Dr. Jordan Glenn is the Head of Science at SuppCo, a company on a mission to bring much-needed transparency and truth to the supplement industry. With a background in scientific research and a deep understanding of human performance, Dr. Glenn is helping lead SuppCo’s efforts to separate fact from fiction in a $180 billion market that’s often dominated by hype and confusion.
Today, we dive into how consumers can better navigate the supplement space, what to look for, what to avoid and why quality and transparency are more important than ever.
Ryan Frankel: SuppCo’s mission focuses on transparency in a largely opaque industry. As Head of Science, what does transparency look like in practice for supplements?
Dr. Glenn: Transparency in supplements is almost an oxymoron right now. On one hand, you have a handful of brands doing an incredible job - publishing Certificates of Analysis (COAs), sharing all of their testing data and making studies publicly available. On the other hand, you have countless products with slick marketing, glossy images and little to no evidence behind them.
For me, it always comes back to the data. I trust brands that publish full scientific results, not just vague claims. And when it comes to testing, SuppCo’s audits often show products that contain 3% or less of the active ingredient listed on the label. Sometimes it’s essentially fairy dusted. That’s why combining scientific evidence with rigorous testing is where the industry must head - and thankfully, I think we’re starting to see a shift in that direction.
Ryan Frankel: What are the most common misconceptions consumers have about supplements today?
Dr. Glenn: One is assuming that if a brand shares numbers or charts on their website, those figures are automatically credible. Without context, it’s hard to know whether that data is valid.
Another misconception is the belief that all supplements on Amazon are fake. That’s not true. While it’s harder to sift through the noise, there are high-quality products on Amazon if you know the right brands and what to look for. At SuppCo, our Trust Score helps with exactly that by rating brands across dozens of quality indicators.
Ryan Frankel: For those new to SuppCo, what exactly do you do and how do you evaluate supplements?
Dr. Glenn: SuppCo is the source of truth in the supplement industry. We’re fully independent - we don’t take money from brands and everything we do is objective.
Our Trust Score is a proprietary rating system that grades brands on a 1 - 10 scale using 29 quality indicators. These range from manufacturing standards like cGMP compliance, to ingredient sourcing, third-party lab testing, patented compounds and more. We collect information directly from brands, verify it and then publish their score. Sometimes brands come back to us with more documentation to improve their score.
We also test products directly. Our testing program often reveals that nearly half of the products we audit fail to meet their label claims. That’s where SuppCo really helps consumers - cutting through the noise and making the quality visible.
Ryan Frankel: How often do you find discrepancies between label claims and actual ingredients?
Dr. Glenn: Roughly 50% of the products we test don’t pass. One striking example was creatine gummies. Out of six tested, four contained zero creatine. They were essentially candy. Ironically, the two products that did contain creatine had worse Amazon reviews because creatine is chalky and harder to flavor well.
We’ve seen similar issues with NAD+ and urolithin A products. Often, if a supplement seems “too cheap for too much,” it usually is. That’s a big red flag.
Ryan Frankel: If a consumer could only do three things to vet a supplement before buying, what should they do?
Dr. Glenn:
1. Apply the sniff test. If the price seems too good to be true for the claimed dosage, it probably is.
2. Look for clinical evidence. Has the brand published data or studies validating efficacy? If not, that’s a warning sign.
3. Check independent verification. Whether through SuppCo’s Trust Score or other third-party evaluations, don’t just take the brand’s word for it.
Ryan Frankel: How can influencers or health platforms like Workup or Longevity Today play a role in improving the industry?
Dr. Glenn: It comes down to incentives. If influencers are being paid to promote products, that relationship should be transparent. At SuppCo, we don’t accept money from brands because it would compromise trust.
I’d love to see more transparency in the influencer and media ecosystem. Consumers deserve to know if someone promoting a product is financially tied to it.
Ryan Frankel: Are there formats or categories that have more quality issues than others?
Dr. Glenn: Gummies tend to fail more often than powders or capsules because they’re harder to manufacture with the right dosages. Creatine gummies were a prime example - most contained none of the active ingredient.
Certain trendy categories, like NAD+ boosters or urolithin A, are also rife with mislabeling. Expensive ingredients get “fairy dusted” or substituted
Ryan Frankel: Where do you see the supplement industry heading in the next 5–10 years?
Dr. Glenn: I see three drivers of change:
Consumers. People are getting more educated, asking smarter questions and demanding quality.
Policy. Current regulations like GRAS (generally recognized as safe) status allow ingredients to be sold without strong validation. That needs to shift toward proving efficacy and safety upfront.
Platforms like Amazon. If Amazon were to randomly test products from live SKUs instead of relying on golden samples sent by brands, the industry would change overnight. That single policy change could eliminate much of the bad behavior we see today.
Ryan Frankel: If you could design the perfect regulatory framework, what would it include?
Dr. Glenn: I’d start with reversing the GRAS framework so that new ingredients must prove efficacy and safety before hitting the market. I’d also implement tighter requirements around manufacturing, labeling and testing.
And while Amazon isn’t a government regulator, their policies have the biggest potential to reshape the space. If they instituted blind, randomized testing, the industry would clean up very quickly
Ryan Frankel: Finally, if you could paint the perfect legacy for your work and SuppCo’s, what would that look like?
Dr. Glenn: My dream is for scientific testing to become the rule, not the exception. Right now, testing is rare and brands that do it are still the outliers. I’d like to see the opposite, where consumers automatically question a brand if it doesn’t have rigorous data.
The other piece is legitimizing testing transparency. Too many brands throw up a COA that doesn’t reflect the real product. We need a trusted third-party standard for testing. If we can bring scientific evidence and transparent testing together, we can create a true source of truth for the supplement industry.
Final Thoughts:
SuppCo is building something the industry has desperately needed: a source of truth. By challenging brands, educating consumers and holding the market accountable, they are making it harder for smoke and mirrors to stand in for science.
In fact, their founding story resonated with me personally. As SuppCo CEO and co-founder Steve Martocci states:
Supplements have always played a huge role in my health journey, but early on I ran into the same problems that many people face: how do you know what’s actually worth taking? What brands can you really trust? What’s real science and what’s just marketing?
Even with access to experts, I was stuck managing my supplement stack in a spreadsheet, trying to figure out what worked, what didn’t, and how to make sense of it all. It was frustrating and time consuming. I knew there had to be a better way.
SuppCo exists to empower people to make smarter decisions about their health with tools that help them with transparency and tools that actually make sense. If supplements are going to help us live better, we need an industry built on trust and science, and that’s what we’re here to create.
At Workup, we share that same conviction. From the beginning, our mission has been to curate brands that deliver real value, prioritize quality and empower consumer trust. It’s why I first got involved in this space - because I experienced firsthand how confusing, crowded and often misleading the wellness market can be. Consumers deserve better. They deserve to know what actually works and why.
I believe the future belongs to the companies that can sell trust - not hype, not gimmicks, not fleeting influencer endorsements. The brands that will win are the ones that can prove their worth through transparency, rigorous science and results that speak louder than marketing.
If SuppCo’s vision becomes the standard, consumers will no longer need to wonder if the supplement they’re buying is legitimate. They’ll know. And when that happens, both SuppCo and Workup will have played a part in reshaping the wellness industry into one where trust isn’t optional - it’s the currency.
