Balance of Nature
Balance of Nature (when we refer to Balance of Nature, we are simultaneously referring to the company which owns the brand Balance of Nature, Evig LLC, based in St. George, Utah) was founded in 1997 by Douglas Howard, a chiropractor. According to Balance of Nature’s LinkedIn page, Balance of Nature has just under 300 employees. According to CFO.com, the median company in the U.S. generates just over $300,000 per employee. This would suggest Balance of Nature annual revenues are approximately $90,000,000 per year. Their current CEO is Lex Howard. Balance of Nature products are manufactured by another wholly owned subsidiary of Evig, Premium Productions, LLC, whose CEO is Ryan Petersen.
Why Balance of Nature?
Balance of Nature provides no significant nutritional value.
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The management of Evig, which owns Balance of Nature, has little or no education or background in food science, nutrition, chemistry or biology
Evig has been cited and fined over $1,000,000 by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for misleading advertising of Balance of Nature
Balance of Nature and its manufacturing partner, Premium Production, LLC, have been cited and fined by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a litany of unsafe manufacturing practices
It can be expensive, averaging up to 5% of an average Social Security check
According to the NIH, Americans spend nearly $13 billion on over-the counter, unregulated supplements.
Company Management
Detailed information regarding Balance of Nature's business and current management structure is not publicly available. Douglas Howard, their founder, studied pre-med at Dixie State College of Utah and went on to earn a Doctor of Chiropractic degree at Cleveland Chiropractic College in 1986. According to U.S. News, Cleveland University (today) has an acceptance rate of 100%, does not require an admissions interview, standardized tests or SAT/ACT scores. There is no evidence Dr. Howard received any specific education in biology, chemistry, food science, nutrition, or other disciplines involved in the development and production of food supplements. He claims to have received a medical degree from the Pavlov First Medical Institute in St. Petersburg, Russia. According to the THE (Times Higher Education) University Ranking, the Pavlov First Medical Institute was ranked at 1501+ in 2023.
The current CEO of Balance of Nature is Lex Howard. According to his LinkedIn profile, he attended Snow Canyon High School. There is no LinkedIn listing for attending any university level biology, chemistry, food science, nutrition, or other disciplines involved in the development and production of food supplements. It appears Lex Howard may be a close relative of Douglas Howard, the company founder.
Company Employees
Again, because of the private nature of this company, information regarding its employee base is difficult to sort out. Some information is available on Glassdoor.com, where Balance of Nature has 62 reviews with an average of 3.7 stars out of five. Some employees love it and gave it five stars. The most repeated complaints are:
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Low pay – minimum wage, even for one college graduate
No health insurance – very strange for a company allegedly devoted to good health
No retirement plan – this often means the company may not be interested in long term employees, and finds higher than normal turnover acceptable.
Religious conformance – BoN appears to be run by Mormons, the Church of Latter Day Saints. Employees are encouraged to be accepting of LDS doctrines.
Production and Products
Balance of Nature are simply fruits and vegetables freeze-dried which removes the moisture, ground into a powder and encapsulated. The company also doesn’t offer any information about the total vitamin or mineral content in the Fruits and Veggies supplements, which leaves the type and quantity of nutrients in each serving unclear. While Balance of Nature claims to third-party test its supplements, lab results aren’t readily available on the website.
The freeze-drying process, also known as lyophilization is over 100 years old. It was invented by the French scientist Arsène d'Arsonval and his team at the Muséum National D'histoire Naturelle in Paris in the early 20th century. D'Arsonval conducted his initial experiments and developed the basic principles of freeze-drying in the early 1900s. The freeze-drying process involves freezing a product and then reducing the surrounding pressure to allow the frozen water in the product to sublime directly from solid to gas phase, leaving behind a dry, shelf-stable end product. This process was pioneered by d'Arsonval as a way to preserve biological samples and food products.
Legal Issues
Product, Production, Marketing: 2019
Evig, Balance of Nature and Premium Production have been cited for numerous violations by both federal and state agencies. These violations included product, process, quality, sales and marketing.
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In July of 2019, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning letter to Balance of Nature, claiming that the company made unverified health claims and misbranded its supplements. The FDA found evidence that the dietary supplements were “adulterated,” meaning not compliant with current good manufacturing practice (CGMP) regulations and that the company had failed to implement quality control measures. The summary of the specific complaints were:
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Failure to establish specifications for any point, step, or stage in the manufacturing process where control is necessary to ensure quality.
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Failure to establish and follow written procedures for the responsibilities of the quality control operations.
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Failure to prepare and follow a written master manufacturing record for each unique formulation of your dietary supplements.
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Failure to include complete information relating to the batch production records (BPRs) of production and control of each batch.
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Failure to establish and follow written procedures for packaging and labeling operations.
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Failure to establish and follow written procedures to fulfill the requirements related to product complaints.
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Failure to establish and follow written procedures for holding and distributing operations.
The FDA told Balance of Nature to promptly correct these violations. Failure to do so could result in legal action without further notice, including, without limitation, seizure and injunction.
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They were required to notify the FDA in writing of the specific steps they have taken to correct violations within 15 working days of receipt of the FDA letter. Include an explanation of each step being taken to prevent the recurrence of violations, as well as copies of related documentation.
Product, Production, Marketing: 2023
While it appears Balance of Nature, Premium Production and Evig took sufficient steps to allow them to continue to manufacture and sell their products, it appears a lesson was not adequately learned. In November, 2024, the United States Department of Justice filed a series of complaints against Balance of Nature, Premium Production and two of its executives, on behalf of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
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In November, 2023, a federal court ordered the brand Balance of Nature to stop producing and selling its dietary supplement products this week, after the Food and Drug Administration accused the two Utah-based companies behind it of repeatedly breaking the law in how they made and marketed their supplements. The FDA says the company marketing Balance of Nature, Evig LLC, and its CEO Lex Howard had flouted years of federal warnings about overstepping limits in what they could claim about diseases their supplements could cure or prevent. Meanwhile, those responsible for manufacturing the supplements, Premium Productions LLC and its CEO Ryan Petersen, were accused of not doing enough to ensure their products actually contained the ingredients they claimed to. "We previously warned Evig LLC and Premium Production LLC, but they have demonstrated repeated violations of manufacturing requirements, and the public cannot have confidence that their products are what they purport to be," Michael Rogers, FDA's acting associate commissioner for regulatory affairs, said in a release Thursday. Balance of Nature will now need to hire outside experts to audit the companies, ensuring their marketing and manufacturing issues are fixed, before resuming sales of the supplements.