The Sourcing Standard

The eleven questions we asked before choosing who makes our products.

Most supplement brands treat their manufacturing relationship as confidential. We think the answers determine what ends up in the bottle, so we have published the questions and the answers we required before signing anything.

Read The Eleven Questions Our Research Standard

A supplement brand does not usually make its own products. It contracts a manufacturer, and the quality of what you swallow is determined almost entirely by the terms of that contract and the standards of that facility.

Very few brands disclose any of it. The industry norm is a line about being “made in a GMP facility” with no facility named, no test results shown, and no indication of who owns the formula or whether the same blend is being sold to four other companies under different labels.

Below are the questions we put to every manufacturing partner we evaluated, and the answer each one had to give before we would proceed. If a partner could not answer a question in writing, we did not continue the conversation.

Due Diligence

The eleven questions

Grouped by what each one determines: who controls the formula, what gets verified, and where the material comes from.

One — Ownership & Control

Who owns the formulation?

Answer Required

We do, without qualification. Many white-label arrangements leave the formula with the manufacturer, which means the brand is licensing a blend rather than owning one. We specified every formulation ourselves against the published literature, and we hold it.

The practical consequence: no other company can be sold the same product under a different label, and we cannot be forced to accept a substitution we did not choose.

Who owns the testing data?

Answer Required

We do, and we can publish it. Some manufacturing agreements treat assay results as proprietary to the facility, which quietly makes it impossible for a brand to publish a full Certificate of Analysis even if it wants to.

We required unrestricted rights to release every test result for every lot. A transparency promise is worthless if the contract forbids it.

Can our formula be sold to anyone else?

Answer Required

No. Exclusivity on our specifications, in writing. Stock blends circulate through dozens of brands simultaneously with only the label changed. If a formulation is meaningfully specified, it should not appear anywhere else.

Two — Verification

What is tested, and by whom?

Answer Required

Independent third-party laboratories, not in-house only. Identity, potency, heavy metals, microbial contamination, and residual solvents, on every production lot rather than periodically.

In-house testing is not disqualifying, but it cannot be the only testing. The laboratory performing the release assay must have no commercial interest in the result.

What are the credentials of the testing laboratory?

Answer Required

Accreditation named and verifiable. A Certificate of Analysis is only as good as the laboratory that issued it, and “third-party tested” means nothing if the third party is unaccredited.

We require the issuing laboratory and its accreditation to appear on the certificate we publish.

Will you issue a certificate of authenticity for branded materials?

Answer Required

Yes, per lot. Several of our formulations specify a branded ingredient because that is the material the human trials were conducted on. Citing a trial run on branded material while quietly using a generic substitute is one of the more common evidentiary failures in this category.

Authenticity documentation is how we prove we did not do that.

What certifications does the facility hold?

Answer Required

GMP certification and FDA facility registration, current and documented. We also asked when the facility was last audited, by whom, and whether any observations were issued.

A certificate on a website is a claim. An audit history is a record.

Three — Materials & Compliance

Where does each raw material originate?

Answer Required

Country and supplier of origin, disclosed by ingredient. Not the country of encapsulation, which is what “made in the USA” usually means on a supplement label.

Origin matters for contamination risk, for adulteration risk in botanicals, and for identity. It is the single most obscured fact in supplement manufacturing.

Who is responsible for ingredient compliance?

Answer Required

Shared, documented, and reviewed by us independently. Regulatory status changes, and an ingredient that was compliant at contracting may not be at launch.

We conduct our own regulatory review of every ingredient rather than relying on a manufacturer's assurance. Several ingredients with strong consumer demand did not survive that review.

What else goes in the capsule, and why?

Answer Required

Every excipient named, with its function stated. Some of our formulations contain nutrients dosed in micrograms. Selenium, iodine, vitamin K2, molybdenum and biotin are measured at levels that physically cannot fill a capsule on their own, so a bulking agent is not optional — without one there is nothing to encapsulate.

We use microcrystalline cellulose, a plant fibre chosen precisely because it is inert and does not interact with the actives around it. Where a flow agent is required we use rice hull concentrate. Capsule shells are plant-derived.

What we exclude: titanium dioxide, artificial colours, artificial sweeteners, and magnesium stearate wherever the formulation runs without it.

Excipients differ by product. Selenium needs bulk; whey isolate needs none; vitamin D3 needs a carrier oil rather than a filler. Each product page lists its own, individually, with the reason. A single sitewide statement would be inaccurate, and we would rather write eleven honest lists than one convenient one.

Can we substitute a supplier without telling anyone?

Answer Required

No, and we have contracted ourselves out of it. Silent supplier substitution is routine and is how a product's actual contents drift away from the specification the customer read about.

Any change to a raw material source requires our written approval and is reflected in the published documentation for the affected lot.

What we did not publish

Our questionnaire also covered minimum order quantities, lead times, pricing tiers, and confidentiality terms. Those are commercial arrangements and they have no bearing on what is in the product, so they are not on this page. Everything that affects the contents of the bottle is above.

Disclosure

What we publish for every lot

Linked from the product page, identified by lot number, replaced when a new production run releases.

Identity & Potency

Confirmation that the ingredient is what the label says, at the amount the label states.

Contaminant Screening

Heavy metals, microbial limits, and residual solvents, with the thresholds applied.

Form-Specific Assays

MK-7 isomer ratio. Omega-3 TOTOX value. Beta-glucan and alpha-glucan percentages. Whey amino acid profile.

Issuing Laboratory

The laboratory name and accreditation appear on every certificate we publish.

If a question here has no answer, that is the answer.

We would encourage you to put these same ten questions to any supplement brand you buy from. Most cannot answer more than three of them. That is not an accusation, it is simply how the industry is structured, and it is the reason we published ours.

Our Research Standard

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

University Vitamins is an independent company. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any university or academic institution. Institution names appear solely to identify the source of the research referenced.