Vitamin B12 and why it's important our products remain food sourced.
Last year we made the important decision to change the vitamins and minerals in our supplements to food sourced which means we no longer use synthetic ingredients. Six weeks ago our supplier of Vitamin B12 in India had to close due to COVID, at present; this is the only manufacturing plant in the world that makes Vitamin B12 extracted from mushrooms to the standard we require.
As a result of this shutdown, we decided to remove Vitamin B12 from our Saffrosun supplements and replace it with Organic Marine Algae which provides a wide range of essential minerals and is sourced in waters off the Scottish coastline. It's important to us that our community understands why we took this step and why it is essential for us to maintain this principle whatever the challenges that arise. So here are a few of the reasons why we changed to food sourced ingredients:
Safety:
Synthetic vitamins and minerals are often produced by chemical factories where the quality assurance procedures may not always meet our high standards. We feel that only full on-site quality audits can assure us that the ingredients are made correctly without chemical by-products (formed during the chemical processes) that could be harmful.
Effectiveness:
This has to be assessed on a case by case basis, as some synthetics are effective whilst others are not. Synthetic Vitamin E is a good example as the synthetic process produces different forms of the same vitamin which are significantly less effective than the natural D-Alpha form. We concluded that food source vitamins help eliminate this potential issue.
Environment:
Synthetic products use potentially harmful raw materials which create additional by-products, the more complex the synthesis process, the more of these by-products need to be removed from the final product. This leads to more environmental waste and increases the carbon footprint.
Pharmacists Advice:
When our Vitamin B12 supply was interrupted, rather than revert to adding a readily available synthetic B12, we sourced organic marine minerals from the Scottish Hebrides as a replacement instead. Based on science and our core values, we believe it will bring additional benefits, especially in terms of energy levels. Our Saffrosun Energy can be taken alongside prescription medicines (just like the previous formula) and also with an underactive thyroid, although additional iodine supplements should be stopped. We do not recommend taking Saffrosun with Marine Minerals if you have overactive thyroid function. We aim to have our Saffrosun Calm back in stock late November 2020 at the earliest.
