How to read a supplement label in India.

A supplement label is a legal document with a marketing department. Some of it is there because the law says so, some because it sells, and the trick is knowing which is which. Here is the pack, back to front.

Form, then amount

Each line in the ingredient table should give the nutrient, its form, and the amount per serving. The form is the word after the nutrient. Magnesium as glycinate, citrate or oxide is three different things at the same number. For a herb, the form is the extract and what it is standardised to: ashwagandha root extract, 5 percent withanolides, 300 mg. Without the standardisation, the 300 mg is a weight of dried powder.

Then the amount, per serving, and check what a serving is. Two capsules a day means a bottle of 60 lasts a month, not two. For minerals, look for the word elemental. Magnesium bisglycinate 500 mg is roughly 70 mg of actual magnesium, since the glycine carries most of the weight.

For a probiotic the number is in CFU, colony-forming units, and the words that matter are "at end of shelf life". A day-of-manufacture count is a count of what has since died.

Percent RDA, and the ceiling

Next to each amount you should see a percent RDA. In India the reference is the ICMR-NIN allowance of 2020, which FSSAI made mandatory for labels from the middle of 2023. A good label says so; the Indian and American figures differ.

A health supplement in India may not carry more than one RDA of any nutrient. So on a compliant pack no vitamin or mineral line reads above 100 percent. Vitamin D tops out at 600 IU, B12 at 2.2 mcg, vitamin K at 55 mcg. If you see 5,000 IU or 1,500 mcg, you are holding a pharmacy medicine, an import, or a label that has not met the regulator yet. Herbs and omega-3 have no RDA, so that column should say so rather than invent a number.

Other ingredients

Below the table is a smaller line, the one most people skip. It lists everything that is not an active ingredient: the shell, flow agents, fillers, colours, sweeteners. None is a villain; every capsule needs a shell. But the length of the line tells you something. A shell and a flow agent suggests the amounts in the table filled the capsule on their own. Maltodextrin, three colours by their INS numbers, a sweetener and a Class II preservative suggests something else was needed to fill the space.

Two words to look for. Gelatin means the capsule is from an animal source. Hypromellose, or HPMC, means a vegetarian shell.

The marks the law requires

A supplement is a food under Indian law, and FSSAI, the food regulator, decides most of what follows.

The FSSAI logo and a fourteen-digit licence number, usually as "Lic. No." It is the brand owner's number, and if a contract manufacturer filled the bottle, the manufacturer's number goes on too. You can check a number on FSSAI's FoSCoS search in a minute. Buyers do, and bottles have turned up with another company's number.

The logo is not an endorsement. The rules forbid using it or the licence number to promote a product, so "FSSAI approved" is not a claim any brand is allowed to make. The number is a declaration, like a vehicle registration, and says nothing about what is in the capsule.

The green dot. A green circle in a green square near the name means vegetarian. Non-vegetarian products carry a brown triangle in a brown square; a fish-oil softgel gets the triangle. A green dot above an other-ingredients line that says gelatin is a question.

The category. The words HEALTH SUPPLEMENT, NUTRACEUTICAL or PROBIOTIC FOOD, in capitals, next to the name. If the pack says "Ayurvedic Proprietary Medicine" instead, it is regulated under a different law with an AYUSH licence. A brand should know which it is.

The line NOT FOR MEDICINAL USE, in capitals, in bold. The regulator is drawing a line between a supplement, which supports the body's normal working, and a medicine, which treats a condition. A pack that names a disease it fixes has crossed that line; read the rest of it with that in mind. The same rules bring "Not to exceed the recommended daily usage", "Not to be used as a substitute for a varied diet", "Keep out of reach of children", and a recommended usage level.

Two things a label may not say: "recommended by doctors", or anything that implies it, and restricted words like natural, genuine and real unless they are true. Where one sits in a brand name, a small line must admit it is only a brand name.

The rest. Manufacturer's name and address, or "manufactured by X for Y", which is fine if it is printed. Net quantity. Date of manufacture and best-before. Lot number. The MRP, which by law is inclusive of all taxes, so a GST line added at checkout is a question to ask. Customer-care contact. Country of origin on an import.

Price, per day

The MRP is per bottle. You take it per day. Divide. A 60-capsule pack at 1,200 rupees, two a day, is 40 rupees a day. A 30-capsule pack at 900 rupees, one a day, is 30 rupees a day. The second is the cheaper one, and the shelf price says the opposite. Then compare what matters: same form, same elemental or standardised amount, per day. If two labels match, buy the cheaper one. If they do not, the price is not the story.

Questions to ask any brand

A brand that reads its own label will answer these in one email. One that does not will send you a brochure. Which form is this, and why that one. What is the elemental or standardised amount per day. Which lab tests your batches, and can I see the report for the lot on my bottle. Who makes it, and where. Is the percent RDA against the Indian 2020 figure. Why is that colour in there.

Then read ours the same way: see the label