What is a Proprietary Blend?
A proprietary blend is a group of ingredients listed on a supplement label under a single combined weight, without disclosing how much of each ingredient it contains.
It sits between full transparency and a trade secret, letting a brand name its ingredients while hiding the individual amounts. The practical problem is that it obscures whether any ingredient reaches its clinical dose, the amount shown to do something in studies. A blend can also mask a weak standardised extract or a low extract ratio, since the label reveals none of those details.
Blends are common in products that want a long, impressive ingredient list. The catch for the buyer is that a blend can be mostly cheap filler with only a trace of the active ingredient people came for, and there is no way to tell from the label. This makes honest comparison between products almost impossible.
If you would rather see every amount stated openly, you can read our approach on our science page.
Frequently asked questions
How is it different from a fully disclosed formula?
A disclosed formula states the exact amount of every active ingredient. A proprietary blend gives only the total weight of the group, hiding the individual doses.
When is a proprietary blend ever reasonable?
It can make sense where a genuinely novel flavour or aroma mix is a trade secret. For active ingredients where dose matters, it mostly serves the seller, not the buyer.
When is a proprietary blend a red flag?
When it hides the dose of the headline ingredient you are paying for. If a label will not tell you how much active you get, treat it with caution.