The nutrition industry has been growing exponentially for years, placating the average American’s intense desire to get into better shape by providing a host of supplements, powders, pills and more. At the forefront of this movement is a local company that touts itself as one of top in the health and wellness business for more than 20 years and running.
Purity Products was founded in 1993 in Great Neck and initially sold water filtering systems. Over the years, they shifted locations around the Island—moving to New Hyde Park and Port Washington before finally ending up at their current Plainview home, where they’ve been for the past 10 years—and migrated into cutting-edge nutritional supplements, according to founder and president Jahn Levin.
Levin grew up in Manhasset Hills, attended Great Neck South High School and later went on to Albany State.
He said he’s been passionate about health and nutrition for many years and said that Purity Products painstakingly researches and designs their formulas, which are then sent to manufacturers to create the supplements to their exact specifications using the best ingredients possible.
“We’re a company that specializes in evidence-based nutritional products and nutritional solutions. It was founded on the premise that the vitamin and nutrition world can be somewhat complicated in terms of people figuring out what they really need,” he said. “What we really like to do is work with evidence-based nutraceuticals, which is really what I think to be the Purity Products difference. If you look at one of our best sellers, the Vitamin D Super formula, it has 5,000 international units of vitamin D, but it also has key factors that help with vitamin D absorption. Our green tea supplement has Curcumin and Resveratrol, our Triple-Action Omega-3 formula that have plant sterols and vitamin D. We use multiple modes of action and ingredients in our formulas, which are anchored in science which deliver results that are often above and beyond many of the other supplements you’d find in stores.”
Purity Products does a great deal of their sales directly to the public, getting the word out via television and radio advertising. They also have relationships with noted doctors and health personalities, as well as a steadily-growing retail presence, Levin noted.
“We sell through direct response. We do a lot of TV and radio shows and a lot of online business. People mostly buy directly from us, but we are sold in certain stores as well,” he said. “We shipped directly out of our company here in Plainview, but expanding our retail presence is something we are actively working on.”
Their product line consists of about 200 different units, including their most recent area of growth—an organic juice cleanse line, which consists of super fruits and vegetables mixed into a powder for people whose diets may be lacking in adequate nutritional ingredients.
Also, Levin said that Food and Drug Administration (FDA), despite popular belief, actually keeps a close watch on the happenings in the supplement industry, ensuring that what is on the label of many products matches what actually goes into the bottle itself.
“Sometimes the nutritional supplement industry is chastised and maligned by people who think that we are not approved or disapproved by the Food and Drug Administration, but we are regulated and governed by the FDA,” he said. “A lot of people think that supplements are like the Wild West with no oversight, but a dietary supplement cannot make a claim to treat various diseases and we have to make sure the science supports the health benefits that we are claiming the products deliver.”
Purity Products also boasts of a number of charitable pursuits as well, in what Levin called an effort to reach out to and give back to the community. More than just another corporate entity trying to turn a quick buck, he said, his company truly has the health of Long Islanders on its collective mind as well.
“We do a lot of work locally with Island Harvest Food Bank, which I think is a very important charity. We often send people out in the field with Island Harvest so they can find out how important it is to help the community. We also work with and Vitamin Angels, which is a local charity whose goal is to eradicate Vitamin A deficiency blindness around the world,” he said. “And in exchange for that, what we get is goodwill and bonding with the community. We have a culture of collaboration here at Purity Products, where people feel like they can make a difference not just at the office, but also in the community as well.”
To find out more, visit www.purityproducts.com.
