Twelve Benefit Tiles And Not One Number

The test: could this sentence be false?

A claim you can check is one that could turn out to be wrong. Contains 500 mg of maca root per serving could be false — you could assay the capsule and find 50. That is what makes it worth printing.

Supports overall male health, vitality and well-being cannot be false, because nothing would count as disproving it. It is not a lie. It is a sentence built so that the question does not arise.

The two interesting ones

Tile six of the key benefits is Easy-to-take capsules — convenient capsules for daily use. It is the only completely checkable claim on the panel and it is true. It is also a statement that the capsule is a capsule, presented as a benefit alongside five claims about vitality.

Tile six of the second set says the formula is backed by science and crafted for real results. That one could be checked — if a study were named. None is: no author, no year, no journal, no identifier, anywhere in the supplied pack.

The only unambiguously true claim on a twelve-tile benefits panel is that the capsule is a capsule.

How to use this on any product, not just this one

1. Count the tiles. A long list of benefits with no numbers is one claim repeated, not twelve claims.
2. Find the asterisk and read what it points to. It points to the FDA disclaimer, and it applies to every tile above it.
3. Underline every verb. Supports, helps support and designed to are unfalsifiable by construction. Contains, provides and delivers come with numbers attached.
4. Then turn the bottle around. The panel is the only part of the packaging with rules, and it is the part the graphic is drawing attention away from.

Questions

• Is it illegal to write tiles like these?

  No. Structure/function claims of this kind are permitted for dietary supplements provided they carry the FDA disclaimer, which these do. The regulatory line is between a structure/function claim and a disease claim, and none of the twelve crosses it.

• So is the panel dishonest?

  No — and that is the point worth taking away. It is doing exactly what a benefits panel does. The mistake is reading it as information about the product rather than as advertising, and that mistake is the reader's to avoid.

• What would a good benefits panel look like?

  It would name an ingredient, an amount, and what was found at that amount, with a citation. Very few do, in any category.

Sources

1. FDA 101: Dietary SupplementsU.S. Food and Drug Administration“The FDA does NOT have the authority to approve dietary supplements for safety and effectiveness, or to approve their labeling, before the supplements are sold to the public.”
2. Health Products Compliance GuidanceU.S. Federal Trade Commission“How do the dosage and formulation of the advertised product compare to the product used in the study?” and “If there are significant discrepancies between research conditions and the real-life use being promoted, advertisers must evaluate whether it is appropriate to extrapolate from the research to the claimed effect.”
3. Dietary Supplement Labeling Guide, Chapter IV: Nutrition LabelingU.S. Food and Drug AdministrationThe document this whole site is about, and the reason the absence of a panel matters. Question 30: “You must list the quantitative amount by weight per serving immediately following the name of the dietary ingredient.” Question 3: “You must list the names and quantities of dietary ingredients present in your product.” Question 34 covers proprietary blends, which must carry the total weight of the blend and list its ingredients in descending order by weight. The guidance is marked “Contains Nonbinding Recommendations.”

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