FDA issues warning that 2 popular dietary supplements may be useless because they don't contain the advertised amount of vitamins

• An FDA inspection found two multivitamins contained lower amounts of certain vitamins than advertised on the bottle.
• Mason Vitamins, sold at stores such as Dollar Tree, is telling consumers to toss the recalled supplements.

A multivitamin is being recalled because it doesn't contain as many vitamins as the label claims it to.

An inspection by the Food and Drug Administration found two Mason Vitamins products — the People's Choice Women's Daily Vitamins with Iron and the Health Sense Daily Multiple with Iron — contained less vitamin A, vitamin B12, vitamin C, and vitamin E than listed on the bottle.

Mason Vitamins, a Miami Lakes-based company that launched in 1967, voluntarily recalled the two supplements on Thursday. The products were sold at stores like Dollar Tree, 99 Cents Only, and Star Discount Pharmacy.

The company hasn't received reports of people getting sick from the vitamins, but urged consumers to discard their supplements immediately.

The FDA, which takes a more relaxed approach to regulating supplements sales compared to prescription drug sales, beefed up inspections recently as the alternative medicine industry made huge gains during the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier this year, the FDA recalled a keto supplement for its potential to cause "severe" allergic reactions, and several arthritis supplements that contained dangerous, unlisted ingredients.

Three out of every four Americans takes dietary supplements, and 3 in 10 people said they take more since COVID-19, according to a survey by The Harris Poll, despite little research that shows the capsules make you any healthier.

Reports of injury from supplement use have also gone up slightly. Calls to poison control centers involving children who took too much melatonin shot up in the last decade, and a federally-funded researcher group recently said liver damage from taking too many turmeric pills has increased. Cardiologists told Insider overusing herbal supplements might be causing heart problems in people under 30.

Former FDA chief Scott Gottlieb announced the agency would crack down on supplement companies that make false claims before stepping down in 2019, but his supplement industry-approved replacement has stayed largely silent on the matter, Nutritional Outlook reported.