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The state-by-state answer

Updated

On this page5

The state research that dominates a food business is a much smaller exercise here, with one significant exception.

Why this is a short list

Dietary supplements are regulated federally: DSHEA defines the category, 21 CFR 111 governs manufacturing, and 21 CFR 101.36 governs the panel. None of that varies by state.

There is no patchwork of exemptions to research because there are no exemptions.

Three questions

One: does my state require a license or registration to manufacture dietary supplements, separate from a general business license.

Two: may that manufacturing happen at a residential address under local zoning and occupancy rules.

Three: does my state impose any ingredient restriction or warning requirement of its own.

California is the exception

Proposition 65 requires warnings for listed substances above defined thresholds, and lead and other heavy metals occur naturally in botanical and mineral ingredients at levels that can trigger it.

This is not a hypothetical for supplements. It is a live and frequently litigated area, and it applies to anything sold into California, which for an online brand means everything.

The practical response: know your heavy metal numbers per lot rather than assuming, and take advice on where they sit relative to the thresholds.

Where to look

Your state department of agriculture or public health for licensing, your local authority for zoning, and FDA directly for everything substantive.

The federal material is well documented and stable. The state and local layer is the part that gets answered verbally in a phone call and then forgotten, so get it in writing.

References

No published source. This page is written from practice rather than from published guidance. No extension service or agency publishes on this question for powders, so nothing here is cited, and it should be weighed as experience and not as a standard.
Written from published regulation and peer-reviewed work, not from a laboratory of our own. Your own certificates of analysis, your blend uniformity results and your own written specifications override anything general said here. Nothing on this site is a substitute for the records 21 CFR 111 requires you to keep.