Balms, Big Bucks and the Bandwagon
Ellis offered a similar warning. "I heard recently of an industry supplier offering an incredible deal on lip balms made in China. Apparently, the supplier could not tell which flavors were in the lot, so they sold them to distributors at cost in an effort to recoup their inventory investment," he said. "My question is, 'What else is in those lip balms that the supplier doesn't know about?' These products are regulated as drugs by the FDA, and the standards are very exacting in order to protect the consumer," Ellis continued. "With imported products, we know that we do not know what is in them. A distributor selling imported personal care products is taking a very large risk." When it comes to liability in the chain of supply, everyone is liable, including distributors.