What the first run looks like

A first supplement launch has an order, and the commonest mistake is ordering packaging before the formula and its materials are qualified.

Before anything is ordered

Decide the product and keep the range to one or two, because testing is per formula.

Write the specification first: label claim per serving, manufacturing target with overage, acceptance ranges. Everything else references it.

Source materials with full documentation, and settle the package, because the seal is the shelf life for a hygroscopic powder and a packaging change is a reason to retest.

Register the facility.

Qualification, and the wait

Qualify each supplier and material: full testing at first purchase, identity established, specification agreed in writing.

Make a bench batch and check it: appearance, mixability, taste, and blend uniformity by sampling from several points. Then a potency assay on the first full batch.

Use the waiting for labels, the Supplement Facts panel derived arithmetically from the formula, the product page, and the records structure.

Production day

Clean down first. Weigh to percentages, recording actual weights and every lot number as you go. Pre-blend the small components by geometric dilution. Blend for the established time, no longer.

Sample from top, middle and bottom before filling. Fill to weight with check-weights from start, middle and end. Wipe rims, seal, label, and set aside reserve samples.

The weeks after

Hold the reserve samples properly. Watch for mixability and caking complaints, which arrive first and tell you about the seal and the particle size.

And resist adding a second product until the first has a complete file: specification, qualified suppliers, identity results, a potency assay and batch records. A second formula before that doubles the risk and halves the attention.

References