I made a table where you can find out the source/location of factory for where health supplements are made. Then, I spent a year reading product labels so you can save time and money when buying supplements. This is that update.<p>This is still a work in progress but it functions fine.<p>My previous post was a simple database of company data showing ingredient sourcing/location. That took 10 days, this has taken me close to 9 months. BackOfLabel is an extension of that initial interest with dosage information at the product & ingredient level.<p>This update allows sorting by many more attributes at the product level (for 4000+ products at the moment) of manually scraped data.<p>Now, for instance you can sort by specific types of ingredient - eg. filter by magnesium glycinate , magnesium orotate or any combination. eg. find ubiquinol or ubiquinone, two forms of coenzyme q10. This is useful for consumers but also companies seeking competitor analysis.<p>You are able to filter products by<p>– Ingredient
– Filter by liquid, tablet, capsule, powder & more
– Browse by UPC Code
– Dosage Information
– No. Individual Serving
– No. Manufacturer Serving
– Total Dosage<p>For example You can also search by type of protein powder - eg. search for whey protein powder and find the dosage information for many products instantly.<p>It frustrates me and I think the way that people buy supplements is wrong. And they don't know any better because there are incentive structures that keep them in the dark. This is a small effort to combat the misleading labeling and lack of regulation in the industry.<p>full disclosure - i've provided a generic affiliate link in the table that means i earn a small percentage (5%) of total cart if you purchase through the link<p>note: browse on desktop to filter & sort
There seem to be more negative comments here -- so a positive one: Congratulations on getting this out! This is a ton of effort and I really appreciate the work going into this. Sourcing is absolutely an issue for supplements, and doing the homework on it is very hard. I agree that some sources could help, but without knowing anything about the quality of the work directly, I appreciate you putting the work in there and getting an update out there.<p>It's cool to be able to see something like liposomal apegenin just scrolling through there -- which is a bit more common now but I would have been very happy to know there was a provider who made that before doing my due diligence.<p>It would be very cool to me to see what factories/locations this was produced at and/or a trust rating (though this could go south very quickly), but this may be too tall an ask for the task at hand. I see it referenced I guess but don't have too much reference point from the demo what that looks like. That by far seems to be the most valuable bitset of information, I personally believe.<p>Regardless, much appreciated at doing this hard work! I am sure there are many unrecognized hours that went into this, don't let a critical comments section get you down early, especially after what seems to be many many hours of work! :D :)
I take a lot of supplements and here are the things I want to know:<p>- Which supplements have a specific ingredient<p>- If they have the ingredient how much is in each capsule or pill<p>- The price per unit quantity of the ingredient<p>- Often I am looking for one specific compound, so I want to find only supplements that don't have any other compounds, or at least know exactly what other compounds are in their formula (without looking at each one individually)<p>- For supplements that are extracts, I want to know if they are standardized, what they are standardized to, and the % of that compound in the product.<p>- If there is a Certificate of Analysis (and what it says and a link to it would be great)<p>- If they are organic<p>- Country of origin<p>- If they are tested for heavy metals<p>- If the company has ever been found to have products that don't contain what they state, or are unsafe in another way, and how recently and how often<p>- If the products are freshness dated, and how long a shelf life is claimed<p>- Where to get them at the lowest price, including shipping<p>What I don't want is what Google does: I don't want to see other similar sounding compounds when searching for a specific one.<p>Also, are you planning to charge for access to this? Not sure if people will pay for it on a subscription basis. I wouldn't, because I only sometimes look for something new.
Can you elaborate more on what frustrates you about how supplements are bought, the misleading labeling, the lack of regulation, and the incentive structures designed to keep people in the dark?<p>I ask because I consume and browse a lot of supplements and have never come across (or have never noticed) most of the above on any supplements I’ve ever considered.<p>Also, adding my two cents on things I care about when buying supplements:<p>- does this contain as much as it says it does?<p>- how does this ingredient benefit me?<p>- how bioavailable is this form?<p>Comparing the above is a huge time sink because the information is either hard to find or unknown or speculative.
Are you able to track down long complex supply chains? Years ago I did QA lab work for awhile for a domestic USA supplement manufacturer, and almost everything going into their products came from overseas - China, India, Japan, etc. My job was testing for heavy metals and bacterial and mold contamination, basically, plus levels of active ingredients in some cases. None of that information about country-of-origin ever went on the labels.<p>My recommendations are that if you're going to buy herbal supplements, buy them direct from domestic organic producers, ideally straight from the farmer online, and if you're going to buy other supplements, it's generally better to stay away from complex formulations, e.g. get pure vitamin C powder or pure glucosamine, in a gel capsule form, that ensures minimal handling and processing in perhaps-poorly-managed facilities.<p>It's good that peope are paying attention to sourcing, at least, but it's a complicated web to untangle.
Interest concept, but to be honest it left me with a lot of questions. Namely: Where is the information about labels and factories coming from? The preview is sorted alphabetically which puts a single vendor at the top, and as a potential customer I don’t really know what I’d get access to if I signed up. Is it just a handful of brands that shared info?
The problem is trusting the labels represent what's in the supplement. These supplement companies either lie or aren't competent enough to ensure (1) what's in the product is what they claim (e.g. wildly different doses to what's claimed, either above or below), (2) there isn't contamination with heavy metals (e.g. arsenic).<p>As a user I'd be more interested in knowing which products have independent verification of contents, so I know the product is what it claims to be, and that the product isn't going to poison me with arsenic etc.
What a refreshing and great idea. The closer we get to pure data, the better.<p>I don't currently take supplements, but spent a few days researching which supplements I should take, and got completely different answers from everyone I asked.<p>Tim Ferris's blog posts had one idea, some body hackers had others, reddit had other ideas. I wanted to improve my health but really felt like the information I was getting was conflicting. (if each source had given similar responses, I'd probably have taken the advice, but because it was was <i>very</i> inconsistent, I couldn't tell who was right and who was just trying to sell some sugar powder/syrup/tablet, so I stuck to wholesome foods instead).<p>I still would love to know what supplements are "no brainers" and should be taken to have a meaningful improvement on one's vitality, health, energy, and life.
You could link to the controlled studies on supplement effectiveness for various self-diagnosed ailments. That shouldn’t add too much overhead to your database.<p>You could also include independent analyses of what the supplement products actually contain, as opposed to manufacturer claims.
The owner of nootropics depot has convinced me that, apart from theirs, maybe only 1% of the products in the supplements industry are what they say they are and/or remotely close the stated dose.
Aside from that, the website looks great!
As someone who has purchased a lot of supplements over the past few years to (try to) deal with a health issue, the biggest problem I face is fake/untrustworthy reviews. Either outright fake reviews, or reviews that were "bought" by offering free products or something like that.<p>I just want to know from real people whether a given supplement worked well for them or not.<p>Bonus points if you can link scientific studies related to a supplement, so I don't have to search for them myself.<p>These are the main two issues I faced. I don't mind researching things myself, but the fake reviews really get on my nerves.
> I think the way that people buy supplements is wrong<p>Well yeah, buying supplements in the first place is wrong, unless you are deficient in something specific for a specific reason.<p>The supplements industry is just one big scam.
I had an ex who was deeply into roughly this idea, but for beauty products. There’re many micro-domains where people spend a lot of time trying to figure out where things come from, what their environmental impact is, the production process, etc.<p>Maybe not a billion dollar business, but hey it is an honest thing to try to sell.
I would love to be able to buy supplement "samples". If I want to try out Xyz for the first time, I have to buy a huge bottle usually. If I don't end up liking it, it ends up being a waste of product and money
Is it safe though to go just buy the active ingredients directly?<p>isn't there supposed to be some controls on dosage? the other ingredients we think are filler, but they are actually necessary to stabilize the active ingredients?<p>many questions
Keep it up! Also, consider adding some data about sustainability (e.g. packaging materials, CO2 footprint, animal ethics, land use, etc.). I'd like to see this scale up.