Supplement Manufacturing Glossary

The terms that come up in a specification, a quotation or a regulatory pack — defined in plain English, with a note on why each one matters to a buyer.

This glossary is written for brand owners and importers rather than for chemists. Where a term has a different meaning in a specific market, we say so.

Commercial Terms

Term	What it means and why it matters
MOQ (Minimum Order Quantity)	The smallest batch a factory will run for a given product. It rises with the amount of setup work involved — a stock formula in stock packaging has the lowest MOQ; a new formula, new packaging or new dosage form raises it. See our MOQ guide for the ladder.
OEM	Original Equipment Manufacturer. You supply the formula; the factory manufactures to it. You own the formula.
ODM	Original Design Manufacturer. The factory supplies a developed formula from its catalogue and you brand it. Faster and cheaper, but the formula is not automatically yours.
Private Label	Generally, taking an existing finished product and applying your brand. Often used loosely to mean ODM. The question that actually matters is who owns the formula.
FOB (Free On Board)	The price covers the goods and delivery to the port of shipment. Risk transfers at that point. Import duties and onward freight are yours.
CIF (Cost, Insurance, Freight)	The price includes freight and insurance to the destination port. Import duties are still yours.
DDP (Delivered Duty Paid)	The price includes delivery to your door with duties paid. Highest headline price, fewest surprises.
EXW (Ex Works)	The price covers only the goods at the factory. All freight, export clearance and duty are yours. Rarely the right basis for a first order.
Lead time	The time from a defined trigger to delivery. Always ask what the trigger is — a purchase order, or formula and artwork confirmation. “25–40 days” means little without it.
Pilot batch	A small production run made before full-scale manufacture, used to confirm the specification at realistic scale. Distinct from a sample, which may be made at bench scale.

Quality and Testing

Term	What it means and why it matters
CoA (Certificate of Analysis)	The document reporting the test results for a specific batch. It should be issued per batch, not per product, and it should reference the batch number.
cGMP	Current Good Manufacturing Practice. A quality system for manufacturing. “cGMP certified” means little without naming who certified it — look for the auditor.
HACCP	Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points. A food-safety system that identifies where contamination could occur and puts a control at each point.
ISO 22000	An international food-safety management standard. Related to HACCP but a management-system standard rather than a hazard-control method.
SOP (Standard Operating Procedure)	A written instruction for how a task is performed. A QC system without documented SOPs is not a QC system.
Specification	The written definition of what the product must be — actives, assay limits, weight, dimensions, appearance, microbiology. Everything is judged against it.
Overage	Deliberately adding more of an active than the label states, to compensate for degradation over shelf life. Common and legitimate for sensitive actives such as probiotics and certain vitamins, provided it is calculated and documented.
CFU (Colony Forming Unit)	The unit for counting live microorganisms in probiotics. A CFU figure is meaningless unless you also specify whether it applies at manufacture or at expiry, and at what temperature.
Stability study	Testing a product over time under defined conditions to establish its shelf life. Should be run in the actual packaging.
Accelerated stability	Stability testing at elevated temperature and humidity to predict shelf life faster. A prediction, not a substitute for real-time data.
Disintegration / dissolution	How quickly a tablet or capsule breaks down and releases its contents. Matters for absorption and for modified-release claims.
Enteric coating	A coating that resists stomach acid and releases the active in the intestine. Used to protect acid-sensitive actives and to reduce stomach irritation.
Modified release	A formulation that releases the active more slowly than an immediate-release product. Needs supporting data if you intend to claim it.
Microencapsulation	Coating individual particles of an active, usually to mask a bitter taste or protect it during processing. Adds cost, but solves problems nothing else can.

Dosage Forms

Term	What it means and why it matters
Softgel	A one-piece gelatin or plant-based capsule with a liquid or suspension fill. Suited to oil-soluble actives.
Hard capsule	A two-piece shell filled with powder, granules or pellets. Shell material is usually gelatin or HPMC (plant-derived).
HPMC	Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose — a plant-derived capsule shell material. Required if you need a vegan or vegetarian claim on a capsule product.
Gummy	A chewable confectionery-format supplement. Base is usually pectin (plant) or gelatin (animal).
Effervescent	A tablet or granule that dissolves in water with fizz, driven by an acid–base reaction. Moisture-sensitive and demanding on packaging.
Sachet / stick pack	A single-serve sealed pouch for powder or granules. The usual format for high-dose fibre or electrolyte products.
Oral film / strip	A thin film that dissolves on the tongue, taking the active without water.
Solid beverage	A powder product intended to be reconstituted into a drink. A distinct regulatory category in China.
Unit weight	The mass of a single dose unit — for example, a 4 g gummy. It sets a real ceiling on how much active a single unit can carry.

Claims and Regulation

Term	What it means and why it matters
Structure/function claim	A statement about how a nutrient affects normal body function — for example, “supports immune function”. Permitted in the US with the correct disclaimer; the position differs in other markets.
Health claim	A statement linking a food or ingredient to a health outcome. Subject to pre-approval in many markets — the EU maintains a register of permitted claims.
Disease claim	A statement about treating, preventing or curing a disease. Not permitted for supplements in the US or EU. The line between this and a structure/function claim is narrower than brands expect.
FTC substantiation	In the US, the Federal Trade Commission requires advertising claims to be supported by competent and reliable evidence. It polices advertising separately from the FDA and enforces weight-loss claims especially aggressively.
Prop 65	California’s Proposition 65 requires a warning where a product may expose a consumer to a listed substance above a threshold. Applies to products sold into California.
Certificate of Free Sale	A certificate, usually issued by a government or chamber of commerce, confirming that a product is freely sold in the country of origin. Often required for import registration.
BSE/TSE-free	A declaration that a product contains no material from bovine spongiform encephalopathy or transmissible spongiform encephalopathy risk sources. Commonly requested for gelatin-containing products.
Non-irradiation statement	A declaration that the product has not been treated with ionising radiation. Required or requested in several markets.
FNSKU	The Amazon-specific barcode applied to products entering Amazon’s fulfilment network. Required for FBA listings.

This glossary is a working reference, not legal advice. Claim permissibility depends on your destination market and on the specific wording you intend to use — confirm it before your artwork is printed.

Related Pages

Put the vocabulary to work — see how each term applies to what we actually make.