How to read a supplement label in India: licences, RDA percentages and proprietary blends
The regulations give you more to work with than most people realise - including a sentence every supplement must print.
A supplement label is a regulated document pretending to be an advertisement. Learning which parts are required - and therefore checkable - turns the whole category from a matter of faith into a matter of comparison.
What the rules require
Health supplements and nutraceuticals sold in India fall under the FSS (Health Supplements, Nutraceuticals, Food for Special Dietary Use, Food for Special Medical Purpose, Functional Food and Novel Food) Regulations, 2016. Among other things, those rules mean a compliant pack carries the following.
- An FSSAI licence number, with manufacturer or importer details.
- A statement that the product is not for medicinal use.
- The quantity of each nutrient per recommended daily dose, with the percentage of RDA where one exists.
- A recommended daily usage and any relevant advisory warnings.
- No claim to treat, cure or prevent any disease.
- Batch number, manufacturing date, expiry or best before, and net quantity.
The not-for-medicinal-use line is the most informative sentence on the pack, and it is required precisely because these products are foods rather than medicines. A product being sold to you as a treatment while printing that sentence is telling you two contradictory things - trust the printed one.
Percentage of RDA, read properly
| What you see | Read it as |
|---|---|
| 50 to 100 per cent RDA | A sensible top-up formulation |
| Several hundred per cent on B vitamins | Common and mostly excreted; not more effective |
| High multiples on vitamins A, D, E or K | Worth care - fat-soluble vitamins accumulate |
| No percentage given | Either no RDA exists for it, or the amount is not worth stating |
| Amount per serving with serving size of three capsules | Divide accordingly; per-capsule content is what you will actually take |
Proprietary blends
A proprietary blend lists several ingredients and one total weight, so the split between them is unknown. That is usually the point: the cheap ingredients can dominate while the marketable ones appear in trace amounts.
Ingredients within a blend are listed in descending order, which gives you something. But a 500 mg blend of eight botanicals cannot contain a meaningful dose of more than two, and a product unwilling to state its doses is asking to be trusted rather than compared. Prefer labels with per-ingredient amounts.
Six checks before you buy
- FSSAI licence number present, manufacturer named, address verifiable.
- Per-ingredient doses stated, not hidden in a blend.
- The dose per day compared against the dose used in whatever research the product invokes.
- Third-party testing named, with the certification programme identified.
- Excipients and allergens declared - relevant for gluten, soy, dairy and shellfish-derived ingredients.
- Expiry date far enough out that you can finish the bottle at the stated dose.
Claim language to distrust
Because disease claims are prohibited, marketing shifts into a vocabulary of implication: supports immunity, promotes detoxification, aids metabolism, restores balance, boosts energy. None of these are measurable claims, and none can be held against the product if nothing happens.
Also treat clinically proven with suspicion unless the study is identifiable. A product invoking research it does not cite is invoking the idea of research.
The most trustworthy labels in this category are dull. A single named ingredient, a stated dose that matches published work, a manufacturer who tests, and no promises. Those are also, reliably, the cheapest products on the shelf.
Every score on Filtizy is shown working
The factors, weights and thresholds behind a product's number are published in full - including the ones we consider weak.
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