OKAY I just got these today (gallbladder removed last week and having pain/severe digestive issues) and HAVE NOT TRIED THEM yet, but I want to address the Reviewers complaining of EXPIRED product. This is directly from the Standard Process Website, from their FAQs:

Why do tablets sometimes vary in color, taste, and smell?
Standard Process does not use any type of artificial flavoring in our products. Therefore, slight differences in color, texture, and smell from batch to batch are the result of using
freshly grown raw materials.

What does the "Best Used By" date mean?
The "Best Used By" information, located on all product boxes and on the neck of all product bottles, represents the date by which the product is best used by and the product code.
The "Best Used By" date should not be viewed as an expiration date but as a guideline for when products are considered 100 percent potent. Products tend to lose potency over time but may
still be considered effective after this date. Standard Process only guarantees product potency up until the "Best Used By" date. Products are continuously tested to determine their shelf
life. This testing has shown that certain products tend to have shorter shelf lives, which is reflected by the "Best Used By" date.
In this example, the month and year the product is best used by is July 2014. Product code numbers are used to determine when products are produced. In the example, the product code is
L217. L: The lot number 2: This is the last number of the year it was produced (2 = Year 2012) 1: The batch number 7: The month it was produced (7 = July)

SURE ENOUGH, the product I received from Amazon DOES have the Best By Date (June 2014) on both the outer box and on the neck of the bottle. It is VERY difficult to see on the bottle, because it is printed in black on a very dark brown glass, but it's there, and it matches the date on the box. Now, the product is not perfectly fresh/just now manufactured, because the lot number indicates that it was produced in May 2012. But the Best Buy date means it is "fresh" and full potency for 22 more months. If I take this product as directed on the bottle, I'll run out in about 2 weeks or sooner.

So, check the BOTTLE date for freshness before you assume you are getting an inferior product from this seller.

My only complaint thus far is that today, less than 24 hours after my initial order, the price dropped by 40%. That sucks.

I will amend this Review to comment on the product performance after I try it a few times.

ADDENDUM 9/28/12 Having used the product for three meals in a row, a dinner, a breakfast and a lunch, where I deliberately ingested more fats than normally would have, I find that they do seem to perform as promised; at least, so far so good.

I bought these pills hoping that they would not be too big. I'm happy to announce that they are not super big and easy to shallow. The pills are easy to digest and it doesn't upset my stomach like others have.

This product is a life saver. I was misdiagnosed, which I have found only recently is common with chronic gall bladder malfunction, with bacterial infection. Over the last 25 years I've been eliminating foods from my diet due to excess gas and SEVERE diarrhea which have increased yearly. It started with onions then cabbage then cutting back on fried foods and finally ALL dairy products including probiotics. Over the last 9 months I've eliminated almost everything except crackers, rice, baked potatoes, white meat baked or boiled chicken and white fish baked or broiled also. These are all cooked with NO fat, butter, oil, margarine and definitely NO spices just salt only.

After an ultrasound six months ago said it was definitely not the gall bladder I've been to 5 doctors trying to find out what it is. For the last two months I haven't been able to eat anything that hasn't literally ejected without digestion within 1-3 hours after eating. My accupuncturist, who provided the only relief I've found, suggested I try Bile Salts and especially Standard Process after being up every night for a week at 2 AM with severe diarrhea followed by severe Chills even after piling every blanket in the house on top of me. This would last for several hours during which I felt like it was surely my last night alive. I woke up every morning just OK but with no problems until I ate again. She said if the Bile Salts worked this indicated that my problem was either gall bladder or bile duct related. I ordered the Prime expedited delivery and got this in 2 days and began immediately with one pill after a meal which was suggested by the reviews here on Amazon. For the first time in months I was able to eat and remain pain free for at least half a day. This prompted me to tell a little lie to my Dr. that another Dr. said the Bile Salts indicated gall bladder problems so she sent me for a HIDA Scan which confirmed an 11% bile ejection rate for my gall bladder (Normal is 30-60%). I have now scheduled surgery and am thankful that these helped me discover my problem and also it appears that they will be helpful after surgery as well.

I tried taking two pills after a meal after a week of taking these, but this seemed to bother me somewhat so have stuck with just one pill since this appears to work. Also, I only seem to be able to eat and take one pill twice a day. When I eat three times a day and take one pill each time I still experience abdominal pain and some diarrhea. I'm happy though since I had only been eating one meal a day during the last month.

I'll try to post an update after surgery to tell you of my progress following surgery. I hope these "miracle" pills continue to work!

Excellent product

Amazon and Proline, it is despicable that you offer this very well-known product without advising the customers that this is very old stock!

Thinking I'd be getting fresh product, I ordered four bottles from this supplier via Amazon. (Mistake!) Soon thereafer, when I developed diahrrea, I worried that something was wrong with my health. I didn't know that my health was fine, but my bile stimulator supplement was letting me down. It took awhile to figure out.

Fresh Cholacol is probably the best product on the market for those of us who no longer have gall bladders. This outdated product, however, is just a shadow of the fresh product. What Amazon had sent me had dark spots on the tablets, and it tasted horrible on my tongue. What helped to wake me up was a Dec. 2011 customer review here complaining that the product they'd received was outdated.

To give myself a basis of comparison, I then acquired Cholacol from a distributor authorized by Standard Process. (FYI, Standard Process prefers to sell to medical practitioners. When I phoned them, they said that they definitely did NOT authorize Proline to sell their products on Amazon. Apparently, they have this practice to keep up their standards and performance.) My new tablets were free of the ugly dark spots which were on all Proline tablets. The taste of the new tablets was neutral, and didn't thus prompt gag reflexes. In response to my question, Standard Process advised that these outdated supplements wouldn't make me sick, but they also wouldn't perform in the ways I needed.

At this point, I consider myself to have been ripped off by the purchase of four bottles of Cholacol from this distributor on Amazon. I came here simply to warn others. This purchase is a sorry exception to an otherwise good Amazon experience over a number of years.

Potential future customers, please note that the Cholacol sold here is NOT the same as you'd get from a Standard Process authorized supplier. Cholacol is a terrific product. Do not confuse it with the outdated stuff dumped on unwitting customers here.

UPDATE: 9.28.12
After I posted the review above, Amazon temporarily halted sales of this product, which I considered to be good business practices. After awhile, a new provider was found, and since I had named the old provider (ProLine), I left my review the same. I did end up switching to a different Cholacol supplier, however.

Now it's come to my attention that Proline, who supplied my products at the time of this review, is back on the job. I have to presume that they are satisfying Amazon's standards, as based on customer reviews made since I made mine. (If not, I'm sure that customers will notice digestion issues, and hence will write here about that!)

Due to Amazon's due diligence, and due to Cholacol's over-all excellence, I changed my original one-star rating to a five-star rating. The new rating points to my good experience of the product when it's fresh.

Here's a related update regarding Standard Process and their product distribution practices. As my review indicates, I'd spoken with Standard Process before publishing my comments. At that time, Standard Process thanked me for alerting them to a vendor they had not authorized (ProLine). Back then, they said their practice was to offer their products primarily through doctors (for the sake of customer education). Just recently, however, I interacted with an Amazon customer whom I had referred to Standard Process, to get her questions answered. She later indicated that she had contacted Standard Process, and moreover, that Standard Process had sold her Cholacol directly. My update is that it now appears their policies have changed since I wrote my review, and that they've expanded the range of their merchandise venues.