Most of what matters about a supplement is printed on the back of the pack, in small type, in a fixed order. Once you know what the order means, you can assess most products in about ninety seconds.
Here's how.
1. The ingredient list is ranked
Ingredients are listed in descending order of quantity. The first name is the largest component; the last is the smallest.
This one rule tells you more than any claim on the front. If a product is marketed as an ashwagandha supplement and ashwagandha appears fourth, most of what's in the capsule is something else.
Look for what's near the top that you weren't expecting. Maltodextrin, rice flour, dicalcium phosphate and magnesium stearate are all common — they're bulking agents and flow agents, generally harmless, but they're taking up capsule space you're paying for. If one of them is in the top three, you're mostly buying filler.
2. Look for the dose, and notice if it's missing
A well-labelled product tells you how much of each active ingredient is in a serving, in milligrams.
Many don't. The usual phrasing is "proprietary blend" followed by a total weight, or a list of botanical names with no numbers at all. This is legal. It's also a choice, and it's worth asking why a brand would choose it.
If the dose isn't disclosed, you cannot compare that product to any other, and you can't compare it to traditional use either. You're buying on trust alone.
3. Check the serving size before you compare prices
This is where most people get caught.
Two products both cost ₹999. One is 60 capsules at one capsule a day — two months. The other is 60 capsules at two capsules twice a day — fifteen days. The second one is four times the price of the first, and nothing on the front of the pack says so.
Work out the cost per day, not the cost per bottle:
Price ÷ (capsules per pack ÷ capsules per day) = cost per day
Do this before anything else. It reorders the shelf completely, and it's the single most useful ninety seconds you'll spend.
4. Find the FSSAI licence number
Every food business operator selling supplements in India must display a licence number — 14 digits, usually on the back of the pack near the manufacturer's details.
If you can't find it on the pack or on the website, that's the end of the assessment. Don't buy it. A licence number means someone is registered, accountable and inspectable. Its absence means nobody is.
While you're there, look for the manufacturer's or marketer's full name and address. "Marketed by" plus a real address is a company you could send a legal notice to. A brand name and a Gmail address is not.
5. Check the veg mark
A small square with a green dot means vegetarian. Brown means non-vegetarian.
For capsules, the thing this usually reflects is the shell. Gelatin capsules are made from animal collagen. HPMC capsules are plant-based. Many buyers assume a herbal product must be vegetarian and are surprised — the herb is; the shell often isn't.
If you care about this, the mark is the fastest check, and the ingredient list should name the shell material explicitly.
6. Read the disclaimers, but read them correctly
Indian nutraceutical labels carry required statements. The most common is a line saying the product is not for medicinal use and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent disease.
People read this as a brand hedging. It isn't. It's a legal requirement for the entire category, and it applies to every supplement on the shelf whether they print it clearly or bury it.
What's actually informative is the opposite signal. If a product's packaging or website claims it treats, controls, cures or reverses a named condition — diabetes, blood pressure, thyroid, arthritis — that claim is not permitted for a food supplement in India. A brand willing to make it is a brand willing to ignore the rules that exist to protect you. Everything else on that label becomes less trustworthy as a result.
7. Look for the batch number, and see if it goes anywhere
Every pack carries a batch number and a manufacture or expiry date.
The interesting question is whether the brand does anything with it. Some publish lab test reports for each batch — typically heavy metals, pesticide residue and microbial load. If they do, you can match the number on your bottle to the report for the material actually in it.
Botanicals are agricultural products. They absorb what's in the soil and whatever was sprayed on the field. Heavy metal contamination in herbal supplements is a documented and recurring problem, which is why batch-level testing matters more here than in most categories.
If a brand says "lab tested" but publishes no report, treat it as decoration.
The ninety-second version
- First three ingredients — actives or fillers?
- Is the dose in milligrams, or hidden in a blend?
- Cost per day, not cost per bottle
- FSSAI number and a real address — present or absent?
- Veg mark, if it matters to you
- Any claim to treat a named disease? Put it down.
That's it. It won't tell you whether a product will work for you. It will reliably tell you whether the brand is being straight with you, which is the part you can actually check before spending money.