What a "Proprietary Blend" Actually Hides
If you have ever turned a supplement tub around and seen "Proprietary Blend 8,000 mg" with a list of ingredients under it and no individual amounts, you have met the oldest trick in this industry.
I started Valenco because that trick used to fool me too.
What a proprietary blend actually is
A proprietary blend is a group of ingredients listed under a single total weight. The label tells you the blend adds up to, say, 8,000 mg. It does not tell you how much of each ingredient is inside. The rules only require the ingredients to be listed in order of weight, so the first one could be almost the entire 8,000 mg and the rest could be a pinch.
Why companies use them
Two reasons, and neither one is for you.
The first is cost. The expensive, research backed ingredients can be used in tiny amounts while cheap fillers make up the bulk, and the single blend total hides the whole thing.
The second is comparison. If you cannot see the dose, you cannot check it against what the research actually used, and you cannot compare it to the brand sitting next to it on the shelf.
How to read past it
Turn the tub around and look for a number next to every active ingredient. If creatine says "5,000 mg," good. If it is buried inside a "Strength Matrix" with one total, you have no real idea what you are getting. A trustworthy label gives you the dose of each ingredient, plainly.
What we do instead
Every Valenco label prints every ingredient and every dose. Creatine is 5,000 mg because that is the amount the studies used. Our BCAAs are a 2:1:1 ratio with each gram listed. Nothing hides inside a blend, because the entire point of this brand is that you can check our work. Every batch is third party tested, and the certificate of analysis is on the site.
You should not have to trust a label. You should be able to verify it.
See exactly what is in every product on our Standards page.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Ronin
Founder, Valenco