Read the back of the pack in this order: the ingredient list (ranked by weight, with the amount in mg for each botanical and its Latin name), the portion and do-not-exceed lines, the three required warnings, then the batch code and best-before date on the base of the carton.
Two things tell you most of what you need. If the amounts are hidden inside a ‘proprietary blend’ total, the label has stopped being useful. If the batch code is printed where you can find it, the paperwork behind the pack can be checked.
Most supplement packs are read for about four seconds, and almost all of that goes to the front. The front is design. The back is the part that has to be true, because the rules that govern it are food-labelling rules, and they are specific about what has to appear and in what order.
Here is how to read the back of a pack - ours or anyone else's - in the order the information usually turns up.
What does the order of the ingredient list tell you?
Ingredients are listed by weight, heaviest first. That single rule tells you more than any claim on the front. If a plant is the reason you picked the pack up and it sits second from last, you now know roughly how much of it you are getting: not much.
Why the Latin name matters more than the common name
The list should also give you the botanical species, not just the common name. 'Ginseng' covers several unrelated plants sold under the same word. Panax ginseng is one of them. American ginseng, Siberian ginseng and Indian ginseng are three different plants with three different Latin names. A label that prints the Latin binomial has told you which one is actually in the tablet.
On our pack the list runs Ginseng 25 mg, Maca 25 mg, Tribulus 20 mg, Guarana 10 mg, Ashwagandha 10 mg, Catuaba 10 mg. Six numbers, adding to 100 mg per tablet, with the Latin name next to each one.
What a ‘proprietary blend’ hides
Directly beneath the list is where most labels in this category stop being useful. A 'proprietary blend' is declared as a single total - 500 mg, 1,000 mg, whatever it is - with the individual plants listed underneath in order but without weights. The number looks large. It tells you nothing about the split. A blend can be 480 mg of one cheap filler plant and 20 mg spread across the five names you were interested in, and the label would look identical either way.
UK food supplement rules require the amount of the substances with a nutritional or physiological effect to be declared for the recommended daily portion. Where a brand groups them into a blend anyway, you are being asked to trust the front of the pack instead of the back.
What ‘†NRV not established’ actually means
You will also see a dagger or an asterisk against botanical amounts, usually resolving to '†NRV not established'. NRV means Nutrient Reference Value - the daily reference figure used for vitamins and minerals. Those figures exist for zinc and vitamin C. They do not exist for maca or catuaba, so there is no percentage to print. The footnote is not evasion. It is the honest answer.
What has to appear under the portion recommendation?
The portion recommendation says how much the manufacturer intends you to take. Immediately below it there should be a warning not to exceed that amount. Read both. On our pack the instruction is a maximum of one tablet in any 24-hour period - a ceiling, not a schedule. There is no reason to take one every day, and no reason to ever take two.
The three warnings a careful pack always carries
Three more lines are required and are worth checking for, because a pack that omits them was not put together carefully:
- a statement that supplements should not be used as a substitute for a varied and balanced diet;
- a statement to keep the product out of the reach of young children;
- a statement that the product is not a medicine and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
Then look for what the pack does not shout about. Guarana seed naturally contains caffeine, so any blend containing it contains caffeine. Ours works out at under 5 mg a tablet, which is less than a cup of decaf. That figure belongs on the label whether or not it flatters the product.
What are the batch code and best-before date for?
Near the base of the carton, usually printed after the pack was made rather than in the original artwork, sit two things: a best-before date and a batch code. The date is a quality date. The code is the thread back to the factory - it identifies the specific run of tablets in your hand, the day it was pressed, and the paperwork filed against it.
That paperwork is the Certificate of Analysis. A CoA is issued per batch and typically confirms the identity of each botanical, tests for heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, mercury and arsenic, and runs microbiological checks. Ours are produced by a laboratory accredited to ISO/IEC 17025, the international standard for testing competence.
The practical test of any brand is whether you can get hold of one. Quote the batch code from the side of your pack to coa@maleup.co.uk and we send the certificate for that batch. If a brand cannot produce a CoA for the code on the pack you bought, the code is decoration.
What a label is not allowed to do.
Worth knowing, because it explains a lot of odd phrasing. None of the six plants in our blend holds an authorised health claim in Great Britain. Their claims sit 'on hold' under retained Regulation (EC) 1924/2006 while the assessment process remains unfinished. In practice that means a food supplement label can describe what a plant is and how it has traditionally been used, marked with a dagger, and it cannot say what the plant does to your body.
So when a pack in this aisle promises an outcome, it is not being braver than the rest of us. It is breaking a rule. And when a pack sounds carefully worded, that is usually a sign someone read the rules before writing the copy.
A good label is boring. It gives you six numbers, six Latin names, an origin, a date, a code and an email address, and it leaves the conclusions to you. That is the whole job.
- Ingredients are listed heaviest first — position in the list is a dose clue.
- A Latin binomial (Panax ginseng) identifies the plant; a common name does not.
- ‘Proprietary blend’ declares one total and hides the split between plants.
- ‘†NRV not established’ is the honest answer for botanicals, not evasion.
- The batch code is what lets you request the Certificate of Analysis for your pack.
Common questions
Do UK supplement labels have to show the amount of each botanical?
The amount of each substance with a nutritional or physiological effect has to be declared for the recommended daily portion. Where a brand groups botanicals into a single ‘proprietary blend’ total instead, you are being asked to trust the front of the pack rather than the back.
What does ‘NRV not established’ mean on a supplement label?
NRV stands for Nutrient Reference Value, the daily reference figure used for vitamins and minerals. Those figures exist for nutrients such as zinc and vitamin C. They do not exist for botanicals like maca or catuaba, so there is no percentage to print and the label says so with a dagger.
Why should a supplement label print the Latin name of a plant?
Common names cover several unrelated plants. ‘Ginseng’ is used for Panax ginseng, American ginseng, Siberian ginseng and Indian ginseng — four different plants. Printing the binomial tells you which one is in the tablet.
How do I get a Certificate of Analysis for the pack I bought?
Find the batch code printed on the carton next to the best-before date and email it to coa@maleup.co.uk. The certificate that comes back is for that production run, not a generic sample.
How much caffeine is in a botanical blend containing guarana?
Guarana seed naturally contains caffeine, so any blend containing it contains caffeine. In the AllMaleUp tablet it works out at under 5 mg — less than a cup of decaf — and that figure belongs on the label.
Is a bigger milligram number on the front of the pack better?
Not on its own. A large total says nothing about the split between plants, and nothing about the extract strength behind each one. The declared amount per botanical is the figure worth comparing.
Six botanicals, 100 mg per tablet, every weight printed on the carton: Ginseng 25 mg, Maca 25 mg, Tribulus 20 mg, Guarana 10 mg, Ashwagandha 10 mg, Catuaba 10 mg. Maximum one tablet in any 24-hour period. Pressed in the UK on a GMP-registered line.
See the packs →† Describes the traditional use of these botanicals (UK 'on-hold' botanical claims under retained Regulation (EC) 1924/2006). Not authorised EFSA health claims. AllMaleUp is a food supplement, not a medicine.