Headline finding · criterion 3 of 6
12 of 18 best-selling gut supplements name every chemical form or probiotic strain
12 of the 18 best-selling gut-health supplements audited by Supplement Facts Check name the chemical form or probiotic strain of every active ingredient. The other 6 do not: at least one organism or mineral is named without its strain or form.
Criterion 3: Chemical form or strain named
“Magnesium glycinate,” not “magnesium.” For probiotics, every organism carries a strain designation. It scores 1 or 0, with no weighting and no partial credit, under methodology v1.14, locked 2026-10-26. Read the full methodology →
All 18 scored products
Every row that went into the figure above, with the reasoning recorded for this criterion and the date the label was read. Each product links to its full scorecard and the dated label captures the score was read from.
| Product | Criterion 3 | Total | Reasoning recorded for this criterion | Label captured |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NewRhythm Probiotics 50 Billion CFU NewRhythm | 0 ✗ | 2/6 | All 20 organisms are named to genus and species only, most of them abbreviated (L. acidophilus, B. lactis, Pediococcus pentosaceus and so on), with no strain designations anywhere. The listing title and the bottle front both advertise '20 Strains'. Third product in the sample to market strain counts while naming no strains. | 2026-09-27 |
| Physician's CHOICE Probiotics 60 Billion CFU Physician's Choice | 0 ✗ | 2/6 | Ten organisms named to species only (Lacticaseibacillus casei, Lactobacillus acidophilus, ... Lactobacillus bulgaricus), no strain designations, per methodology v1.6. | 2026-09-07 |
| BIOMA Probiotics BIOMA | 0 ✗ | 1/6 | Bifidobacterium breve, lactis and longum named to species only, no strain designations, per methodology v1.6. | 2026-09-07 |
| Doctor's Recipes Women's Probiotic Doctor's Recipes | 0 ✗ | 1/6 | All 16 organisms are named to genus and species only (Lactobacillus rhamnosus, Bifidobacterium longum and so on) with no strain designations. The listing title and the bottle front both advertise '16 Strains' while the panel identifies none of them, the same gap as rank 16. | 2026-09-27 |
| Garden of Life Dr Formulated Probiotics for Men Garden of Life | 0 ✗ | 1/6 | All 15 organisms are named to genus and species only (Lactobacillus acidophilus, Bifidobacterium lactis and so on) with no strain designations. The listing markets '15 Clinically Studied Strains' while the panel identifies none of them. | 2026-09-27 |
| Garden of Life Dr. Formulated Kids+ Probiotics Garden of Life | 0 ✗ | 1/6 | All 14 organisms are named to genus and species only with no strain designations. Vitamin D is properly specified as D3, but a single undesignated organism is enough to fail the criterion and there are fourteen. The carton front advertises '14 PROBIOTIC STRAINS'. | 2026-09-27 |
| Florastor Probiotic Florastor | 1 ✓ | 5/6 | CNCM I-745 is a culture depositary designation (Collection Nationale de Cultures de Microorganismes), not a species name or a marketing name. | 2026-09-26 |
| Align Probiotic Pro Formula Align | 1 ✓ | 4/6 | Strain designation 35624 is printed, not the species alone. | 2026-09-27 |
| Digestive Advantage Probiotic Gummies Digestive Advantage | 1 ✓ | 4/6 | Both forms are named. Vitamin D is specified as cholecalciferol rather than 'vitamin D', and the probiotic carries the full depositary strain designation GBI-30, 6086. | 2026-09-27 |
| MaryRuth Organics Kids Probiotics MaryRuth Organics | 1 ✓ | 4/6 | DE111 is a strain designation, not the species alone. | 2026-09-27 |
| Culturelle Daily Chewable Probiotics for Kids Culturelle | 1 ✓ | 3/6 | LGG is a strain designation, and it is the example the methodology itself uses for criterion 3. | 2026-09-27 |
| Culturelle Pro Strength Probiotics Culturelle | 1 ✓ | 3/6 | Strain designation present (rhamnosus GG), and inulin is a defined compound with its source named. | 2026-09-26 |
| Nature's Bounty Probiotic Acidophilus Nature's Bounty | 1 ✓ | 3/6 | Strain designation La-14 is printed, not the species alone. | 2026-09-26 |
| Align Probiotic Bloating Relief + Food Digestion Align | 1 ✓ | 2/6 | Every form is named. Vitamin B12 as cyanocobalamin, the probiotic carries strain designation 35624, and the five enzymes are each named individually rather than as an undifferentiated 'enzyme blend'. | 2026-09-27 |
| Lemme Debloat Digestive & Gut Health Gummies Lemme | 1 ✓ | 2/6 | Both organisms carry strain designations, Bacillus coagulans MTCC 5856 (LactoSpore) and Bacillus subtilis DE111. The listing's claim of 'two clinically studied strains' is, unlike several other products in this sample, actually supported by the panel. | 2026-09-27 |
| NOW Supplements Probiotic-10 NOW Foods | 1 ✓ | 2/6 | All ten organisms carry strain designations, La-14, Bl-04, Lp-115, Lc-11, Lr-32, Lpc-37, Bb-18, St-21, Ls-33 and Bl-05. Third product in the sample to take this point. | 2026-09-27 |
| Phillips' Colon Health Daily Probiotic Phillips' | 1 ✓ | 2/6 | Both organisms carry strain designations, Lactobacillus rhamnosus (LGG) and Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis (BB-12). Two of the best-characterised strains in the probiotic literature, named properly. | 2026-09-27 |
| Seed DS-01 Daily Synbiotic Seed | 1 ✓ | 2/6 | All 24 organisms carry strain designations (B. longum SD-BB536-JP, L. rhamnosus HRVD113-US, etc.); first product in the pilot to take this point under v1.6. | 2026-09-07 |
See these rows in the dataset →
Citing this finding
The sentence above is generated from the dataset at build time, so it cannot drift from the rows listed on this page. Quote it as:
12 of the 18 best-selling gut-health supplements audited by Supplement Facts Check name the chemical form or probiotic strain of every active ingredient. Supplement Facts Check, methodology v1.14, labels captured 2026-09-07 to 2026-09-27. https://supplementfactscheck.org/findings/chemical-form-or-strain-named.html
The underlying data is public domain under CC0 1.0 and needs no permission to reuse. The repository holds the scores, the rubric and the commit history of every ruling. Corrections are welcome as issues.