Futuro Labs Marine Collagen: label, dose and cost per day

By Tom Francis·Updated 2026-09-03·3 sources·Editorial policy

What is on the label

Futuro Labs Marine Collagen is a 120 capsule tub at 16.99 pounds on Amazon UK. Each capsule carries 600mg, and the serving is two capsules, so a serving delivers 1200mg of hydrolysed type 1 marine collagen.

Alongside the collagen, each serving carries 12mg of vitamin C and 1.5mg of zinc. Both sit at 15 percent of the nutrient reference value, which matters more than it looks, because 15 percent is the threshold a nutrient has to reach before a product may carry its authorised claim at all.

Collagen carries no health claim, and vitamin C does

This is the part of the collagen category that most labels avoid saying. Collagen itself has no authorised health claim in the UK or the EU. Not for joints, not for tendons, not for skin, not for recovery. A product that claims otherwise is making it up.

Vitamin C does carry an authorised claim, and it is directly relevant: vitamin C contributes to normal collagen formation for the normal function of cartilage, bones, skin, gums, teeth and blood vessels. Zinc contributes to the maintenance of normal hair, nails and skin and to normal protein synthesis. Both are in this product at exactly the level required to carry those claims.

Because both sit at exactly 15 percent NRV, the claim only holds at the full two capsule serving. One capsule is 7.5 percent and carries nothing.

Type 1 marine collagen, and what hydrolysed means

Type 1 is the collagen that dominates tendon, ligament, skin and bone. Marine collagen is type 1 by default, which is why it appears in this category rather than type 2, which is associated with cartilage.

Hydrolysed means the collagen has been broken into shorter peptide chains before it reaches the capsule. Whole collagen is a large molecule and is not absorbed intact. Hydrolysis is what makes an oral collagen product plausible at all, and an unhydrolysed collagen supplement is worth avoiding for that reason alone.

Source and allergens, stated plainly

Futuro Labs Marine Collagen is derived from fish. It is not vegan and it is not vegetarian, and anyone with a fish allergy should not take it. The capsule shell itself is a size 00 vegetarian capsule, which is a separate thing from the contents.

This matters in a rugby squad more than it might elsewhere, because supplements get passed around changing rooms and the fish source is not obvious from the word collagen.

The collagen and vitamin C research, described as research

There is a body of work looking at gelatin or collagen taken with vitamin C shortly before loading exercise, on the basis that connective tissue is poorly supplied with blood and benefits from a raised amino acid availability at the moment it is loaded. It is genuinely interesting and it is why the collagen plus vitamin C combination appears in products at all.

It is research, not an authorised claim, and it should be read as an area being explored rather than as an established effect. Nothing on this site describes it as more than that.

What to check on any marine collagen label

• Is the collagen hydrolysed, or just listed as collagen?
• Is it type 1, and is the source stated as fish, bovine or porcine?
• How many capsules make the stated serving?
• Is there a vitamin C dose, and does it reach 15 percent NRV at the full serving?
• Is the collagen dose given per serving or per capsule?
• Pack price divided by servings, not capsules.
• Is the fish source flagged clearly for allergens?

Cost per day, worked through

The tub is 16.99 pounds and contains 60 two capsule servings, which is 28.3p per day. That sits above the magnesium at 22p and below most powdered collagen products on a like for like collagen dose, because powders typically deliver five to ten grams per scoop at a correspondingly higher daily cost.

A capsule product at 1200mg and a powder at 10g are not the same purchase, and the honest comparison is cost per gram of collagen alongside cost per day.

Capsules against powder, on the numbers

The most common question about a capsule collagen is how it compares to the powders that dominate the category, and the honest answer is that they are different purchases.

Futuro Labs Marine Collagen provides 1200mg of type 1 marine collagen per two capsule serving at 28p a day. A typical powder provides five to ten grams a scoop at a higher daily cost, in a format that needs mixing. On cost per gram of collagen the powder is usually cheaper, and on cost per day the capsule usually is.

Which matters depends on why it is being taken. The research protocols use larger doses than a capsule product provides, which is worth knowing rather than hiding. What the capsule adds is the vitamin C at 15 percent NRV carrying the authorised claim, which many powders do not include at all.

Questions players ask

Sources

• EFSA register of nutrition and health claims
• Food supplements guidance, gov.uk
• Vitamin C enriched gelatin supplementation before intermittent activity augments collagen synthesis