Supplement labels are technically regulated and practically confusing. A few conventions make it easy for a product to look stronger than it is without anyone saying anything untrue. Here is what we look at, including on our own products.
1. Per serving, or per pack?
This is the single most common source of confusion. A label saying 2000mg means very different things depending on whether that is what you take in a day or what is in the whole tub.
Check what the serving is and how many servings are in the pack. If a label states a headline number without telling you the serving size, that is a gap worth asking about.
2. Proprietary blends
A “proprietary blend, 1500mg” followed by a list of eight ingredients tells you the total but not the split. It is entirely possible for the first ingredient to account for nearly all of it and the rest to be present in token amounts.
There are legitimate reasons for a manufacturer to protect a formula. But as a buyer, a blend total is much less informative than a per-ingredient breakdown.
3. Extract ratios
You will see things like 10:1 or 20:1 next to a botanical. That is the concentration ratio — 10:1 means ten parts raw material produced one part extract. It is useful information, but it is not a quality measure on its own, and a higher ratio is not automatically better. What matters is the amount of extract you actually receive and what it has been standardised to.
4. What the claims can and cannot say
In Great Britain, a food supplement cannot claim to prevent, treat or cure any disease. Health claims are only permitted if they appear on the GB Nutrition and Health Claims Register, and they have to be worded as authorised, with any conditions met.
That is why compliant supplement copy can read oddly flat. A product that promises you specific outcomes is not being braver than its competitors — it is making claims it is not allowed to make.
Claims about detoxifying organs, altering your body's pH, or raising hormone levels are not authorised in any form.
5. Elemental amounts, for minerals
Minerals are supplied as compounds, and the compound weight is not the mineral weight. 500mg of magnesium citrate does not provide 500mg of magnesium — the elemental figure is considerably lower.
A good mineral label gives you the elemental amount and the %NRV (Nutrient Reference Value). If it only gives you the compound weight, you cannot tell what you are getting.
6. Allergens and suitability
Check the specific product rather than assuming a brand is uniformly vegan, vegetarian or halal. Capsule shells alone vary — gelatin and HPMC are not the same thing, and suitability differs product to product even within one range.
Why we are telling you this
Some of it applies to our own labels, and we would rather you checked. If a figure you need is not on one of our product pages, email us and we will either give you it or tell you plainly that we do not have it confirmed.