What is the best supplement quality checker in the UK?

Coverage before accuracy: why a checker is only as good as its database, why the databases are American, what a barcode can and cannot carry, and the one American checker worth knowing

What is the best supplement quality checker in the UK is a question usually asked by someone who has seen an app or a website that promises to scan a barcode or search a name and return a verdict, and the first thing to know about any checker is that it is only as good as the database behind it, which means coverage comes before accuracy. A checker that has tested a product can be right or wrong about it; a checker that has never seen the product returns nothing, and the nothing is often dressed as a verdict, a not found, a no data, a grey rating. The databases behind the checkers people search for are American. The subscription testing services buy products on American shelves and test them; the rating sites score American products from American labels; the barcode apps match against American product databases. A UK buyer who scans a tub made in Britain and labelled to the Great Britain register gets no result, not because the product failed but because it was never in the database, and a buyer who does not know that reads the absence as a warning.

A barcode carries less than a checker implies. It identifies a product code, the same code on every tub of that product from that brand, and it carries nothing about the batch: not the lot number, not the date, not the laboratory result. A quality check is a question about a batch, whether this tub contains what the label says and nothing it should not, and the batch is identified by the lot number printed separately on the tub, which no barcode app reads and which is checked with the brand, through a certificate of analysis for that lot, or in a sports certification database for an enrolled product. An app that scans a barcode and returns a quality score has scored the product's label and the brand's reputation, not the tub, and a buyer who understands the distinction uses the app for what it can do, identifying the product and surfacing its label, and the lot number for what the app cannot.

One kind of American checker is worth knowing for one purpose. The subscription testing services, which buy products at retail and test them for label accuracy and contaminants with the consumer as the client, are honest about what they find, and for an imported American product that they have tested, the result is the best independent information a UK buyer will get about that product; a buyer of an American brand's creatine or vitamin D checks the service's database for that product, pays the subscription if the product is there, and reads the result. For anything made in the UK the service is silent, and a UK buyer who subscribes expecting coverage of a UK shelf has paid for a database of a different country.

A checker limited by its database, a barcode that cannot carry a batch, and one American service for imported products, and the checker that works in the UK, a five-database routine, with the worked example run through it, which is the next section.

The UK checker as a routine against five public databases: the claims register, the accreditation register, the certification databases, the company register and the food safety alerts; what each returns; the worked example run through it; and the verdict

The checker that works in the UK is not an app but a routine, run against five public databases in about five minutes, each answering one question a quality check asks. The first is the health claims register, for the label: the claims on the tub are searched by nutrient on the Great Britain register and found in their authorised wording with their conditions of use, or found absent, which is a label that is unlawful and a brand that has failed the first check without a laboratory. The second is the laboratory accreditation register, for the testing: a brand that says its products are tested names a laboratory on its certificate of analysis, and the accreditation service's register shows whether that laboratory is accredited and, on its schedule, for which methods on which sample types, so that a metals certificate from a laboratory accredited for metals in food supplements carries weight and one from an unaccredited laboratory carries the brand's word. The third is the sports certification databases, for the lot: for a product enrolled in a programme, the lot number on the tub is searched and found as a tested lot or not, which is the only check that reaches the batch in the hand without an email. The fourth is the company register, for the maker: the food business operator named on the label is searched, and its incorporation date, its filing history and its registered address show whether the brand is a trading company with a history or a name registered last year with a virtual office, which is a quality signal the shelf never shows. The fifth is the food safety alerts, for the history: the brand and the product are searched in the public record of withdrawals and recalls, which reports what went wrong rather than what was promised.

What the routine returns is not a score but five answers, and the answers combine into a verdict a buyer can defend. A product whose claims are on the register, whose laboratory is accredited for the test on the certificate, whose lot is in a database or whose certificate is available by lot, whose maker has a filing history and whose record has no alert has passed a check more thorough than any app's, and has passed it against UK sources for a UK product. A product that fails the first check has an unlawful label and the rest is unnecessary. A product that passes the first and fails to produce a certificate for the second has a claim of testing without a document, which is the commonest result and the most useful one. The routine's one cost is the email to the brand for the certificate, which the registers cannot replace, and the one thing it does not check is the tub's contents directly, which only a commissioned test does and which the page on commissioning a test covers.

The worked example is run through the routine in the open. {FL} carries four claims that are on the health claims register in their authorised wording, normal muscle function, normal psychological function, normal nervous system function and the reduction of tiredness and fatigue; its metals certificate names a UK laboratory that is on the accreditation register for the method, and the certificate is released by lot number on request; it is not in a sports certification database, which the page states plainly; its food business operator is a UK company on the company register with a filing history; and it appears in no food safety alert. It is 1500mg magnesium bisglycinate stated as 300mg elemental at 80% NRV, two capsules with the evening meal, UK made under GMP and BRC, 180 capsules for £19.99 at 22p a day. The full label breakdown is here.

The verdict: the best supplement quality checker in the UK is not an app, because the apps' databases are American and a UK tub returns nothing, and a barcode cannot carry the batch a quality check is about. It is a five-minute routine against five public databases, the claims register for the label, the accreditation register for the laboratory, the certification databases for the lot, the company register for the maker and the food safety alerts for the history, plus one email for the certificate; and the American subscription services are kept for the imported products they have actually tested.

What to check on the label

Questions people also ask

Is there an app that checks supplement quality in the UK?

Not one that covers UK products: the barcode apps, rating sites and subscription testing databases that people find are American, built from products bought on American shelves and labelled to American rules, so a UK tub scanned or searched returns not found rather than a verdict, and a barcode in any case identifies the product code and nothing about the batch; the checker that works here is a five-minute routine against five public UK databases, the claims register, the accreditation register, the certification databases, the company register and the food safety alerts, plus an email for the certificate.

Can a barcode tell me if a supplement is good quality?

No; a barcode identifies a product code, the same on every tub of that product, and carries nothing about the batch, not the lot number, the date or any laboratory result, while a quality check is a question about the batch, whether this tub contains what the label says and nothing it should not; an app that scans a barcode and returns a score has scored the label and the brand's reputation, and the batch is checked by the lot number printed separately, through a certificate of analysis from the brand or a sports certification database for an enrolled product.

Are the American supplement testing websites worth paying for in the UK?

For one purpose: an imported American product that the service has bought at retail and tested, where the result is honest, independent and the best information a UK buyer will get about that product, so a buyer of an American brand's creatine or vitamin D checks whether the product is in the database and pays if it is; for anything made in the UK the services are silent, because they test what their American subscribers ask about, and a subscription bought expecting coverage of a UK shelf has paid for a database of a different country.

How do I check a UK supplement brand is legitimate?

Two of the five databases in the routine do most of it: the company register, where the food business operator named on the label is searched for its incorporation date, filing history and registered address, separating a trading company with a history from a name registered last year with a virtual office, and the food safety alerts, where the brand and product are searched in the public record of withdrawals and recalls; the claims register then checks the label, the accreditation register weighs the certificate, and the certification databases check the lot for an enrolled product.

Does this site's magnesium pass the quality routine?

On UK sources, yes, and the page shows each step: its four claims are on the health claims register in their authorised wording, its metals certificate names a UK laboratory on the accreditation register for the method and is released by lot number on request, its food business operator is a UK company on the company register with a filing history, and it appears in no food safety alert; it is not in a sports certification database, which the page states, and it is 300mg elemental at 80% NRV in two capsules with the evening meal, UK made under GMP and BRC, at 22p a day.

Sources

1. The independent supplement testing services: subscription laboratories that purchase products at retail and test them for label accuracy, contaminants and disintegration, publishing pass and fail results by product, the one kind of review that reports what was in the tub rather than how it felt. PubMed record
2. Retained Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 on nutrition and health claims made on foods, and the Great Britain nutrition and health claims register. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/great-britain-nutrition-and-health-claims-nhc-register
3. The UK Accreditation Service: UKAS accredits testing laboratories to ISO 17025 for defined scopes and publishes a searchable directory of accredited organisations and their schedules of accreditation. https://www.ukas.com/find-an-organisation/
4. Companies House: the UK's public register of companies, searchable free by name or number, showing registered office, incorporation date, officers and filed accounts. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/

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