How to read a supplement label in three minutes

Most supplement labels can be decoded quickly once you know that in the European Union the sentences on the front are regulated more tightly than the powder inside. The EU register of nutrition and health claims is a public list of every claim that has been assessed and authorised, with the approved wording and the conditions under which it may be used. It is searchable. If a claim about a substance is not on the register, it is not permitted, and the fastest way to test a bold sentence is to look for it there and find nothing.

Some phrases sound regulatory and are not. Pharmaceutical grade and clinical grade have no legal definition for a food supplement. They imply an authority that no authority has granted, and they do not tell you about purity, dose accuracy or anything else that could be verified. Similarly, a claim that a product is recommended by doctors is separately restricted: references to recommendations of individual health professionals or associations are not generally permitted for foods in the EU, which is why such endorsements tend to be pushed off the label and into the surrounding advertising.

A notification number is another common source of confusion. In many member states a supplement must be notified to a national authority before being placed on the market. That number records that a notification was filed. It is not an approval, not an assessment of efficacy, and not a statement that the product works or that anyone checked whether it does.

Three questions cover most of it. Is the exact claim on the authorised register in that wording. Does the label state the amount of the substance per daily dose, or only per unspecified serving. And does any impressive sounding word on the front have a legal meaning, or only a marketing one. None of this tells you whether a product will help you. It tells you how much of what you are reading has been checked by anyone.