Our Sourcing & Quality Standards
This page sets out how we decide what to stock at Nutritions Lab, and what we can and cannot tell you about it. We wrote it because "premium quality ingredients" appears on every supplement website in Australia and means nothing on its own.
The three tests
1. Does the ingredient have a real mechanism?
We look for ingredients where there is an identifiable reason they might do something — a pathway, an enzyme, a nutrient gap. NMN is a NAD+ precursor. Dietary nitrate converts to nitric oxide. Warmth softens meibomian gland secretions. These are describable mechanisms, not vibes.
A real mechanism is not the same as proven benefit, and we try to keep the two separate on every product page.
2. Can we describe it without overstating it?
If a product only sells when we exaggerate, we do not want it. In practice this means several products in our range carry caveats that cost us sales — we tell you the massage matters more than the oil, that topical collagen hydrates rather than rebuilds, and that soursop does not cure cancer.
3. Would we give it to our own family?
This carries the most weight in the kids' range, which is why we stock one ingestible product for children and hedge it heavily with a recommendation to speak to a paediatrician first.
What we can verify, and what we cannot
We are a small independent retailer, not a manufacturer. We do not operate a laboratory and we do not commission our own third-party assays on every batch. Any retailer our size claiming otherwise is stretching the truth.
What we do: choose suppliers who can document what is in a product and where it came from, favour certified organic sourcing where it is available and meaningful, and state clearly on the page when a product's format, packaging or contents may vary.
Regulatory position
Dietary supplements sold in Australia are regulated by the Therapeutic Goods Administration. Supplements are not medicines, and no supplement we sell is intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
We do not stock ingredients that are not permitted for sale as supplements in Australia, and we will not source them on request.
Ingredients we flag rather than bury
- Bee-derived — our bee venom cream carries an allergy warning at the top of the page, not the bottom.
- Animal-derived — collagen and silk peptides are not vegan, and we say so on the ampoule page.
- Iodine-containing — sea moss in our soursop blend matters if you have a thyroid condition.
- Caffeine — the yerba mate mix is a real stimulant and we treat it as one.
If we get something wrong
Tell us. If a product page overstates a benefit or misses a safety consideration, we would rather correct it than defend it. Get in touch.
See also our editorial policy and about us.