Proprietary Blend. Strength Matrix. Metabolic Complex.
You may have crossed a term like this and wondered what it might mean.
A little background:
The FDA requires manufacturers to list all of the ingredients in a product on its label, along with the amount of each (in terms of weight), unless the ingredients are part of a proprietary blend—then the specific amount of each individual ingredient in theblend does not have to be listed, only the total.
It's pretty much a tool that is trying to accomplish one of two things;
(1) Get you to believe that they have a special complex that they created that is so highly secret and potent that they can't share the contents because it takes away their competitive advantage.
(2) use this legality to not share how much of each ingredient you get per serving.
What it really comes down to is dishonest marketing. If you were Coca-Cola then yes, you really do need to keep your syrup a trade-secret. However in this industry, we work with nutraceutical ingredients that are meant to have an affect on your body. These affects & doses are well documented during clinical studies when suppliers try and calculate how much of a certain ingredient is needed to have the desired affect.
For examples; one of our favorite independent research tool is examine.com
On their site, they share that clinical studies shows that when utilizing this ingredient, 50mg of the active ingredient must be used to show a correlation between the ingredient and fat loss. (https://examine.com/supplements/coleus-forskohlii)
So how do you know if a certain supplement is supplying the proper amount you need for that ingredient if they put it in a proprietary blend and then refuse to share the information. Chances are they utilize a small dose of the ingredient to put int on the label and utilize it during with marketing, even though it isn’t enough to actually make a positive effect. That’s because ingredients need to be taken in at efficacious dosages – the dose needed/claimed by clinical studies to make an affect.
Simply put, if there is a proprietary blend, then the company is not being transparent about what is really inside. We suggest skipping it all together, or do more research.