Explainer · 3 min read
What A Proprietary Blend Would Still Tell You
Readers treat ‘proprietary blend’ as a synonym for ‘they are hiding it’. It is not. It is a specific, rule-bound compromise, and there is real information inside it.
A proprietary blend must carry the total weight of the blend on one line, with its ingredients listed beneath it in descending order by weight.
That gives you two things a list of names does not: a ceiling for every ingredient, and a ranking.
Nothing supplied says HoneyPower uses a blend. If it does, the panel will say so — and this post is how to read it.
What the ordering rule gives you free
Suppose a bottle declared a 500 mg blend of the same six names, in the order the graphic uses. The descending-order rule alone fixes the arithmetic.
| Position | Ingredient | What the rule alone tells you |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pure Honey | At most 500 mg; at least as much as #2 |
| 2 | Panax Ginseng | At most 250 mg |
| 3 | Maca Root | At most 166 mg |
| 4 | Tribulus Terrestris | At most 125 mg |
| 5 | Horny Goat Weed | At most 100 mg |
| 6 | Black Pepper Extract | At most 83 mg |
Those ceilings fall straight out of the total and the ordering: if six things share 500 mg and the fourth is no heavier than the three above it, it cannot exceed a quarter of the total. No further information is needed and the seller has disclosed nothing beyond the total.
One number plus an ordering rule produces six upper bounds. A list of names produces none.
What it still does not give you
- Any actual amount. A ceiling is the most something can be, not what it is.
- A floor for anything except the last ingredient. The smallest could be a sprinkle.
- Any extract ratio or standardisation. Those are separate disclosures and a blend does not supply them.
So a blend is genuinely a compromise: it protects a formula from being copied exactly while leaving a careful reader able to bound every ingredient. Reasonable people disagree about whether that trade is fair. Nobody should confuse it with disclosing nothing.
What to look for on HoneyPower’s panel
- 1
The words ‘Proprietary Blend’ or a fanciful name
FDA permits an
appropriately descriptive term or fanciful name
, so it may be called something like ‘HoneyPower Matrix’. If six ingredients are indented under one heading with one weight, that is a blend whatever it is called. - 2
The total weight on that line
This is the number everything else is derived from. Write it down first.
- 3
The order of the six beneath it
Heaviest first. Compare it to the order on the marketing graphic — if they differ, the panel is the one that is governed by a rule.
- 4
Anything listed separately above the blend
Ingredients with an established Daily Value are listed on their own with their own weights, not inside the blend.
Questions
Does HoneyPower use a proprietary blend?
Nothing supplied to this site says either way. No panel was supplied, so the question is open and this site is not going to answer it by guessing.
Is a blend a red flag?
Not on its own. It is a trade-off. A long blend with a small total is more informative than people assume, and a short ingredient list with full amounts is better than either.
Can I work out exact amounts from a blend?
No. You can work out an upper bound for each ingredient and a ranking, which is often enough to answer the question you actually had.
Sources
- 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.”
What this page was checked against
Every figure on it is transcribed from the supplied Supplement Facts panel and checked-out pack, derived by arithmetic from those, or taken from a source on the references page.