Capsules, and the simpler end

Powder is not the only way to sell a dietary ingredient, and for some formulas it is the harder way.

Where powders sit on the difficulty scale

A powder is cheap to make, cheap to package per serving, and hard to dose accurately. Its problems are scoop error, caking, segregation and mixability.

Those problems get worse as the serving gets smaller and the actives get more potent, which is precisely where many supplement formulas want to go.

Capsules solve dosing

A capsule is a pre-measured dose, filled by weight on equipment, sealed from the air. It removes the scoop problem, the caking problem, the mixability problem and most of the moisture problem at once.

It also removes the flavor problem entirely, which for bitter or unpleasant actives is the difference between a sellable product and one nobody finishes.

The 21 CFR 111 obligations are identical, and blend uniformity still matters because a capsule is filled from a blend.

What capsules cost

Capsule shells, encapsulation equipment or contract filling, and a serving size constrained by how much fits in a capsule. A 5 g serving is ten capsules, which is a compliance problem of a different kind: people will not take them.

So capsules suit ingredients that are potent at small doses and powders suit ingredients taken by the gram.

Choosing a format

Serving size decides it. Grams to tens of grams: powder, because nobody will swallow the capsule equivalent. Milligrams to a gram: capsules, because the dosing accuracy is free and the scoop error at that scale is unacceptable.

In between, stick packs are the honest compromise: pre-measured like a capsule, gram-scale like a powder.

References