Ancestral Supplements is an organ supplement brand founded by Brian Johnson, better known online as the "Liver King." The company sells freeze-dried beef organ capsules, and claims its Grass Fed Beef Liver supports "energy metabolism, immune health and heart, brain and liver health."
But is freeze-dried beef liver actually good for you? Does Ancestral Supplements prove the nutrient doses it markets? What did a 2026 contamination notice allege about its beef liver? And is Ancestral Supplements better or worse than other popular organ supplements like Heart & Soil?
In this article we'll answer all of these questions and more, as we analyze the ingredients in Ancestral Supplements Grass Fed Beef Liver to give our take on whether or not it's healthy.
We'll also cover the brand's FDA advisory letter and legal history, share our concerns with some of the health claims on the brand's website, and compare Ancestral Supplements to other popular organ and animal-based supplements to pick our winners.
Key takeaways:
- No unhealthy additives
- Prop 65 notice alleges PFOS contamination
- We do not currently recommend Ancestral Supplements
Ingredient Analysis
The ingredients in Ancestral Supplements Grass Fed Beef Liver are shown below:
image source: https://ancestralsupplements.com/
Grassfed liver is the only active ingredient, and is included at a 3,000 milligram (mg) dose across a six-capsule serving.
Organ meats are rich in vitamin A, vitamin B12, iron, zinc, folate, selenium, choline and essential fatty acids, as we documented in our heart and soil reviews article.
The brand states that a serving provides around 2 mg of heme iron, the form of iron found in animal foods.
A 2024 meta-analysis of 13 clinical trials found that heme iron caused fewer side effects than non-heme iron, but found no significant difference in iron status outside of children with anemia or low iron stores.
Ancestral Supplements markets preformed vitamin A as a primary benefit of this product, but doesn't disclose how much vitamin A a serving contains.
Labeling problems are common in this category: 59% of bovine liver supplements had at least one instance of noncompliance with US labeling regulations in a review published in the Journal of Dietary Supplements journal.
The inactive ingredients in this supplement should be safe and non-toxic.
We believe that Ancestral Supplements Grass Fed Beef Liver may improve nutritional status given the nutrient density of organ meat, but we cannot identify evidence that it delivers the brand's specific energy, immune, heart, brain or liver health benefits.
We do not currently recommend this supplement due to the PFOS allegation covered in the Lawsuits / FDA Warnings section (discussed below), and because the brand doesn't disclose the vitamin A content it markets.
Does it Contain Toxins?
Ancestral Supplements has been the subject of several public actions that we believe consumers should be aware of.
In April 2025, the FDA sent the company an online advisory letter stating that Ancestral Grassfed Beef Thyroid was an unapproved new drug, because the brand's website "recommends or suggests the use of Ancestral Grassfed Beef Thyroid to treat or prevent hypothyroidism and Grave's disease."
In February 2026, the Environmental Research Center filed a Proposition 65 60-day notice alleging that Grass Fed Beef Liver, the product reviewed in this article, contains perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS). The same notice alleges lead in the brand's Ancestral Minerals supplement.
PFOS is worth flagging in a liver supplement specifically, because the liver is the major target of PFOS in the body, according to a medical review.
We want to note that a 60-day notice is an allegation filed by a private enforcement group, not a finding by a regulator, and we cannot identify any finding of liability against Ancestral Supplements. We also don't necessarily agree with California's Prop 65 thresholds, which we consider conservative.
For context, the same group filed a similar PFAS notice against a competing liver supplement from Heart & Soil in November 2025, so Ancestral Supplements isn't the only organ supplement brand facing these allegations.
The group then filed three further notices against Ancestral Supplements between April and June of 2026, alleging lead in two protein powder flavors and PFAS in a hormone support supplement.
Separately, Ancestral Supplements and founder Brian Johnson were named in a $25 million class action filed after Johnson admitted in December 2022 to using anabolic steroids he had previously denied taking.
The case was voluntarily dismissed with prejudice in March 2023, and the terms were not made public.
To the brand's credit, Ancestral Supplements displays results from a third-party Light Labs test on its product page, dated August 2026, which remains uncommon in the US supplement industry.
This test does not include PFOS data.
Does it Cause Side Effects?
Ancestral Supplements doesn't appear to have been studied in any clinical trials, which makes it challenging to determine whether or not it causes side effects.
The brand markets this product as a source of preformed vitamin A, and preformed vitamin A intakes just twice the recommended daily amount are associated with osteoporosis and hip fracture, according to a medical review published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition journal.
Because the brand doesn't publish the vitamin A content of a serving, consumers taking this supplement alongside a multivitamin or cod liver oil have no practical way to track their total preformed vitamin A intake.
We do not consider Ancestral Supplements Grass Fed Beef Liver likely to cause serious side effects in healthy adults when taken alone at the labeled dose.
Questionable Health Claims
There are several claims on the Ancestral Supplements website that we disagree with from a scientific perspective.
On a page describing the benefits of eating raw liver, the brand states that liver's heme iron is "crucial for helping prevent iron deficiency anemia:"
image source: https://ancestralsupplements.com/
Iron deficiency anemia is a medical condition, and we'd prefer to see supplement brands avoid disease-prevention language, particularly a brand that has already received an FDA letter over disease claims.
The Grass Fed Beef Liver product page lists "Fertility and Fetal Development" among the product's benefits, and describes its vitamin A as supporting fertility:
image source: https://ancestralsupplements.com/
We consider it a concern that the brand markets vitamin A for fertility and fetal development without disclosing how much vitamin A a serving contains.
The same product page states that freeze-dried liver has "been shown to optimally preserve nutritional factors and co-factors."
We cannot identify any published research cited on the brand's website to substantiate this claim.
Ancestral Supplements doesn't publish a research or clinical studies page, and we couldn't identify a single peer-reviewed citation across the claim pages we reviewed at the time of publishing this article.
Ancestral Supplements vs. Competitors
Here's how Ancestral Supplements compares to other popular organ and animal-based supplement brands in terms of formulation quality, in our opinion:
Heart & Soil
This brand sells comparable grass-fed organ capsules with a similarly clean inactive ingredient profile.
As noted in the Lawsuits / FDA Warnings section, Heart & Soil's liver supplement was also named in a PFAS notice, which may reflect the fact that PFOS accumulates in cattle livers, according to a 2013 animal study.
However, Heart & Soil is Informed Sport Certified, meaning every batch is independently tested for banned substances, while Ancestral Supplements has faced three additional contaminant notices across its product line.
Heart & Soil is the winner from a health perspective.
Winner: Heart & Soil
Dr. Kellyann Bone Broth
This brand sells grass-fed bone broth marketed for similar ancestral nutrition benefits.
As we documented in our Dr Kellyann bone broth article, that brand uses natural flavors in its powdered products and was also the subject of an Environmental Research Center lead action.
Ancestral Supplements contains no natural flavors or other flavoring additives, just beef liver in a gelatin capsule.
Ancestral Supplements is the winner from a health perspective.
Winner: Ancestral Supplements
Liver Health Formula
This is a botanical liver support supplement rather than an organ supplement.
We cannot identify a single effectively dosed ingredient in this formulation, as silymarin is included at just 40 mg against clinical trial doses of at least 280 mg, so we consider Ancestral Supplements the more effective product.
However, Liver Health Formula's ingredients are safe and non-toxic, and we cannot identify any contaminant allegations against the brand.
Liver Health Formula is the winner from a health perspective.
Winner: Liver Health Formula
Ancestral Supplements Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Single whole food active ingredient
- Clean inactive ingredient profile
- Publishes third-party test results
- Grass-fed sourcing
- Unlikely to cause serious side effects
Cons:
- Prop 65 notice alleges PFOS in the reviewed product
- Three additional Prop 65 notices filed in 2026
- Received an FDA advisory letter over disease claims
- Doesn't disclose the vitamin A content it markets
- Markets vitamin A for fertility and fetal development
- Makes an anemia prevention claim on its website
- No peer-reviewed citations on claim pages
- Doesn't appear clinically tested
- Founder admitted to steroid use after public denials
- Named in a $25 million class action
- Less healthy than some competitors
