NOW Supplement Label Transparency: Minerals & Amino Acids
NOW® is updating the way it reports minerals and amino acids content on labels.
At NOW we believe that transparency is an integral part of quality. That’s why we have decided to update the way we report minerals and amino acids in the supplement facts section of our labels.
When choosing a supplement brand, it is important to check the labels to make sure that all ingredients’ weights are accurately reported.
What will this change look like?
With this new presentation, you can see exactly how much elemental mineral you get when taking this supplement. It is the amount displayed in the column titled "Amount Per Serving'.
You can also read in parenthesis below the elemental mineral name, the form of mineral, as well as the total amount of the complexed mineral compound, used to make the product.
In the example displayed above: the amount of elemental magnesium per serving is 400 mg. To ensure that we have 400 mg of elemental magnesium per serving we used 2,665 mg of magnesium citrate to make this product.
When will this change occur?
Due to the large number of mineral and amino acid products NOW offers, we will be updating the labels when they need to be reprinted, so these changes will take some time to implement. We will start with minerals and then update amino acids throughout 2021.
Why are we updating the way we report minerals and amino acids on labels?
To answer this question, we first need to go back to basic chemistry:
For mineral products
Minerals used in supplements typically come in different forms: as salts (sodium chloride, for example) or as organicł minerals (chromium glycinate, for example), which means that the elemental mineral that we want to use in our supplement is combined with another compound to provide a stable and bioavailable form of said mineral for encapsulation or tableting. The elemental mineral plus the added compound (citrate, glycinate, lactate…) form a complex that has a mass (weight) that is the sum of the weight of the elemental mineral plus the weight of the added compound. The weight of the non-mineral part of the complex is often significant.
When you take a mineral supplement, you want to know exactly how much of the elemental mineral you are getting, so it is important that labels reflect that information accurately.
In the example displayed above the full compound used in the product is named magnesium citrate. Each serving of the product has 400 mg of elemental magnesium and 2,265 mg citrate for a total of 2,665 mg magnesium citrate.
For amino acid products††
Most of our amino acid products are either formulated as free-form amino acids or complexed with HCl (hydrochlorate). HCl accounts for some of the weight of the amino-acid-HCl complex.
When you take an amino acid supplement, you want to know exactly how much of the amino acid you are getting, so it is important that labels reflect that information accurately.
In order to give our customers a more accurate representation of elemental mineral content and amino-acid content of our products, we have decided to display the exact weight of the elemental mineral and amino acid, like we have always done, and the total of weight of the complex they come from.
ł The word organic here does not mean the mineral is obtained from organic farming. It means it is complexed with a molecule that contains at least one carbon atom.
†† This information is related to our stand-alone amino acid products.
