Bloomberg analysis shows false aloe claims on certain store brand gels

A chemical analysis commissioned by Bloomberg News revealed that aloe gel purchased from Walmart, Target and CVS contained no indications of aloe vera, according to an article posted Nov. 22 on Bloomberg.com. The products all listed aloe barbadensis leaf juice as the first or second ingredient after water, the article stated.

“You have to be very careful when you select and use aloe products,” Tod Cooperman, president of White Plains, N.Y.-headquartered ConsumerLab.com (not the lab that conducted the analysis), told Bloomberg News.

The laboratory analysis found no trace of the three chemical markers for aloe — malic acid, acemannan and glucose — in the aloe gel samples from Walmart, Target and CVS. “The three samples contained a cheaper element called maltodextrin, a sugar sometimes used to imitate aloe,” the Bloomberg.com article stated.

The products analyzed included Walmart’s Equate Aloe After Sun Gel, Target’s Up & Up Aloe Vera Gel and CVS’s Aftersun Aloe Vera Moisturizing Gel. Also tested, Walgreens’ Alcohol Free Aloe Vera Body Gel contained one of the three markers for aloe vera. For more information, read the article at http://tinyurl.com/h95dwfx.