Supplement Facts panels the FDA will approve
Dietary supplements have their own rulebook (21 CFR § 101.36). NFL builds Adult, Child, Infant, Pregnant, and Lactating panels, with proprietary blends and warning statements included.
Supplement Facts for all five audience variants
Adult DVs match the food panel. Kids 1–3 use the § 101.9(c)(8)(v) child DV table. Infants under 12 months use their own. Pregnant + Lactating tables reflect elevated iron, iodine, folate, and choline needs. Switch the audience and every %DV recomputes.
Proprietary blends on a Supplement Facts panel
Add a "Proprietary Blend" line with a total in mg. Constituent ingredients list without individual amounts per § 101.36(c)(4). The "†" symbol and "Daily Value not established" footnote appear automatically.
"Other Ingredients:" section
Excipients (gelatin capsules, cellulose, mag stearate, silica, natural flavors) list under the panel per § 101.36(d). Order is descending predominance, sortable in one drag.
Iron warnings and botanical flags on the label
Products with ≥ 30 mg iron per serving auto-generate the required overdose warning box. Ephedra, ma huang, and methionine flag their respective mandatory warnings.
DSHEA-compliant claim guidance
Nutrient content claims on supplements follow § 101.13 like food. Structure/function claims need the § 403(r)(6) disclaimer. Our claim validator flags the wording that will trigger a warning letter.
The line between a structure/function claim and a drug claim
This is where supplement brands get warning letters, and the distinction is narrower than it looks from the marketing side.
A structure/function claim describes how an ingredient affects normal structure or function of the body. "Supports immune health." "Helps maintain healthy joints." "Promotes restful sleep." These are permitted under DSHEA, and they carry two obligations: the product must bear the disclaimer - "This statement has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease." - and you must notify the FDA within 30 days of first marketing the claim.
A disease claim says or implies the product treats, prevents, cures, or mitigates a disease. "Relieves arthritis pain." "Lowers cholesterol." "Prevents colds." These are drug claims. Putting one on a supplement makes it, in the FDA's view, an unapproved new drug - and that is a different category of enforcement than a labeling correction.
The edge is genuinely subtle. "Supports healthy blood sugar already in the normal range" sits inside structure/function. "Helps control blood sugar" reads as a diabetes claim. Same ingredient, same dose, one of them is a problem.
New Dietary Ingredients
If your formula contains a dietary ingredient that was not marketed in the United States before 15 October 1994, it is a New Dietary Ingredient, and NDI status carries a premarket notification obligation: you file with the FDA at least 75 days before marketing, with the evidence supporting a reasonable expectation of safety.
Novel botanicals, newly isolated compounds, and ingredients produced by a manufacturing process that materially changes them are the usual candidates. It is worth checking before you formulate rather than after your first production run, because the answer can change what you are able to sell.
Serving size, and the manufacturing rules behind the panel
Supplement serving sizes are expressed in the unit the consumer actually takes - one capsule, two tablets, one scoop, one softgel - rather than in grams. If your directions say two capsules, the panel is per two capsules, and every %DV on it follows from that.
Behind the label, dietary supplements are manufactured under their own current Good Manufacturing Practice regulations at 21 CFR Part 111, which govern identity testing, batch records, and specifications. A correct Supplement Facts panel on product made outside Part 111 is still a compliance problem - the panel is the visible layer over a manufacturing obligation that a contract manufacturer will expect you to understand.