How to read a marine collagen label

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

Step one: type and source

Type 1 dominates tendon, ligament, skin and bone and is what a rugby player is thinking about. Type 2 is associated with cartilage and comes from chicken sternum. Type 3 appears alongside type 1 in bovine products.

Source should be stated plainly: marine means fish, bovine means cattle, porcine means pig. None is vegan. Marine is a declared allergen and should be emphasised on the label, which matters more than it sounds because the word collagen gives no clue to what a product is made from.

Step two: hydrolysed or not

Whole collagen is a large molecule that is not absorbed intact. Hydrolysis breaks it into shorter peptide chains, and it is what makes an oral collagen product plausible at all.

Look for hydrolysed collagen or collagen peptides on the label. A product listing collagen with no indication of hydrolysis is worth avoiding on that basis alone, and it is a cheap tell about how much thought went into the rest of it.

Step three: the dose and the serving it refers to

Capsule products sit around one gram per serving. Powders sit at five to ten grams a scoop. Those are different purchases and the research protocols use the powder range, which is stated on every collagen page here.

Check what the dose figure refers to. A product quoting 1200mg per two capsules is different from one quoting it per capsule, and a powder quoting a figure per two scoops changes the tub duration and the cost per day accordingly.

Step four: the vitamin C, which decides everything

This is the step that separates a collagen product that can carry a claim from one that cannot, and most buyers never look at it.

Collagen has no authorised claim. Vitamin C contributes to normal collagen formation for the normal function of cartilage, bones, skin, gums, teeth and blood vessels, at a serving providing at least 15 percent of its reference value. Futuro Labs Marine Collagen includes 12mg at exactly 15 percent NRV, so the claim holds at the full two capsule serving. A great many collagen powders contain none at all and therefore carry no claim in any form.

Step five: everything else on the panel

Zinc, if present, carries its own claims at 15 percent NRV and Futuro Labs Marine Collagen includes 1.5mg. Read the ingredients list for capsule material, bulking agents and anything else, in descending order by weight.

Then check for a proprietary blend, which in this category usually means collagen combined with several joint ingredients under one total. That format makes the whole check impossible and is a reason to put the product down.

Step six: cost, per day and per gram

Pack price divided by servings gives cost per day. Futuro Labs Marine Collagen is 16.99 pounds for 60 two capsule servings, which is 28p a day.

Cost per gram of collagen is the comparison that makes capsules and powders comparable. At 1200mg per serving that works out at about 23p per gram. A powder at 25 pounds for 30 ten gram servings is 83p a day and 8.3p per gram. Both figures are true and they point in opposite directions, which is why the honest comparison names both.

The whole check

• Type: type 1 for tendon, ligament, skin and bone.
• Source: marine, bovine or porcine, and none is vegan.
• Hydrolysed, stated explicitly.
• Dose per serving, and what the serving actually is.
• Vitamin C with a percentage NRV, at 15 percent or above.
• Zinc or other added nutrients with their own NRV percentages.
• Ingredients list for capsule material and bulking agents.
• No proprietary blend hiding the collagen dose.
• Cost per day and cost per gram of collagen.

Where to go next

• Futuro Labs Marine Collagen: the full labelA label run through every one of these steps.
• Marine or bovine collagen for rugby players?The source decision, once you can read both labels.
• Collagen powder or capsules for rugby players?The format decision and the dose gap.

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