How to Read Your Supplement Facts Label

There are thousands of dietary supplements on the market today for all sorts of concerns and it can be confusing to know which is best for you.

It's important to know what you're putting into your body and the Supplement Fact panel at the back of your supplement bottle or packet can help - if you know how to read it.

This article will help you to decode the Supplement Facts label on dietary supplements.

If you've ever wondered what %DV means, or what constitutes a proprietary blend (and whether you should trust them), this article is for you. Let's take it step by step...

Clean, transparent nutrition backed by label clarity

Performance Lab® NutriGenesis Multivitamin for Women is built for full-label transparency and bioavailable nutrients.

Fully transparent label with no proprietary blends or hidden dosages.

Bioavailable NutriGenesis nutrients designed for optimal absorption and usability.

Clean-label formula made without unnecessary fillers, additives, or artificial ingredients.

Learn More

What is a Supplement Facts Label?

This is the label you’ll find on every bottle or packet of dietary supplements, often at the rear. It is designed for vitamins, minerals, amino acids, herbs and the like. It looks very like a Nutrition Facts label that you find on food, but there are some major differences...

The Difference between Supplement Facts Label and Nutrition Facts Label

Although they look similar, Supplement Facts and Nutrition Facts labels are designed for different types of products and follow slightly different FDA labeling requirements.

A Nutrition Facts label is used for conventional foods and beverages and focuses on overall nutrition information and nutritional content such as calories, saturated fat, trans fat, soluble fiber, polyunsaturated fat, dietary fiber, sugars, and other nutrients commonly consumed as part of a normal diet.

By contrast, a Supplement Facts label is used specifically for dietary supplements such as vitamins, minerals, herbs, amino acids, and other dietary ingredients intended to supplement the diet rather than replace food.

Supplement labels place greater emphasis on active ingredients, serving size, and percent Daily Value (more on this shortly), while also allowing certain ingredients without established Daily Values, such as botanicals or specialty compounds.

In short:

• Nutrition Facts panels cover food labeling and are intended to help consumers evaluate foods

• Supplement Facts panels are designed to help consumers understand the composition and potency of dietary supplement products.

What Is on the Supplement Facts Panel?

Dietary supplements labeling requirements are set by the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA insists that the supplement fact label includes:

Serving Size

This is important as the nutrient amounts listed correspond directly to this serving amount (for instance, if serving size is three capsules, a third of the listed nutrients will be in each capsule).

Number of Servings Per Bottle or Container

The total number of servings in the entire bottle or package. This tells you how long your bottle may last for (ie, 60 capsules of two servings a day typically lasts for a month).

Dietary Ingredients

The dietary ingredients declared in the supplement facts panel must be listed using their common or usual name.

This typically includes well-known nutrients such as vitamin C (ascorbic acid), vitamin D, vitamin E, folic acid, calcium carbonate, and amino acids, including cases where only individual amino acids are listed.

In many cases, multiple vitamins and minerals are grouped together in a standard order.

Certain nutrients typically associated with nutrition facts-style labeling, such as saturated fat, dietary fiber, sodium, cholesterol, and protein, may also need to be declared when present in measurable amounts.

This helps maintain transparency across supplement labels and ensures alignment with broader food labeling expectations, even when those nutrients are not the primary focus of the supplement itself.

Quantities of Each Ingredient

The quantitative amounts of each ingredient present in one serving must be given, along with its % Daily Value if it has one.

This is usually provided in grams, milligrams, micrograms or more. They'll usually be written as g, mg, and mcg, but there may be some variation on the last one.

% Daily Value

How much of each nutrient the product contains compared to the recommended daily amount.

You will see Daily Value (DV) or Percent Daily Value (%DV) on your supplements label if you live in the United States or Canada.

If you live elsewhere (UK, Europe, New Zealand, Australia, for instance) you’ll see Nutrient Reference Value (NRV) instead. Essentially they mean the same thing.

If you’re wondering where they came from, they replaced RDAs - Recommended Dietary Allowance or Recommended Daily Allowance respectively.

So what does Daily Value actually mean?

Daily Value (DV): DVs are simplified, standard benchmarks used on food and supplement labels to show how a food fits into an overall daily diet.

It is the recommended amount of certain nutrients or specific ingredients to consume each day, based on regulatory standards. For example, the current Daily Value for Magnesium is 420mg. That’s how much magnesium you should aim for in one day. (5)

Percent of Daily Value (% Daily Value):

%DV shows how much of a nutrient is in a single serving of the product, and how it compares to the Daily Value.

For example, we know magnesium has a DV of 420mg. If a supplement has 42mg of magnesium per serving, we can say that the %DV would be 10%.

One serving of the supplement would therefore provide a tenth of the magnesium you need for that day. You should look to other sources to obtain the other 90%.

You can use %DV to determine if a serving of the supplement is high or low in an individual nutrient. As a general guide:

• 5% DV or less of a nutrient per serving is considered low.

• 20% DV or more of a nutrient per serving is considered high. (5)

Who Decides the DVs? (Daily Reference Values and More)

I don’t want to throw too many titles at you, but you may have heard of Daily Reference Values (DRVs) and wondered what they are and how they differ from Daily Value.

DRVs are dietary benchmarks used to guide healthy daily nutrient intake. They are used alongside RDIs (Reference Daily Intakes) - another set of guidelines specifically for vitamins and minerals - to create the simplified Daily Values we talked about above.

So DRVs + RDIs = simplified DVs. (Sorry, couldn’t resist the acronyms!)

In essence, both Daily Reference Values and Reference Daily Intakes are used to come up with standardized Daily Values. We only really need to concern ourselves with the latter.

About Proprietary Blends

Let me issue a little warning about proprietary blends.

Supplement Fact panels allow manufacturers to include proprietary blends: a mix of ingredients that can be listed without details of individual dosages. Manufacturers only need to disclose the blend's total amount and not the individual amount of the ingredients within it (with the exception of ingredients that have DRVs or RDIs, which must be listed separately).

Why is this a potential problem? Because you have no idea if the ingredients mentioned are included in effective dosages.

For instance, assume a blend made of five different ingredients weighs in at 500mg. The really effective ingredients in that blend are numbers 1 and 2. The other three - they're pretty meh, and don't do much.

Now assume ingredient 1 needs 120mg to be effective and ingredient 2 needs 240mg. With a proprietary blend, you'll likely never know if they're included in big enough dosages to work.

For all you know, they've included ingredients 1 and 2 because they're buzz words right now - but only added 10mg of each. Which will do... nothing.

But it allows the manufacturer to claim that their product has these fantastic ingredients - without telling you that the doses are too small to be clinically effective.

Call me cynical.

If a supplement needs to hide behind proprietary blends, I can't help but suspect that there is something they're deliberately not telling you. I recommend transparency all the way. (By the way, all Performance Lab products are 100% transparent with all ingredient dosages included on the label.)

What Else Must Be on the Supplement Bottle or Packet?

Under FDA rules, several other pieces of information must be included on the packet or supplement bottle (part of the overall supplement label, but not in the Supplement Facts label itself).

They include:

• Name of the supplement

• Details of the manufacturer

• Directions for use

• Net quantity of contents, which must clearly state the total amount of product in the container (such as capsule count, weight, or fluid volume)

• Other Ingredients: A secondary list of other dietary ingredients statement may sit below or next to the main Facts panel containing inactive ingredients like binders, capsule materials, or flavorings.

Note that this nutrient declaration framework is set by FDA regulations under 21 CFR nutrition labeling requirements. If you're interested in the rules for labeling of dietary supplements, you can visit the FDA website for more information. (7)

• Any health claims or structure/function statements must also be presented separately from the Supplement Facts panel, alongside the mandatory FDA disclaimer indicating the product has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Let's examine that in a little more detail...

Can Dietary Supplements Make Health Claims?

This section is separate to the Supplement Fact panel but it's important, so it's worth delving into. Can supplement manufacturers make health claims about their product, and if so, should you believe them?

Let's look at the FDA guidance first:

What are manufacturers allowed to claim? Manufacturers are allowed to claim that certain nutrients support certain body functions (ie, calcium helps to build bones). These are known as Structure/ Function Statements.

What are they NOT allowed to claim? They cannot claim that their supplement can cure, diagnose, treat or prevent specific diseases. So if you see any supplement claiming to cure any disease, give it a wide birth. They're not obeying the rules.

Whatever a product does claim should have reliable scientific evidence to back it up BUT crucially, manufacturers do not have to gain pre-approval from the FDA for their product (or claim) before launching.

After launch, they must submit their claim to the FDA within 30 days BUT they do not have to provide the scientific evidence mentioned above unless requested. As such, there is no automatic check or approval process by the FDA for dietary supplements.

That's why any such claims must include a disclaimer to say that it has not been evaluated by the FDA. (8)

So, what does this mean for the consumer? At best, it means quality can vary (at worst, some people liken it to the Wild West), so it's important to choose reputable supplements from quality manufacturers.

Here's how to find them...

What to Look for in a Quality Dietary Supplement

Now that you know how to read a Supplement Facts label, what else should you consider when choosing a quality dietary supplement?

Here's what I'd recommend:

1. Look for Third Party Testing: Look for manufacturers that are transparent about testing, with certifications or verifications from independent third parties. All Performance Lab products, for instance, are third party tested and validated.

2. Bioavailable Ingredient Forms: This may take a little research but it's worth seeking bioavailable forms of vitamins and minerals. Certain forms of nutrients, for instance, are considered active and easier for the body to absorb than other forms of the same nutrient, making them more effective. Performance Lab uses a pioneering manufacturing process, known as NutriGenesis, to create nature identical nutrients that are highly bioavailable.

   Learn more about NutriGenesis: Nature Identical Nutrients Explained

3. Feedback: Search for reviews of the product on sites like TrustPilot and Amazon as well as manufacturer websites.

4. Transparent labels: As I mentioned, manufacturers who are confident in their product tend to be transparent about their ingredients.

5. Clean Label: Look for products that avoid artificial additives, colors, preservatives and/ or unnecessary fillers. Performance Lab products are Clean Label Project certified, and are free from GMO, allergens, and preservatives. They are also certified vegan approved by the Vegetarian Society.

6. Food allergen labeling: If you have any allergies, be sure to check the label of any supplement carefully. Under the Consumer Protection Act, labels must disclose any major food allergens in their product. (9) Performance Lab, for instance, takes pride in the fact that its products - such as our NutriGenesis Multivitamin - are free from many common allergens such as soy, gluten, egg, fish, shellfish, dairy, tree nuts, peanuts and wheat.

As a general rule, steer clear of supplements that include unrealistic promises and excessive additives. 

What to Avoid In a Supplement

Here are a list of things to look for and ideally avoid in a supplement: (10, 11)

• Fillers/ binders such as Xylitol and Cellulose

• Artificial sweeteners such as aspartame and sucralose. Opt instead for natural options such as honey, monk fruit or stevia.

• Artificial preservatives such as BHT, Sodium benzoate and Sodium nitrate

• Artificial colors: Often an unnecessary addition and linked to allergic reactions and hyperactivity.

See a list of artificial colours here: Clean Label: What You Need to Know

Search the Dietary Supplements Label Database

The Office of Dietary Supplements at the NIH (National Institutes of Health) developed a database of dietary supplements products and their labels. You can search and compare labels from thousands of products here: https://dsld.od.nih.gov/

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is a Supplement Facts label?

A Supplement Facts label is the standardized nutrition labeling panel found on all dietary supplements, including vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and herbal products. Regulated under FDA dietary supplements labeling requirements, it shows key information such as serving size, dietary ingredients, nutrient content, and percent Daily Value (%DV).

The Supplement Facts panel is specifically designed for dietary supplement products and focuses on active ingredients rather than overall food composition.

2. What information is required on a Supplement Facts panel?

Under FDA nutrition labeling rules, a supplement facts panel must include the common or usual name of dietary ingredients, the quantitative amount per serving, and the % Daily Value where applicable. It also lists serving size, servings per container, and nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and certain macronutrient-related components when present in measurable amounts.

This ensures consistency across supplement labels and allows consumers to compare dietary supplement products more easily.

3. What is the difference between a proprietary blend and a transparent supplement label?

A proprietary blend is a mix of dietary ingredients where only the total weight is disclosed, not the individual dosages of each ingredient. While allowed under FDA regulations, this can make it harder to assess whether each ingredient is present in an effective amount.

In contrast, a transparent supplement facts label clearly lists each ingredient and its exact amount, often alongside daily value information where available. Many consumers prefer transparent labels because they provide clearer insight into formulation quality and overall dietary supplement labeling standards.

Final Thoughts

Understanding how to read a Supplement Facts label puts you in a much stronger position as a consumer.

Once you know what serving sizes, % Daily Values, ingredient forms, and proprietary blends actually mean, it becomes much easier to separate genuinely well-formulated supplements from clever marketing.

At the same time, it's important to remember that a supplement label is only part of the picture. Because dietary supplements are not pre-approved by the FDA before they reach the market, consumers still need to do a little extra research.

Looking for transparent labeling, third-party testing, bioavailable ingredients, and reputable manufacturers can help you make more confident and informed choices.

Ultimately, the best supplement companies tend to have nothing to hide. Clear ingredient lists, sensible formulations, clean manufacturing standards, and evidence-backed claims are usually good signs that you're investing in quality rather than hype.