Sort the front
Claims, badges, moods. Three piles. Most fronts are mostly pile three.
How To Read A Supplement Claim
Ten minutes that will change how every bottle in the aisle reads.
Quick answer
A dietary supplement may make a structure and function claim — a statement that an ingredient affects the normal structure or function of the body, such as supports healthy blood glucose levels. It may not make a disease claim, which 21 CFR 101.93(g)(1) defines broadly as damage to an organ, part, structure or system such that it does not function properly. Structure and function claims must carry the FDA disclaimer, usually marked with an asterisk. The disclaimer is a required footnote to permitted claims; it does not make an impermissible claim acceptable.
There are only two kinds of claim that matter
The first is a structure and function claim. It says an ingredient affects the normal structure or function of the body. Supports healthy blood glucose levels. Supports immune function. Supports digestive comfort. These are permitted, and they must carry the FDA disclaimer.
The second is a disease claim. It says the product diagnoses, treats, cures, mitigates or prevents a disease. That territory belongs to drugs, which go through an approval process a supplement does not.
Everything else on a pack — badges, seals, adjectives, three-word taglines — is marketing that sits outside both categories, and most of it carries no defined meaning at all.
Once you can sort a front panel into those three piles, most supplement packaging becomes quite easy to read.
How broadly disease is defined
21 CFR 101.93(g)(1) defines a disease as “damage to an organ, part, structure, or system of the body such that it does not function properly … or a state of health leading to such dysfunctioning”.
That is much broader than most people expect. It captures named conditions, but it also captures states of health that lead to them.
Paragraph (g)(2) then lists the ways a claim can be made. The first factor is the name of the product. Others include statements about the formulation, citations to publications, and pictures or symbols on the label.
This is the part people miss most often. A claim does not have to be a sentence. A product name, a picture, or a phrase printed under a wordmark can all count.
Why the name matters
Because a name travels with the product everywhere: on the shelf, in an advert, in a search result, in a conversation. The regulation treats it as a claim for exactly that reason.
What the asterisk is actually for
An asterisk is a reference mark. Its job is to connect a claim to the footnote that qualifies it.
On a supplement pack, the convention is that each structure and function claim carries an asterisk, and the FDA disclaimer answers it: *These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
So when you pick up a bottle, look at the claims first and ask whether each one is marked. Then find the disclaimer and check that it is on the same label and reasonably placed.
A missing asterisk is rarely the most serious thing on a pack. It is a useful tell about how carefully the pack was produced — and production care is correlated with other kinds of care.
What the disclaimer is, and what it is not
It is a required footnote attached to permitted structure and function claims. It tells the reader that the FDA has not evaluated the statement.
It is not a licence. Printing it does not make a disease claim permissible, any more than a warning label makes an unsafe product safe. A disclaimer qualifies claims that were allowed to begin with.
It is also not a sign that anything is wrong. Almost every supplement in the market carries it, because almost every supplement makes some structure and function claim.
The practical use of the disclaimer, for a reader, is that its presence tells you the product is being sold as a supplement rather than a drug, and that nobody has reviewed the claims on the front.
Sorting real phrases into the three piles
| Phrase | Which pile | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Supports healthy blood glucose levels | Structure and function | Describes an effect on a normal body function, with no disease named |
| Improves insulin sensitivity | Structure and function, at the edge | “Improves” is stronger than “supports”, and insulin sensitivity is a clinical measure |
| Blood Sugar Support | Structure and function | Describes an effect on a normal body process, with no disease named |
| Made in an FDA-registered facility | Marketing, accurate | A registration. Not an approval, not an inspection result |
| FDA approved | Never accurate | FDA does not approve dietary supplements before marketing |
| Doctor formulated | Marketing | Means nothing unless a doctor is named and checkable |
| Natural ingredients | Marketing | No regulatory definition for a dietary supplement |
| Science · Health · Trust | Marketing | Three words with no referent |
Then turn the bottle round
The front of a pack is written by marketing. The Supplement Facts panel is written by regulation. That is why the back is worth more of your attention than the front.
Count the ingredients with a printed amount, then count the ones inside a proprietary blend. A blend declares only its total weight and lists its contents in descending order by weight, under 21 CFR 101.36(c). Individual amounts are not required.
Descending order still gives you something: the ingredient in position n cannot exceed the total divided by n. That is the only arithmetic a blend permits, and it produces ceilings rather than amounts.
Then look for standardisation percentages on anything described as an extract. Without one, even a printed milligram figure cannot be matched to a trial — and inside a blend, where there is no milligram figure at all, a percentage applied to a ceiling is the only number available.
A three-step habit
Count the back
Amounts printed versus amounts hidden. Write the ratio down; it is the single most useful number about any supplement.
Read the cautions
The one paragraph on the pack written by somebody worried about being wrong. It usually contains the most specific information on the label.
About this guide
It is a general explainer about how supplement claims are regulated, written for readers rather than lawyers. It is not legal advice and it is not medical advice, and it makes no claim about any particular product. The regulations quoted are linked in full in our source list.
How To Read A Supplement Claim: common questions
Is it FDA approved?
No dietary supplement is. The FDA states that it “does not have the authority to approve dietary supplements before they are marketed.” The badge on the listing says FDA registered facility, which means a factory filed a registration — an administrative step, not an assessment of this product.
What about all the badges?
There are twelve, and each one gets its own entry on our quality and safety page. The short version: the money-back roundel has a policy behind it, the vegetarian mark is supported by the printed other-ingredients lines, two of the three origin marks agree with the label, and the doctor-formulated mark names no doctor.
The photographs show plants. Are they in the product?
Green coffee beans, bacopa, rhodiola root and huperzia serrata are all on the teal panel, so those four are accurate for that bottle. They are on none of the purple panel's seven lines. The written brief, meanwhile, describes the purple panel. The pictures and the words are about different formulas.
Why is beta-alanine missing from the ingredient list on the sales page?
The written brief names six ingredients and beta-alanine is not among them, although it is printed on the panel at 40 mg. Nothing is being concealed: the panel governs and it declares all seven. But a buyer reading only the marketing copy has seen six of seven.
Who makes Memocept?
No manufacturer is named on either label. The teal label says Distributed by: LOJA EXPERIENCE LTDA, Aurora, CO 80011. The purple label says DISTRIBUTED BY: GEX CORPORATION LLP, PO BOX 12730, OGDEN, UT 84404. Two companies, two states, and a third name — OVICIA — on the bottle renders.
Where is the expiry date?
Not on the artwork supplied to us. The brief says the lot and best-before appear on the base of the bottle when the bottle shows them. The lot reference given is MEM-26/ME-2440.
Ready to try Memocept?
One bottle is 30 capsules at one a day, so a bottle is thirty days and the 60-day guarantee still has thirty left to run when it ends. The guarantee runs from purchase, not from delivery, and the price is shown at checkout.
Order NowRead the label firstNo price was published to us. We print no figure we have not seen ourselves. · 60-day guarantee from purchase · Not for under 18, pregnancy or nursing