How to spot a proprietary blend

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

What one looks like

A line naming several ingredients together with one weight beside it, usually under a name such as recovery matrix, focus complex, performance blend or proprietary formula.

The giveaway is that the total is stated and the parts are not. A panel showing 2,400mg for six ingredients is telling you the six add up to 2,400mg and nothing about whether that is 2,300mg of the cheapest one and a trace of the other five.

Why the doses are the whole point

Every authorised claim in the UK has a condition of use attached, which is a minimum amount. Magnesium claims need 15 percent of a 375mg reference value. The omega 3 heart claim needs 250mg of combined EPA and DHA. Creatine needs 3g.

Without individual doses none of that can be checked. An ingredient present at a fraction of its threshold contributes nothing except a name on a label, and blends exist in large part because listing that ingredient is valuable and disclosing its dose is not.

The one thing the order tells you

Ingredients within a blend are still listed in descending order by weight, which is a legal requirement rather than a courtesy.

So the first ingredient is the largest part of the blend. That tells you the ranking and nothing about the distribution, and the distribution is where the money is. A blend topped by a cheap bulk ingredient with an expensive one at the bottom is the standard pattern and it is exactly what the format is designed to obscure.

Why it disqualifies a product for a tested player

Checking a supplement against a prohibited list means reading every ingredient and verifying anything unfamiliar. A blend lets you read the names and not the amounts, which is enough for a list check.

What it removes is any ability to reason about what you are actually taking, and it signals a manufacturer who has decided that information is not yours. For a player under strict liability, that combination is reason enough to put it down without further investigation.

Where blends concentrate

Pre workouts, fat burners, testosterone support products, nootropic stacks and multi ingredient joint formulas. Those are also, not coincidentally, the categories with the highest contamination risk and the most adulteration history.

Single ingredient minerals, oils and extracts almost never use the format, because there is nothing to hide behind. That correlation is worth noticing on its own.

What a good label does instead

Names every active with its own weight, states the serving size in units, gives a percentage NRV where a vitamin or mineral is involved, and lists excipients separately in the ingredients.

Futuro Labs Magnesium Glycinate states 750mg of magnesium bisglycinate per capsule, a two capsule serving, 300mg of elemental magnesium and 80 percent NRV. Futuro Labs Marine Collagen states 1200mg of collagen, 12mg of vitamin C and 1.5mg of zinc with their NRV percentages. Nothing in either is hidden behind a total, which is what makes them checkable at all.

The check

• Look for several ingredients sharing one weight on the panel.
• Look for the words matrix, complex, blend, formula or proprietary.
• Check whether every named active has its own figure beside it.
• Check whether any figure can be compared to a claim threshold.
• Note which ingredient is listed first within any blend.
• If you could be tested, treat a blend as a reason not to buy.
• Prefer products where the serving size and every active weight are stated separately.

Fairy dusting, and the tell

The practice a blend usually conceals has a name in the trade: including an ingredient at a fraction of a meaningful dose so it can appear on the label.

The tell is a long ingredient list on a product with a modest total weight. If a formula names twelve actives inside a 2,000mg blend, and any one of them would need 500mg to do anything, the arithmetic has already answered the question. Twelve into 2,000 leaves an average of 167mg each before accounting for the fact that the first ingredient usually takes most of it.

Single ingredient products cannot do this, which is most of why this site prefers them. Futuro Labs Magnesium Glycinate contains one active at 750mg per capsule with the elemental figure printed, and there is nowhere for a trace to hide.

Where to go next

• How to check a supplement against the banned listWhy a blend cannot be checked properly.
• How to read a supplement labelThe full method, including the descending order rule.
• How to compare two supplements on the label aloneWhat to do when both labels are honest.

Questions players ask

Sources

• Food supplements guidance, gov.uk
• EFSA register of nutrition and health claims
• UK Anti-Doping, supplements