The front of a supplement pack is an advertisement. The back is a legal document. In India, a health supplement or nutraceutical is regulated as a food under the Food Safety and Standards Act, and the label has to carry a fixed set of declarations — which means the back of the pack is where two products that look identical from the shelf actually separate.
Start with the composition table
Every nutraceutical has to list its ingredients with the quantity per serving, and for vitamins and minerals, the percentage of the Recommended Dietary Allowance that serving provides. The RDA used on Indian labels comes from ICMR-NIN's Nutrient Requirements for Indians, last revised in 2020. Two things to check: is a quantity printed beside every active, and is the serving size in the table the same serving you would actually take?
A number like 66.66% RDA beside Vitamin D3 400 IU is doing real work — it tells you the 2020 adult allowance is 600 IU, and that one tablet covers two-thirds of it. Where the RDA has not been established for an ingredient, the label will say so with a dagger or a double asterisk. That is normal for things like spirulina, L-carnosine or probiotic strains; what it means is that you have to judge the dose against published research rather than against a government table.
The proprietary blend problem
Some labels list a 'blend' or 'complex' — a group of ingredients followed by a single combined weight, say 500 mg. Regulations allow it. The trouble is that a 500 mg blend of six botanicals could be 480 mg of the cheapest one and a token sprinkle of the others, and there is no way to tell from the outside. When you see a blend, compare it with a product that prints each quantity separately. If a brand is confident in its doses, it has no reason to hide them.
Serving size, pack size, and days of supply
A pack of 10 tablets taken once a day is a 10-day supply. A syrup labelled 200 ml at 10 ml twice a day is also a 10-day supply, even though the bottle looks like it holds more. The price that matters is the price per day at the recommended dose — not the price per pack. Do the division before comparing two products.
What the regulatory lines mean
| Line on the pack | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| FSSAI logo + 14-digit licence or registration number | The business responsible for the product holds an FSSAI licence or registration; the number can be checked on the FSSAI website. |
| 'Not for medicinal use' | Mandatory on health supplements and nutraceuticals. The product is a food; it supports nutrition and is not a treatment. |
| 'Not to exceed the recommended daily usage' | The stated dose is the ceiling, not a suggestion. More is not better, especially for fat-soluble vitamins. |
| Manufactured by / Marketed by | Who physically made the product and who sells it. In nutraceuticals these are often two different companies — both should be named with an address. |
| Batch number, Mfg. date, Expiry / Best before | The batch number is what a company uses to trace a complaint back to a production run. Without it, nothing can be checked. |
| Veg / non-veg symbol | Green symbol for vegetarian, brown for non-vegetarian. Fish-oil omega-3, bovine colostrum and some capsule shells are non-vegetarian. |
Claims: what the pack is allowed to say
Indian regulations allow nutrient-function claims — 'vitamin D contributes to the maintenance of normal bones', for instance — but not claims that a food prevents, treats or cures a disease. A pack, an advertisement or a website that promises to cure something is either breaking the rules or selling a drug, and in neither case should you buy it as a supplement. The safest brands make the smallest claims, and print the largest number of quantities.
A sixty-second checklist
- 1.Find the composition table. Is there a quantity and a unit beside every active?
- 2.Is the serving size in the table the dose you will actually take?
- 3.Work out days of supply per pack, then price per day.
- 4.Check the FSSAI number, the manufacturer's name and address, and the batch number.
- 5.Read the claims. Anything that promises to prevent or cure is a red flag.
- 6.Look at the expiry date and the storage instruction — probiotics and omega-3 in particular are sensitive to heat.
None of this takes longer than a minute once you know where to look. It is the minute that separates a supplement you understand from one you are hoping about.
Sources
- 1.Food Safety and Standards (Health Supplements, Nutraceuticals, Food for Special Dietary Use, Food for Special Medical Purpose, and Prebiotic and Probiotic Food) Regulations, 2022 — FSSAI
- 2.Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations, 2020 — FSSAI
- 3.Nutrient Requirements for Indians — Recommended Dietary Allowances and Estimated Average Requirements, ICMR-NIN, 2020
General nutrition information, not medical advice. Nutraceuticals are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Speak to your doctor before starting a supplement if you are pregnant, breastfeeding, on medication or managing a condition.