[ lab notes ]
< the batch records >
the dose is the argument
there is no proprietary blend here. there was never going to be one.
if you want to know whether a supplement company believes its own formula, skip the marketing and read the panel. look for one thing: is there a number next to every ingredient, or is there one number at the bottom of a list?
one number at the bottom is a proprietary blend. and a proprietary blend is, with very few exceptions, a hiding place.
the stated reason is trade secrecy — that publishing the ratios would let competitors copy the formula.
it does not hold. any competent lab can reverse-engineer a blend from a purchased tub. what secrecy actually protects is the ratio between the expensive ingredients and the cheap ones.
here is the mechanic. ingredients inside a blend are listed in descending order by weight. so a brand can put a cheap filler first, list four well-researched actives behind it in trace amounts, and print all five names on the front of the tub. the panel is completely accurate. the product is mostly the cheap thing.
that is legal. it is extremely common. and it is invisible unless the doses are published.
the doses are not secret from the manufacturer.
§111.260(e) requires the batch production record to capture the identity and the weight or measure of each component in every batch. §111.260(f) requires the actual yield against the theoretical yield.1
so the number exists. it is written down. it is required by law to be written down.
a proprietary blend is a decision not to show you a number that is already on file.
every active in no. 01 synergy is listed with its own amount, the form we chose, and the form we did not.
(+) vitamin b12 (methylcobalamin)
(—) not cyanocobalamin
the second line is the one carrying information. cyanocobalamin is cheaper and more shelf-stable. methylcobalamin is the form your body uses without a conversion step. stating only what we used tells you what we bought. stating what we rejected tells you what we decided.
publishing doses removes every escape route.
it means the dose has to survive comparison to the literature — anyone can pull the study and check whether we used the studied amount or a tenth of it. it means we cannot quietly reformulate downward when an input gets expensive. it means an underdose becomes a visible, checkable, permanent fact instead of a rounding error inside a blend.
we accepted all of that on purpose. a published dose is a claim you can falsify, and a claim you can falsify is the only kind worth making.
no proprietary blends. every active named, every dose stated, every form defended.
stop stacking. start calibrating.
[1] eCFR — 21 CFR §111.260, required contents of the batch production record, including (e) the identity and weight or measure of each component and (f) actual versus theoretical yield. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-111/subpart-I