Every claim your supplement qualifies for

We check your formulation against the claims registers and set out every claim it can make in GB and the EU, in wording your team can use.

Claims Bank

Supplement founders and brand teams · UK · EU · US on request

Do you know every claim your product can make?

A Claims Bank is the complete list of supplement claims your formulation is entitled to make, both nutrition and health claims, worked out from your doses and the authorised registers. Your label, product page, ads and agencies all work from the same list, so everyone says the same thing and nobody says more than the product allows.

Book a call about your product

A 20-minute call. We’ll follow it with a written scope and proposal.

Why it matters

Most claims lists start from the ingredients. The rules start from the dose.

The first list of claims most brands work from arrives with something else: a manufacturer’s template, a supplier’s spec sheet, a competitor’s product page, or a list pulled together while the formulation was still changing. It usually goes ingredient by ingredient, naming what each one is “for”. That isn’t how the rules work.

A health claim belongs to a specific nutrient or substance, it only applies once there’s enough of it in the daily serving, and many come with conditions: a daily intake that has to be stated, an audience the claim is limited to, or a statement that has to sit alongside it. Those conditions are where a list that looked right on paper stops matching the product.

It works the other way too. It’s common for a formulation to qualify for far more claims than the brand is using, while the claims on the draft artwork are the ones it can’t make. The strongest story for the pack is often sitting in the vitamins and minerals nobody thought to write about.

Before launch, the first to notice is usually a printer or manufacturer querying the artwork, a retailer’s technical team or an ad platform’s review. After launch, it can be a competitor’s complaint, to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in the UK or the equivalent body in each EU country. We’d rather you had the list first.

The claim belongs to the nutrient, not the product.

What we check

How we work out your supplement claims

We start from your product specification, with the amount of every ingredient in a daily serving, and work outwards from the Great Britain Nutrition and Health Claims Register (GBNHCR) and the EU Register of nutrition and health claims. The two registers started from the same list but have been kept separately since 2021, so where you sell in both we check both. For every product we look at:

  • Every vitamin and mineral against its Nutrient Reference Value (NRV), to settle which reach “source of” at 15% and “high in” at 30%, plus nutrition claims such as sugars, protein and fibre where the formulation qualifies
  • Every authorised health claim the formulation can make, in the register’s own wording, with its conditions of use
  • The conditions beyond the dose: who a claim is aimed at, a daily intake that has to be stated, and whether the amount holds to the end of shelf life
  • The statements a health claim brings with it on pack and in advertising
  • Every ingredient with no authorised claim, and the benefits it mustn’t be linked to
  • Plain, descriptive wording for those ingredients, so they aren’t left silent
  • Near-miss claims: where a small change to the formulation would unlock a claim, and whether it’s worth making
  • Your product name, and whether it reads as a claim in its own right
  • How the claims carry across pack, product page, ads, email and creator content

What you get

One list your label, website and ads all work from

A VJM Claims Bank written to be used by your marketing, design and technical teams alike, with no regulatory background needed. It contains:

  • A one-page summary. Where your product lands, the claims worth leading with and the decisions that are yours to make. It’s the page that gets forwarded, so it carries the whole picture.
  • Every claim you qualify for. Your nutrition claims and every authorised health claim, in the register’s own wording, each with its conditions and a reference code, so a writer, designer or ad reviewer can be pointed at a single line.
  • Wording that reads naturally. The register wording next to versions for your website and ads that mean the same thing.
  • The claims grouped by topic. Immunity, energy, skin, bones and the rest, each with what it lets you talk about and what to watch for.
  • The ingredients with no claim. What each one mustn’t be linked to, and descriptive wording so it isn’t left silent.
  • Near-miss claims. Where a small change to the formulation would unlock more, what it would take and whether it’s worth doing.
  • A product name review. Whether the name reads as a claim, and what has to sit next to it.
  • Across your channels. How the claims carry onto pack, product page, ads, email and creator content.

It’s accurate on the day it’s issued, against the register and specification it names. It also lists the changes that would mean checking it again, such as a new dose, supplier or register edition. Victoria signs off every ruling before it reaches you.

In practice

What a Claims Bank turns up

Three patterns we see again and again. They come from across the category rather than any one brand, because clients trust us with formulations that haven’t launched yet. All three follow the UK and EU rules. The US works to a different system, which we cover separately.

The ingredient on the front of the pack

In the UK and EU, it’s common for the ingredients a brand leads with to carry no authorised claim at all, and for every claim the product can make to come from the vitamins and minerals further down the list. The claim stays with the nutrient. “Vitamin D contributes to the normal function of the immune system” is on both the GB and EU registers, but put “our elderberry extract” in place of vitamin D and it’s no longer an authorised claim. We show which nutrients can carry the message, and give you wording that describes the rest without claiming for them.

Just under the line

Under the UK and EU rules, a vitamin or mineral can’t carry a single health claim until it reaches 15% of its Nutrient Reference Value in the daily serving. Once it gets there, most of its claims open up at once. Magnesium’s reference value is 375 mg in both, so it needs at least 56.25 mg for “source of” and 112.5 mg for “high in”. A formulation sitting just under the first line has a whole set of claims within reach, and some claims set a higher daily amount of their own. We flag each near-miss with what it would take and whether it’s worth doing before the first production run.

The name is a claim

In the UK and EU, a product name that suggests a benefit is treated as a claim. It can be used without an authorisation of its own, but only with a related authorised claim alongside it on the pack and in the advertising, and that has to be a claim the formulation actually qualifies for. A name built around energy, sleep or immunity needs its matching claim to be available. A name that suggests preventing or treating an illness can’t be rescued this way at all. We check the name against the Claims Bank, so you know whether it can stay and what has to sit next to it.

Who does the work

A dietitian on the claims, a pharmacologist on the chemistry

VJM is a two-person studio. Victoria leads every Claims Bank, and Richard checks the chemistry behind the doses: the forms and conversions that decide whether a nutrient really reaches its threshold.

Victoria Metzger, former NHS dietitian and co-founder of VJM Writing Services

Victoria Metzger

Co-Founder & Compliance Lead

8 years as an nhs dietitian

A former NHS dietitian of eight years and a specialist in UK, EU and US claims regulation. She leads the Claims Bank and signs off every ruling.

Richard Metzger, pharmacologist and co-founder of VJM Writing Services

Richard Metzger

Co-Founder & Science Lead

12 years in Pharma r&D

A pharmacologist with twelve years in pharma and biotech R&D, including AstraZeneca and GSK. He checks the biochemistry behind every dose.

Where the Claims Bank points to further work, the same two people pick it up with your claims already worked out:

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Getting started

Start with a call.

Every Claims Bank is scoped to the product and set out in a written proposal, with a fixed fee and a timeline, before any work begins. The fee depends on how many products and markets are involved, and you’ll have it in writing before we start.

1. Book a call. Twenty minutes on the product, where you’re selling it and what you want to say about it.

2. We scope it. We look through your specification and any draft copy or artwork, and work out what the Claims Bank needs to cover.

3. You get a proposal. Scope, deliverables, fee and timeline in writing. Work starts when you’re happy with it.

Book a call about your product

Prefer email? Send your formulation and any studies to info@vjmwritingservices.com. We’re happy to sign an NDA before you send anything.

FAQ

A few we get asked.

Founders getting a product ready to launch, who want the claims settled before the label, the product page and the ads are written. Brand teams at established supplement companies, launching a new product, reformulating, moving into a new market or answering questions from a retailer or an ad platform. And founders preparing to raise investment or sell, who want a clear record of what each product in the range can claim before an investor asks.

Your product specification with the amount of every ingredient per daily serving, the serving size and the markets you’re selling in. If you already have draft artwork, a product page or a list of supplement health claims you’d like to use, send those too, and we’ll tell you where each one stands.

They answer two halves of the same question. The Claims Bank tells you what the register lets you say. The Scientific Substantiation Review tells you what your own evidence lets you say about everything the register doesn’t cover. Most products start with the Claims Bank, and add the review when the ingredients they lead with have no claim of their own.

It’s a useful starting point, but lists of supplement health claims from manufacturers and suppliers usually go ingredient by ingredient, without your doses, the conditions attached to each claim or the statements that have to go with them. The responsibility for what your label and marketing say stays with you, so it’s worth checking the list against your own product.

Yes, within limits. In the UK and EU, a claim can be reworded as long as it means the same thing to the consumer and doesn’t claim more than the authorised version. Your Claims Bank gives you the register wording next to wording that reads naturally, and shows where we’d keep to the register’s own words.

Then we’ll tell you plainly and give you descriptive wording for it: what it is, where it comes from and how much is in a serving. Some plant ingredients have claims that are still on hold while they’re reviewed, and the UK and EU rules allow those to be used in the meantime under conditions. Where that applies, we set out the risk and leave the decision with you. If you hold evidence of your own, the Scientific Substantiation Review looks at what it lets you say.

The UK and EU. The Great Britain and EU registers are now maintained separately, so we check each one, and Northern Ireland follows the EU rules on claims. The US has no claims register: supplements there use structure/function claims, which work to a different standard and carry a mandatory disclaimer, so US work is scoped separately on request. Pet supplements aren’t covered, as there’s no authorised claims register for pet products to check against.

Your Claims Bank is accurate against the specification and the register edition it was built on, and it lists what would trigger a re-check: a dose change, a new supplier or ingredient form, a change of audience, or a new register edition. If one of those happens, we’ll scope an update.

Yes. We never publish client work, and we’re happy to sign an NDA before you share anything. The examples on this page are patterns drawn from across the category.