Latest info on L-Glutamine

In response to several customers mentioning that they are running short of L-glutamine, I contacted Jon who contacted Jarrow formulas (the supplier of this supplement) about the problem some are experiencing. The full discussion thread can be found here:

But I wanted to also post to this discussion forum as not all people follow the discussion in the RFLB "Group" and tend to use this board more. Here is a copy of the findings about what is happening if you run short on L-Glutamine:

Here is Jarrow's response to Jon:

"The product isn't being underfilled. I'm sure of this. I have run into this in the past on numerous occasions. There is more than the claimed weight in the container, based on my own personal experience of having weighed many of these containers. The problem is in the dispensing of the material. Please see the attached letter I wrote to a consumer some time ago as this goes into the issues regarding the scoop and the L-glutamine material. This is definitely not a new issue and it obviously isn't going to go away, unfortunately.

Regards,
John O'Connor
Quality Control
Jarrow Formulas, Inc."

Here is the letter which John O'Connor from Jarrow references in the above email response. He is writing to another customer who had a similar inquiry about the servings per package issue:

"Dear Patty,

I understand and appreciate your concern. I have checked with our Purchasing Department as well as our Research & Product Development Department and here is what I was able to find out. The 5 cc scoop in our Glutamine 113.5 gram bottle is intended to provide an approximate measure per serving. Generally, glutamine material is very soft and fluffy, and doesn’t pack neatly in the scoop. Also, the density of the material may vary from batch to batch. The L-glutamine powder does not exhibit the free flowing characteristic apparent with some other powdered materials. Unfortunately, without anti-caking agents, this makes it difficult to measure a fixed weight with a scoop.
Nevertheless, your concern is a legitimate one and one we felt needed addressing. Therefore, our R&D people, using a 5 cc scoop, recorded several measurements of our L-glutamine powder on an analytical scale. What they found was that there was notable variance from scoop to scoop and that the amount of material taken by this scoop does yield a weight of 2 grams or more. Depending upon how the material settled with each scoop that was measured, one scoop weighed anywhere from 2.0 to 2.8 grams. This finding could possibly account for the fewer number of servings per container that you have experienced.
Moreover, besides the nature and variable density of the material, I was informed by our Purchasing Department that we are also limited by the types of commercially available scoops, which is an issue for powder products, in general, owing precisely to the different densities of these different materials, and this product in particular, due to the characteristics described above. In the case of the glutamine powder, R&D estimates that a scoop of 4.4 to 4.7 cc would be ideal for a 2 gram serving. However, the next available smaller size that they have been able to find is 3.5 cc, which is not really any more desirable because it tends to scoop less than 2 grams of material.
Please understand that I am not trying to make excuses; rather, per your inquiry, I am attempting to explain the issues that are affecting the consistency of the serving size. Unfortunately, the scoop is a crude measuring tool and not as precise as we would like. I hope you can understand the conundrum that our people have had to deal with in attempting to offer a product that can be conveniently measured in grams as accurately as possible (using a volume instrument) by the consumer who, in all likelihood, is without the luxury of the more expensive and cumbersome but accurate analytical gram scale.
This having been said, please be assured of the fact that there is no intentional misrepresentation on our part and that the product does provide 113.5 grams of L-glutamine per container, as claimed. Moreover, if one could precisely measure the 2 grams, this would yield 56 servings per container.
And although probability is low, we will make every effort to find the scoop size that will most consistently yield 2 grams of L-glutamine per serving. We will also deal with making the customer aware of the varying weights by indicating on label that scooped powder weights -- particularly powders of this nature -- are approximations.
Thank you for your understanding.
Regards,
John O'Connor
Technical Support
Jarrow Formulas, Inc. "