FreeLife International, an Arizona-based company, launched in 1995 under co-founders Ray Faltinsky and Kevin Fournier. The company initially sold nutritional supplements, weight loss aids, and personal care items before shifting its focus to products containing goji juice. Faltinsky serves as CEO, with Fournier as President.
The company faced its first major controversy in 2007. A CBC undercover investigation questioned claims that FreeLife's goji products possessed anti-cancer and anti-aging properties.
Former spokesperson Earl Mindell had made several unsupported health claims about the goji juice. A hidden camera investigation in January 2007 specifically challenged the anti-cancer claims of Himalayan Goji Juice. Mindell's PhD qualification was also scrutinized and later removed from his FreeLife biography after being proven invalid.
Preliminary evidence suggesting goji may affect cancer cells comes from in vitro studies, meaning in a dish. But scientific evidence for these effects occurring in vivo, or when consumed by humans, does not exist. H. Leon Bradlow, a co-author of a study Mindell cited, stated his original research did not prove goji has any anti-cancer properties.
Two years later, in 2009, FreeLife encountered more legal trouble. A class-action lawsuit filed in Arizona alleged the company made "false claims, misrepresentations, false and deceptive advertising" regarding its Himalayan Goji Juice, GoChi, and TaiSlim products.
FreeLife settled the lawsuit in April 2010. The terms included a donation to an "educational organization" and a promise to "take steps to ensure that its goji products are not marketed as 'unheated' or 'raw.'"
Faltinsky and Fournier have since launched L'Dara International, an anti-aging serum company. L'Dara began operations in late 2013 but has struggled to gain market presence. Both FreeLife and L'Dara list the same corporate address in Arizona, though they reportedly operate independently.
FreeLife International continues to offer a range of goji berry-based health, nutrition, and weight-loss products.