LEHI — A national trade organization is calling for "fairness" in testing of nutritional supplement products.

Speaking Friday at the annual Nutritional Law Symposium at Thanksgiving Point, the head of the Council for Responsible Nutrition said product testing conducted by groups like ConsumerLab.com should be more standardized to ensure equity in the results.

"(Make) their standards more available before they ever conduct a test so that manufacturers will know what to expect (from the process)," Steve Mister, president and chief executive officer of the council, told the Deseret News.

Based in Washington, D.C., the Council for Responsible Nutrition is a trade association representing dietary supplement manufacturers and ingredient suppliers.

Mister said the industry and consumers would be better served if testing to determine the nutritional value of vitamins, supplements and herbal products were less subjective and less adversarial.

"The manufacturers will know what to expect and … (the testers can) work with (the nutrition) companies more (to improve the products if the products fail)," he said.

In rebuttal, Tod Cooperman, president and founder of ConsumerLab.com, said his company's focus is on giving consumers the best, unbiased information possible.

"We're taking the perspective of 'what would you want to take as a consumer?' " he said. "So we're trying to provide a framework so consumers can judge these products against what's been shown to work … and the quality of the product."

ConsumerLab.com is an online provider of independent test results and information to help consumers and health-care professionals evaluate health, wellness and nutrition products, according to its Web site.

"The whole purpose (of our testing program) is to provide more information for consumers … to help consumers find the highest-quality health and nutrition prouducts," Cooperman said.

e-mail: jlee@desnews.com