Proprietary Blends
A blend tells you the ingredient ranking and nothing about the amounts. Treat it as information withheld, not as a trade secret you are obliged to respect.
Supplement label literacy
The stack is what you take.
The label is what's in it.
How supplement labels actually work — proprietary blends, certification marks, claim language and manufacturing boilerplate, and what each one does and does not tell you.
A supplement label is a legally structured document. Parts of it are required, parts are optional, and one provision lets a manufacturer withhold the numbers that would let you evaluate the product at all. Once you know which part is which, the gaps stop being invisible.
There are no product rankings here and no scores, because ranking finished products honestly would require laboratory testing we have not done — the reasoning is here. What you get instead is how the label works, which transfers to every product you will ever pick up.
Start here
Proprietary blends are the single most consequential thing on a supplement label, because they turn a panel you could assess into one you cannot.
Certification
Certification verifies that contents match the label and screens for contaminants. It is a claim about identity and purity, never about efficacy.
Claim Language
'Supports', 'promotes' and 'helps maintain' are structure/function claims, permitted without proving an effect. A disease claim would require drug approval, which is why you never see one.
Clinically Studied
Check whether the study used this dose, and whether it tested the ingredient or the finished product. Those two questions dispose of most claims in this category.
Other Ingredients
Excipients are mostly mundane and necessary. The line matters for allergens, capsule material, sweeteners and anyone with a real sensitivity.
Manufacturing
'FDA registered facility' is not approval. cGMP compliance is legally required, so claiming it is not a distinction — third-party GMP certification is.
Cost Per Dose
Divide price by servings, then adjust for how many servings it takes to reach an effective dose. Scoop size is a pricing lever.
Contamination
The risk concentrates in specific categories: weight loss, sexual enhancement and bodybuilding. Certification is the practical defence, and for tested athletes it is non-negotiable.
Looking for doses rather than labels?
Our sister site The Scoop Desk
covers supplement ingredients — what each one does and the doses the
research actually used. Same people; we say so here.