Proprietary Blends: What Ingredient Order Reveals About Milligrams
A five-minute skill that turns a secretive label into useful numbers.
The rule that makes blends readable
Federal labeling rules let supplement makers group ingredients into a "proprietary blend" and print only the total weight. In exchange, two things are required: the blend's total amount per serving, and every ingredient in the blend listed in descending order of predominance by weight[1]. That second requirement is more useful than it sounds.
The math
If a blend weighs B milligrams and lists N ingredients from heaviest to lightest, then the ingredient in position k can weigh at most B divided by k. The first can be anything up to the whole blend (and at least B divided by N); the second at most half; the third at most a third; and so on. These are ceilings, often far above the real amounts, because the first ingredient usually takes most of the weight.
A worked example: MindVault's reference blend
The private-label formula that matches MindVault's ingredient list publishes a 255 mg blend of eight ingredients[3]:
| Position | Ingredient | Most it can weigh |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | GABA | 255 mg |
| 2 | L-Tyrosine | 127 mg |
| 3 | Caffeine | 85 mg |
| 4 | Bacopa monnieri extract (whole herb) | 63 mg |
| 5 | Phosphatidylserine 20% (sunflower) | 51 mg |
| 6 | Alpha GPC powder | 42 mg |
| 7 | L-Theanine | 36 mg |
| 8 | Huperzine A 1% (Huperzia serrata, whole herb) | 31 mg of a 1% extract |
Now compare with research doses. Bacopa trials used 300 mg a day[4]; in position four, bacopa can be at most 63 mg. Two lines of arithmetic have told you more than the sales page does.
Watch the percentages
Some blend ingredients are extracts with a stated strength, such as "phosphatidylserine 20%" or "huperzine A 1%." Multiply: 51 mg of a 20% extract is about 10 mg of phosphatidylserine. For concentrated drug-like compounds, the reverse can matter: a small weight of a 1% huperzine extract can still deliver a meaningful dose.
What a blend cannot hide
A blend cannot hide its total weight, its ingredient order or a structure/function claim's disclaimer[2]. It can hide whether any single ingredient is present at a useful dose. The FDA does not verify blend contents before sale[5]; if a dose matters to you, ask the seller for it, or for a certificate of analysis, before you buy.
Questions on this topic
Are proprietary blends illegal?
No. They are allowed, as long as the total weight and descending order are printed.
Can a blend's first ingredient be most of it?
Yes, and it often is. The ceilings for later ingredients are maximums, not estimates.
Sources linked from this page
Each link opens the original record. The studies tested single ingredients at their own doses, often in people with dementia; none tested a MindVault capsule.
- 1Electronic Code of Federal Regulations. 21 CFR 101.36: Nutrition labeling of dietary supplements. www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-101/subpart-C/section-101.36
- 2Electronic Code of Federal Regulations. 21 CFR 101.93: Certain types of statements for dietary supplements. www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-101/subpart-F/section-101.93
- 3Supliful. Cognitive Support, private label capsules (catalog listing with the ten-ingredient string). supliful.com/catalog/cognitive-support-capsules
- 4Stough C, Downey LA, Lloyd J, et al. Examining the nootropic effects of a special extract of Bacopa monniera on human cognitive functioning: 90 day double-blind placebo-controlled randomized trial. Phytother Res. 2008;22(12):1629-1634. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18683852/
- 5U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Questions and Answers on Dietary Supplements. www.fda.gov/food/information-consumers-using-dietary-supplements/questions-and-answers-dietary-supplements
Run MindVault as a measured 60-day test
The order completes on the brand's own BuyGoods checkout. Before the first capsule, show the bottle to your pharmacist if you take any prescription, note three everyday memory slips you want to track, keep the confirmation email and the return form from the box, and decide by week seven whether to mail the bottles back while the window is still open.