Those Creatine Gummies You Bought Online Might Not Contain Any Creatine

WIRED

4 hours ago

Jun 18, 2025 6:30 AM Sales of the workout supplement are skyrocketing. But some of the most popular gummies available online contain little to no creatine at all.
Gummy supplements are appealing for one obvious reason: Instead of choking down a chalky powdered drink or swallowing a dubious-smelling capsule, you essentially get to eat some candy. Unfortunately, when it comes to creatine, these products might not contain the essential ingredient they claim. Four of six popular creatine gummy products sold on Amazon contained almost no creatine or none at all when samples were tested by an independent lab.
Creatine, a staple supplement for weightlifters and fitness buffs due to its impact on athletic performance, is experiencing a remarkable surge in mainstream popularity. In recent years, the wellness industry has been marketing the substance as a kind of health panacea. Sales are skyrocketing, especially among women. To appeal to as many customers as possible, companies have launched 'gummy' creatine products as an alternative to the traditional powdered format. 'It's really having a moment right now,' says Jordan Glenn, head of science at the supplement industry tracking and recommendation platform SuppCo, which ordered the creatine gummy tests. 'It's no longer just a gym bro supplement.'
One of the products SuppCo had tested was the highest-ranked creatine supplement on Amazon. It's made by a brand called Happyummmm, and has been purchased over 50,000 times in the past two months (it even has an 'Amazon's choice' label). The gummy's label indicates that two gummies make up a 5 gram serving, but the lab SuppoCo hired found that two gummies actually contained .005 grams, under .1 percent of what was listed. This means that someone would have to eat 2,000 Happyummmm gummies to get the listed serving size. (Happyummm's Hong Kong-based parent company Happygummi Limited does not have a public email or phone number, so WIRED was unable to contact the company for comment.) A person attempting to use Happyummm's products for a creatine 'loading phase,' in which the typical daily dosage is around 20 grams, would need to eat 8,000 gummies a day to get their fill.
SuppCo's testing found that a brand called DivinusLabs' gummy samples only contained .025 grams per serving rather than the 5 grams indicated on the label. 'We appreciate the role of independent testing in promoting transparency and have shared the information with our manufacturing and quality assurance teams. While we had not previously seen this data, we take all reports seriously,' says Ilya Sheleg, the founder from the brand's Brooklyn-based parent company Primerose Hill. Sheleg says the company plans to re-test its current batch of gummies with other independent labs.
Other gummies fared even worse in tests. Two brands, Ecowise and Vidabotan, came back with 0 percent creatine. Despite these results, both brands have high ratings on Amazon. The headline for Ecowise's top review: 'Tastes great and actually works!'
Like Happigummi Limited, Vidabotan does not list contact information online, so the company could not be reached for comment. When WIRED reached out to Ecowise, its founder and CEO Vladislav Shabanov promptly responded, expressing disbelief that his products tested so poorly, as his Colorado-based manufacturers have been Current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) certified, which means they follow guidelines set by the US Food and Drug Administration. The company also tests its products in third-party labs at regular intervals.
However, after WIRED sent Shabanov details about how SuppCo conducted its tests, he conceded that it's possible there may have been quality control issues with some of the product, and says the company is launching an internal investigation and had already made a decision to switch to a different manufacturer for some products. 'There's always a non-zero chance that manufacturers screwed up,' he says. 'Worst case scenario, we'll have to get the whole batch out of Amazon.'
According to Amazon spokesperson Juliana Karber, the company requires dietary supplement sellers to submit third-party testing results to prove that they contain the ingredients on the label and are free from harmful contaminants. For the four products that failed SuppCo's test, she says 'three have valid test reports verifying their compliance with relevant standards and that they contain the advertised amount of creatine.' She noted that Amazon is going to do its own test of the products. 'Our teams are investigating the remaining product in question, and if we conclude it does not comply with Amazon's policies, it will be removed from the store,' Karber said in a statement. Amazon declined to share which of the supplements had not proffered a valid test report.
Creating effective gummy supplements is a difficult task, since it requires distributing active ingredients evenly throughout individual gelatinous sweets. According to Shabanov, Ecowise spent months refining its processes because it was so hard to create a product that had the appropriate amount of creatine and also tasted good.
What's more, since most methods of creating gummy candies involve heat, active ingredients can get damaged in the process. 'Since creatine gummies are often like other gummies, requiring moisture and heat to produce and having citric acid lowering the pH of the gummy, creatine can degrade faster than it would when just manufactured as a dry, unflavored powder,' says Kamal Patel, cofounder of the nutrient and supplement database Examine.com. Patel describes the task of making a good creatine gummy as 'a lot harder' than formulating a powder product.
SuppCo also had the creatine gummies tested for levels of creatinine, a waste product created when creatine breaks down. All of the gummies that contained creatine also contained elevated amounts of creatinine, indicating that some of the active ingredients had been degraded. When the lab tested popular powdered creatine products, none had this issue.
SuppCo's test wasn't the first attempt to gauge the potency of creatine gummies. In fact, testing competing brands of gummies has become a kind of tradition in the world of supplements. Last year, the supplement manufacturer NOW Foods tested a dozen popular creatine gummies brands and reported nearly as dismal results to the SuppCo findings—5 of the 12 samples failed, showing very little or no active ingredients. Earlier this year, fitness influencer James Smith sent a sample of gummies from a company called Ovrload that he had previously attempted to invest in out for tests. (Smith claims the investment offer fell through, after which point the company allegedly continued to use his image to promote the brand.) He posted a YouTube video detailing the failed results. Another British supplement company conducted a similar third-party test and also found that Ovrload gummies failed, leading the company to pause sales. (Ovrload didn't respond to requests for comment, but the founder recently posted on Instagram that he plans to resume sales, and will add a transparency portal where users can see exactly what is in the gummies).
'Gummies might not be the best way to take creatine,' says Shabanov. 'There's so much potential for human error.'
Creatine gummies aren't the only gelatinous supplement with quality control issues. While some supplement makers have successfully created gummy-style formulas that work, it's a difficult product to produce correctly. 'I don't recommend taking supplements or medications in a gummy format, because the chance that the quality will be poor, though it will vary from gummy to gummy, is much greater than with capsules,' says Pieter Cohen, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School who studies supplements. Cohen's previous research has examined how the 'great majority' of melatonin gummies sold in the US are inaccurately labeled. In that case, the gummies were actually far more potent than the labels suggested.
In the United States, supplements are regulated very differently than traditional medications. Products can be sold without first getting any approval from the Food and Drug Administration, and the companies selling them are charged with making sure they are safe and effective. Supplements that feature new dietary ingredients need to submit a notification to the FDA prior to launching, but with something like a creatine gummy, which uses established ingredients, that isn't necessary. 'FDA has no systematic way of knowing when new dietary supplements are introduced to the market or what they contain. Because of this, we are often at a disadvantage to identify unsafe or otherwise unlawful supplements,' Cara Welch, the director of the FDA's Office of Dietary Supplement Programs in the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, said in 2024.
The loose rules have fostered an environment in which mislabeling is rampant. Many products sold as supplements actually contain pharmaceutical ingredients, including generic Viagra. While some sellers require third-party testing—CVS introduced its mandatory program back in 2019—other stores and marketplaces do not.
The Trump Administration is unlikely to adopt a more critical approach to the supplements industry anytime soon. Last fall, prior to his confirmation, current Health and Human Services head Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that the administration would undo the FDA's 'aggressive suppression' of supplements.
Cohen says that the best safeguard people have to buy supplements is to check to see if they've been certified by two independent nonprofit organizations, US Pharmacopeia and the NSF International, which test products for health and safety standards.
'As American consumers, right now, we have no idea if the supplement we've purchased is accurately labeled or not. Some are, many aren't. So we've got to work around this until the laws are changed,' he says.