How Are Supplements Made?

A supplement's label can tell you the ingredients in its formula, sometimes even the quantity of each ingredient listed, but none will show you the time, effort, and choices that went into creating it. Even a single-ingredient vitamin pill can involve untold and unseen degrees of decision-making before it lands in a consumer’s hands.

Not everyone does it the same way, and many variables come into play, but there's a general process that reputable companies follow.

Here, I want to guide you through the process, stage by stage, so you understand not only how supplements are made but also what you might look for in identifying a trustworthy supplement brand.

A supplement begins with an idea. It's usually vague ("Vitamin ... A?"), but even when it centers on a named health outcome ("Vitamin A ... for skin health?"), the idea at this stage is still nebulous and not yet actionable.

Think of it like spitballing with your partner about what to have for dinner tonight. You need just something, however small, from which to build out a specific result. Got some chicken that expires tomorrow? A carrot at the back of the fridge? The picture clarifies.

From there, it's about fleshing out the idea, which requires asking a lot of questions — not just within the company but usually also outside of it. In fact, the first point of contact is usually an outside manufacturer, but for simplicity's sake, that's a topic we'll discuss under the "Production" heading.

For now, the topic at hand is the pre-production stage.

Market research

Whether or not the company has a clear vision or business plan for its proposed supplement, it's going to have to conduct market research.

Market research is a strategic analysis of the commercial space in which a company wants to sell its product. The point is to see whether it makes sense to move forward with the idea.

The "space" is usually multifaceted. For supplements, there's the health products space broadly, the specific-type-of-supplement space more narrowly (e.g., "botanical supplements for skin health"), anything in between, and anything else you can possibly consider to be related.

So, what questions get asked during market research? Usually things like:1

• What’s the demand?
• What’s the existing market?
• Who are the target audiences?
• How much is this going to cost?

The answers to these questions can give the company a sense of the shape that its supplement ought to take. Like, should it be a capsule or a powder? A flavored or an unflavored powder?

For some companies, market research is mostly about figuring out what type of supplement is the likeliest to be profitable. Their analyses might tell them they can ease their way into a particular market where using lower-cost ingredients and selling at a certain markup will net them X amount of money per unit sold.

Sure, revenue is important to any business, but the most reputable supplement companies conduct their market research with an eye toward more than just the financial outcome. The really good ones also want to produce something that stands the best chance of providing the health outcomes that consumers are looking for. And if the market research goes well, “the health outcomes consumers are looking for” is one of the questions that get squarely answered.

Expert consultation

If the company is smart, it'll go the extra mile by seeking input from formula experts, doctors, and dietitians.

To be clear, I should say that expert consultation isn't a common practice. There are no solid figures on this sort of thing, but I’d venture to say probably less than 20% of companies do it.

But in an ideal world, it would be the standard, since medical experts are the ones who can share critical details like:

• How much of an ingredient is known to be effective (i.e., dosage)
• In complexes, what combinations of ingredients can yield the desired outcomes
• What safety concerns certain ingredients or combinations raise
• What ingredient forms would best serve a supplement's intended purpose
• What delivery formats are ideal (e.g., capsules versus powders or softgels versus tablets)
• How to optimize delivery forms (e.g., improve the solubility or taste of a powder without compromising on effectiveness or safety)

Without the support of expert consultation, a supplement’s formula will likely end up being determined by the manufacturer, which is usually a separate party that may base its choices on what other companies are doing or on commercial considerations like an ingredient's cost or availability.

Determining ingredient form

When I talk about ingredient form, I mean the various sources an ingredient derives from (not to be confused with finished supplement forms — for example, capsules, tablets, softgels, and what have you).

Take vitamin A, for example, which primarily takes two forms in the human diet:2

• Preformed vitamin A, such as retinol and retinyl palmitate
• Provitamin A carotenoids, such as alpha-carotene and beta-carotene

The particular ingredient forms used in a supplement can potentially serve a health outcome better than others would. If a company wants to make a vitamin A supplement aimed at improving skin health, then the best form to use would be retinyl palmitate, a fat-soluble preformed vitamin A that's known for its role in healthy skin and is higher in quality than, say, beta-carotene.3

Unfortunately, most companies — from startups to big corporations — know or care very little about forms, if they know anything at all. In most cases, a company will ask for "just vitamin A," and the manufacturer will quote the company on whatever is convenient or "normal." With vitamin A, "normal" would be beta-carotene, the precursor to vitamin A, and that wouldn’t be optimal. The company would end up with a finished formula that uses the wrong form for promoting healthy skin.

If you want a real-world example, look at the ingredients list on practically any celebrity-branded supplement. Not only do the majority of them have poor ingredient choices, but even among those that are lucky enough to get it mostly right, they often end up with low-quality or inappropriate forms of the ingredients they use.

Usually, it’s only certain companies that take forms into consideration: those that conscientiously formulate supplements with a mind to making them outstanding. The same companies are the ones who travel the extra mile to consult those formulation experts we talked about.

By now, the company has determined (a) its idea for a supplement is viable and (b) generally what the supplement will contain. Now, then, the supplement enters the production stage.

Unless it's a gigantic conglomerate that has its own manufacturing, the supplement company typically hires a manufacturer to convert the idea into a fully realized supplement.

Manufacturers are the ones that have the facilities, equipment, and logistics to gather ingredients and combine them into a packaged product that people can use. They tend to specialize in particular finished forms — say, powders and capsules versus liquids or ready-to-drink products.

Most manufacturers can do both powders and capsules, but within that specialization are narrower silos of expertise. With powders, for example, some manufacturers have in-house flavoring departments that craft every last characteristic of the powder, whereas others outsource flavoring to another party.

At any rate, once the manufacturer takes the reins on the process, it typically undertakes the following steps:

Sourcing ingredients

Knowing what the supplement company wants to make, as well as what finished form the product should take, the manufacturer will attempt to plot the desired formula first by gathering the necessary ingredients.

Out of necessity, other parties get looped into the process: the companies that make the raw materials for the supplement. We'll call them ingredient companies.

Again, there are specializations.

Some ingredient companies specialize in making high volumes of easy-to-manufacture synthetic vitamins, amino acids, and other nutrients in labs.

Others specialize in all-natural ingredients. It's this group of specialists from which you get your spirulina, your ginseng, and whatever healthful herbs that might populate the ingredient bill. What they do is reduce plants or other botanicals into preparations that are usable in supplements — for example:4

How much does sourcing cost? The answer often depends on whether the ingredient is rare, potent, or branded.

And why do those variables affect price? Well, let's imagine three supplement companies, each developing a similar supplement:

Out of the three companies, Company A will probably end up paying the least to produce its supplement. Meanwhile, Companies B and C can expect to pay more because their production processes involve additional purchases of ingredients that cost more to begin with. Whether Company B pays more or less for production than Company C may depend on how rare its special ingredient is.

Does that mean Companies B and C will have higher-quality products? No, not necessarily. It depends on several variables, like the type of supplement these companies are making, the specific health outcome each company is aiming to provide, and the manufacturer each one is working with. It could be that Company A’s manufacturer has supplies of excellent ingredients that would be perfectly suited for the planned supplement, in which case the lower manufacturing cost could benefit the consumer without compromising on the intended health outcome.

That’s why it’s important to know how to understand a supplement label — so that you know whether a company has used scientifically supported ingredients, at scientifically supported dosages, for the results you want from the product.

Making concessions to the formula ... potentially

Based on the variables the manufacturer has found so far (e.g., costs and/or limitations imposed by ingredient form), the supplement company may decide to make concessions to its formula.

This is a tricky part.

Let's say a company has put together a wish list of amazing, potent ingredients for a supplement, all in finely tuned and highly effective forms and quantities. But then, after consulting with the manufacturer, it finds the quoted price is way over target. Then what? Cut an ingredient completely? Or simply reduce the quantity of an ingredient (or the quantities of all ingredients)?

There’s also the question of serving size, as the company may want the final volume of the formulated supplement to fit into an ideal number of capsules relative to the market standard. For example, if the typical serving size within the market is 2-3 capsules, the company may want to pack its formulation into no more than a three-capsule serving size. But if its formulation is too hefty to be accommodated by a three-capsule serving, they may feel pressure to make concessions.

These are some of the concerns that trouble supplement companies over and over again. It takes a skilled hand to fine-tune a formula in ways that maintain effectiveness and safety while keeping costs feasible.

Generally, reputable supplement companies are the ones that struggle with concessions the most. They’re the ones that want to optimize health without breaking the customer’s bank, whereas a less reputable brand may be fine with putting out a subpar product as long as it moves units. Too many companies make decisions based on greed rather than what’s best for the customer.

Collecting the raw ingredients

Price analyses: done.

Concessions, if any: made.

All right, so now the manufacturer can set out to collect the raw ingredients for the finalized formula. If the manufacturer needs to get ingredients from elsewhere, which it probably will, it will find appropriate sources — sometimes from many parts of the world — that sell the ingredients within the budget agreed upon with the supplement company.

Testing should be an integrated part of the collection process. Ideally, the supplier will have performed its own testing to ensure the ingredient's purity and potency, and the manufacturer will test the ingredient again after receiving it. I say ideally, but this practice isn't always adhered to. Also, with regard to supplier-side testing, there's often the risk of something being lost in translation. That is, if an ingredient is sourced from overseas, can a manufacturer always trust the certificate, written in a foreign language, promising that the test was conducted to a high standard in the country of origin before it was sent to the place of manufacture?

The uncertainty that may come attached to supplier-side testing is why branded ingredients are so valuable. The companies that own branded ingredients take additional steps — potency testing, contaminants testing — to maintain their claims of standardization and purity.

Combining the ingredients

"Combining the ingredients" broadly means making the physical product, the supplement. Hopefully, this part of the process takes place in a certified facility, to assure consumers of product quality and safety. For example, if a supplement is made in a facility with GMP certification by the NSF, you can be reasonably certain that its production process follows industry best practices.5

In addition to combining the active ingredients in their agreed-upon quantities, the manufacturer will add excipients — nontoxic, functional components that aren’t active ingredients but are necessary for production. And what do they do? It depends on the excipient's purpose. Here are some common excipient types to give you an idea:6

Excipients are extremely important, but most supplement companies will accept whatever excipients their manufacturer suggests. The better practice would be instead to choose excipients with care. Also, there are always more excipients on the menu than what the manufacturer suggests, so the supplement company should consider their options more broadly.

The mechanics of manufacturing

The supplement's final form guides a fair bit of the manufacturing mechanics. After all, you can't make a capsule or softgel the way you'd make a powder or liquid supplement. So, before we move on to the next stage in production, let's summarize the mechanics generally involved in manufacturing specific supplement delivery formats.

With capsules, the process usually starts with creating the encapsulating material — the capsule itself. That involves melting gelatin or an animal-free alternative along with water. Coloring agents may be added as the melted mixture cools. Afterward, the cooled gelatin structure is molded into the desired shape, dried until fully hardened, and then cut to size. What we have at this point is an empty shell that's then filled with the formulated ingredients. The final steps involve printing identifying material on the capsules and packaging them.8

Capsule sizes do vary, by the way. The tiniest ones are roughly the length of a jelly bean, and the largest ones are bigger than a Good & Plenty. Here’s a size chart to illustrate:

Tablets, though identical to capsules in their route of administration, follow a different manufacturing path. No need to make an encapsulating structure, first of all. Then, rather than being inserted into an encapsulation, the granulated ingredients are compressed under enough force to bind the ingredients — you know, like when you step on a patch of powdery snow to create a dense pack, except with way more pounds of pressure. Some tablets then go through a coating process that applies a layer for protection, preservation, and maybe even taste (think Advil, whose sugar coating can mask ibuprofen's characteristic bitterness).9 From there, the final steps may include printing, quality checks, and packaging.

Powder and liquid supplements tend to be much simpler in many of their manufacturing mechanics. Powder production generally comes down to combining dried forms of the formula's ingredients before the usual quality checks and packaging. Meanwhile, liquids may involve:

• Dissolving base substances (e.g., sugars to make a syrup)
• Adding tinctures or decoctions, or else dissolving dried ingredients
• Blending and emulsifying the ingredients
• Cooling the mixture

But powders and liquid formats also come with additional challenges that capsules and tablets do not:

After it has been manufactured but before it hits the market, the completed supplement should be batch-tested by a third party for potency and purity. Basically, that means analyzing portions of a production run and taking the results to be representative of the whole caboodle. It's a final measure to ensure quality and safety before the supplement becomes available to the consumer.

But then what?

Well, the production life cycle doesn't end with a supplement's delivery to store shelves or the customer's doorstep. Besides doing subsequent production runs, the company needs to follow the finished supplement to track not only its performance (i.e., how well is it selling, and how well is it meeting its intended purpose? ) but also any need to make adjustments. Does it need reformulation, for example? Is there perhaps a better or less costly ingredient that can be swapped in for something in the original formula? Or maybe it could use some updated branding — a higher-strength alternative, an additional delivery format, or even a different name, fresh packaging.

There's also the customer support aspect to think about, but that's a separate topic.

So, that's it in a large nutshell — or a capsule, if you prefer. From conception to consumer, a supplement may take on multiple iterations before it becomes a real product, and even then, it has the potential to evolve while it occupies the market.

To consumers, it's important to know how a reputable supplement company produces its product because, then, you have markers to look for when you're shopping for the next addition to your health and wellness regimen. When you're researching brands, you might ask yourself: Do they use the right ingredient forms? How much testing do they do? And to what degree are formula experts involved in the process? That way, you're more likely to end up with a product that can fulfill your needs.