Does the claimed dose physically fit the serving?

The simplest check on a supplement label needs no laboratory, no chemistry, and no degree — just a scale and division. A serving has a physical mass. The active ingredient is part of that mass. So the claimed dose can never weigh more than the whole serving.

A four-gram gummy cannot contain five grams of creatine. The claim fails on arithmetic alone, before anyone tests what's actually inside.

Why this catches real products

Gummies and chewables are the usual offenders, because the format is mostly sugar, pectin, and flavoring — the "matrix" that holds everything together. A gummy is typically at least 60% non-active material. That leaves limited room for the active ingredient. When a listing advertises a headline dose that approaches or exceeds the serving's own weight, the number is physically impossible as printed.

In NOW Foods' published 2024 testing of creatine gummies, some products were found to contain little or no creatine at all — and several of those started with label claims the serving could never physically hold.

How to run it yourself

1. Find the serving size in grams (or net weight ÷ servings) on the Supplement Facts panel.
2. Find the claimed dose of the active ingredient, in milligrams.
3. Convert to the same unit and divide. If the dose is more than ~50% of the serving mass for a gummy, be skeptical; if it's more than 100%, it's impossible.

Where identity matters

The one trap in this check is comparing the wrong two numbers. A dose is only comparable to a serving mass if both describe the same product variant, and a claim is only comparable to a panel row if both name the same ingredient. Comparing a chelate's total compound weight to an elemental range, or one nutrient's milligrams to another's, produces a false failure. The rule: bind every comparison to a verified identity, or don't make it.