products on Amazon that are not significantly affected by authenticity issues

The second is rating the potential risk of issues specific to the supplement you’re looking at. We have a simple 3-point scale here.

Rating	Description
Low	There is little risk of the supplement being affected by the issue in question
Medium	There is risk of the supplement being affected by the issue in question
High	In many cases, the supplement is affected by the issue in question

Risks Commonly Associated With Buying Supplements On Amazon

The supplement market, because it’s unregulated by the FDA, has a higher risk of selling fake and close-to-fake supplements, as well as supplements that are rendered inert or toxic due to the supplement company’s processing and/or packaging practices. These issues are not endemic to Amazon. The risks are present anytime you’re wading around the supplement market. There are, however, issues specific to Amazon, including illegitimate reviews and “Amazon-only sellers” among others.

• Fake supplements: Supplements that don’t contain what they claim to contain. In late 2019, Amazon itself warned consumers about fake supplements on Amazon.
• Close-to-fake supplements: Supplements that contain an inactive form of the herb or compound (e.g. Ashwagandha vs. Aswhagandha containing 3-10% withanolides)
• Poorly processed supplements: those which are rendered inert or toxic (e.g. past expiration, mold) due to the company’s processing / packaging standards
• Illegitimate reviews: a significant percentage of the Amazon page’s reviews are demonstrably inauthentic
• “Amazon-only sellers”: while not necessarily bad, Amazon-only sellers tend to have less established reputations; generally (again, this does not apply to every Amazon-only seller) they go after space in the Amazon market where they feel they can dominate the search rankings, whatever the product is. In short, Amazon sellers may not have any specific expertise in the products they’re selling—and the claims they’re making about those products. Amazon-only sellers are regularly one-person, low-budget, or “drop shipping” operations, or are based overseas.

When possible, The Unwinder recommends USP-approved supplements. USP, the U.S. Pharmacopeia, is a non-governmental organization providing trust and safety reports for dietary supplements and herbal medicines. We also, when possible, recommend buying brand-direct, whether on Amazon, the brand’s own website, or another ecommerce site.

Risks Commonly Associated With Buying Moringa

Like we said above, the supplement market is less regulated, so you have to be careful when you’re buying any supplement. As well—because Amazon lets 3rd-party supplement sellers onto their platform—you would do well to be especially concerned about buying supplements from Amazon. Here are the risks commonly associated with buying Moringa:

• Product adulteration: because most Moringa is produced outside of the United States, often in countries with less stringent food-testing standards, Moringa supplements are at risk of being adulterated with ‘imposter’ herbs or fillers
• Expired product: because Moringa has a shelf-life of under 1-year, there is risk of expired Moringa on the market
• Unclear dosages: because more studies need to be done on the effects of Moringa, safe dosages have not been established and it is unknown if any amount could be harmful to your health
• Toxic mold: because some Moringa is sun-dried, there is risk that the supplement contains toxic mold

Moringa Powder Amazon Safety Assessment

Given the issues above, we grade Moringa Powder on Amazon as being Probably Safe.

Issue	Amazon-specific?	Risk assessment:
Fake supplements	No	Low
Close-to-fake supplements	No	Low
Poorly-processed supplements	No	Medium
Illegitimate reviews	Yes	Medium
Amazon-only sellers	Yes	High
Unclear dosages	No	High
Expired product	No	Medium

Top-Rated Moringa Powder on Amazon

Moringa Powder Shopping Alternatives

In the supplements category, buying directly from USP-rated brands is always your safest bet. These ingredients content, purity, and dosage of these products are rigorously tested and regulated. Buying directly from the brand’s preferred stores can help their business and ensures fresh product.