A proprietary blend lists several ingredients together under a single combined weight.
What that hides
The ratio. A 500mg blend of five ingredients could be 496mg of the cheapest and 1mg each of the rest, and the label would be accurate.
This is not a hypothetical failure mode. It is the practice's main commercial advantage.
The stated justification
Protecting a formulation from copying. It is worth noting that competitors can have a product analysed in a lab; the people actually kept in the dark are customers.
Why it defeats evaluation
You cannot compare a blend against research, because research is conducted at specific doses of specific compounds. Without amounts, there is nothing to compare.
Our position
We do not use them. Every active in our products is listed with its own amount. If we ever cannot do that for a product, we will not sell it.
