Narrator: Making aloe products takes quick hands.
Narrator: A good knife ...
... and lots of plants.
It takes about 20 aloe leaves
to make just one gallon of aloe vera juice.
But some aloe products have been found
to contain no aloe at all.
Tod: It's so easy to put out a fake aloe product.
So there are all kinds of synthetic gels.
Narrator: So how are real aloe vera products made?
And can we spot the legit stuff in a $625 million industry?
We visited the largest aloe farm in the world to find out.
Universal Aloe's farm covers 5,000 acres here
in the Dominican Republic.
While there are hundreds of types of aloe plants,
this farm chose Aloe barbadensis Miller
because it has 20 amino acids.
Jason: Minerals, vitamins, carbohydrates, hormones,
and other bioactive substances.
Narrator: Once the baby plants are in the ground,
it takes about eight months for them to mature.
About 750 people harvest these fields.
They're dispatched in groups, harvesting section by section.
Narrator: The cut leaves won't grow back,
but the plants will grow new ones.
It will take them about a week
to harvest just this one area.
Narrator: One by one,
workers pick up all the harvested leaves
and toss them into a truck.
Those leaves head to a processing plant
2 miles up the road.
Narrator: The leaves go through a bath
of chlorinated saltwater
to kill off any little critters from the field
that may be hanging around.
Then they get trimmed.
Narrator: This jiggly fillet
is the gel inside the aloe leaf.
That's what's used in real aloe vera juice,
gel, or skincare products.
Narrator: To do it, They need a really good knife.
Narrator: They might make it look easy,
but filleting takes precision.
Narrator: And they have to move fast,
filleting 3,500 leaves a day.
Narrator: Many aloe companies use machines for filleting.
Narrator: The leftover leaf bits go back out
into the field as compost.
And the buckets of filets?
Those get weighed, then poured onto this big table.
Workers here will inspect them for any leftover leaf bits,
which they'll then slice off.
Once it's all clear, the fillets head to the shredder,
which grinds them into a pure aloe gel.
Narrator: At this point, ascorbic acid is added
to extend the shelf life.
Narrator: The gel flows into this spill-proof bag.
Narrator: This bag is then vacuum-sealed
and put into a bigger metal box.
The whole process from leaf to this container
takes only about three hours.
But before the shipment can leave the factory,
its contents have to be tested for quality assurance.
Narrator: Only when a container passes the lab tests
can it be released for shipment.
These ones are bound for Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
There, the gel will be pumped into bottles
for Forever Living products.
But not every bottle of aloe is made like this.
In 2015, ConsumerLab.com tested
10 aloe products for ingredients.
Tod: Half of them failed our test.
Narrator: A 2016 Bloomberg investigation found
that Walmart, CVS, and Target's aloe products contain
no evidence of aloe at all.
It's so easy to put out a fake aloe product.
So there are all kinds of synthetic gels.
Often you'll see a word like carbomer.
It's a synthetic gel.
And if you see a clear gel,
you have no idea if it's really aloe or carbomer.
Narrator: Most aloe products aren't closely regulated
by the FDA.
That's because they're considered supplements,
or cosmetics, not drugs.
So a product can say it contains aloe,
but it could mean a range of things:
It really does contain aloe fillet,
or it's the whole leaf ground up
and not just that inner fillet.
Or it's a synthetic gel, and there's actually no aloe --
which won't hurt you,
but doesn't have any of the supposed benefits of aloe.
There's not a lot of regulation
or oversight of aloe products.
Narrator: It's also hard to regulate
because aloe grows naturally all over the Americas,
and its gel has been used for thousands of years
to heal burns and reduce inflammation.
The challenge is translating that history
to our current rigorous medical examination.
Narrator: Another problem is there isn't
clear scientific proof of aloe's healing powers.
Some studies have shown it helps soothe burns
and speed up healing,
while others show no effect on burns.
Tod: So it's not that aloe doesn't help.
The evidence isn't there right now.
Narrator: The outer rind of the leaf has been found
to have a laxative compound called aloin.
One study found that it caused cancer in rats,
while another found it helped with constipation.
But the FDA has banned aloe from being sold
as an over-the-counter laxative drug.
Tod: There's no patent on aloe,
and so there isn't a lot of incentive for companies
to be putting lots of money into clinical studies.
They don't really need to do those studies
to get these products on the shelf.
Narrator: Still, consumers worldwide are flocking to aloe
as they embrace more natural products.
Universal Aloe saw a 30% increase in demand in 2020.
As consumers navigate this growing market,
how can we identify the products made with real aloe vera?
Well, Todd says it's actually really tricky,
but he did have a few suggestions.
First, you should always check the ingredient list.
Tod: You want to see aloe. You want to see it's first.
You really need to be super careful on the wording,
because if it just says "leaf,"
it could be any part of the leaf.
You could be getting the latex, which you don't want,
unless you want a laxative effect.
Narrator: Look out for tricky wording like "100% gel."
That could mean there is 100% gel,
but not all of it is aloe fillet.
Jason: So you really need to know
what part of the leaf is being made.
When they "aloe gel,"
is it a gel that's made from blending up the whole leaf,
or is it truly just pure aloe gel?
Narrator: Despite these uncertainties,
experts don't expect the demand
for aloe to dip anytime soon.