{
  "release": {
    "name": "US men’s probiotic label audit, 2026: 27 product teardowns, 294 organism-slots",
    "version": "1.9.0",
    "description": "Label-level teardown of 27 currently-sold US probiotic products marketed to men, or relabelled as men’s by retailers — the frozen founding cohort of a label audit that has since grown, and the denominator for every percentage the project publishes. Every organism named on every label was recorded — 294 organism-slots — and queried against PubMed and ClinicalTrials.gov under the designator exactly as printed. Potency basis, per-organism quantity disclosure, third-party certification checked at the certifier’s own register, and cost per day at the label’s own instructions were recorded per product. Every row carries the dated artefact it was read from.",
    "url": "https://bestprobioticformen.com/data/",
    "licence": "Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)",
    "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
    "citation": "US men’s probiotic label audit, 2026: 27 product teardowns, 294 organism-slots. Version 1.9.0, 2026-07-30. bestprobioticformen.com. https://bestprobioticformen.com/data/ — CC BY 4.0.",
    "date_modified": "2026-07-30",
    "temporal_coverage": "2026-07-01/2026-07-30",
    "spatial_coverage": "United States",
    "methodology_url": "https://bestprobioticformen.com/methodology/",
    "corrections_url": "https://bestprobioticformen.com/corrections/",
    "denominators": {
      "universe_url_verified_skus": 167,
      "teardowns": 27,
      "organism_slots": 294,
      "products_with_verified_price": 24
    },
    "known_limits": [
      "Panels fully transcribed: 26 of 27. Where panel_transcribed is false the brand publishes no Supplement Facts panel in any form, so those organism rows are read from marketing copy and are marked as such rather than counted as a transcription.",
      "Products with no verifiable US retail price: 3 of 27. They are published unpriced. No price is estimated anywhere in this file.",
      "Certification status is the result of querying the certifier’s own public register. register-unreachable means the register would not answer, which is not the same as absent-from-register, and the two are never merged.",
      "The published percentages on the site are computed against the 27-product and 294-slot denominators in this release. Do not recompute them against a filtered subset without saying which subset."
    ],
    "reuse_notes": [
      "Carry the denominators. Every product-level percentage divides by 27 and every strain-level percentage divides by 294. A percentage quoted without its denominator is the failure mode this audit exists to document.",
      "Carry the caveats. Where a record has a required_caveat, it is part of the finding and not a footnote to it. If the caveat will not fit in your sentence, the finding does not go in your sentence.",
      "Cite the version. These files change when a label changes. Name the version and the date you pulled, and the corrections log at https://bestprobioticformen.com/corrections/ will tell a reader what moved since."
    ]
  },
  "fields": {
    "label-audit-products-v1.csv": [
      {
        "column": "slug",
        "meaning": "Stable identifier. Also the URL segment of the teardown page."
      },
      {
        "column": "brand",
        "meaning": "Brand as printed on the label."
      },
      {
        "column": "product",
        "meaning": "SKU name as printed on the label."
      },
      {
        "column": "cohort",
        "meaning": "D27-founding is the frozen, dated cohort every percentage divides by. Anything torn down later is an addendum and sits outside those denominators."
      },
      {
        "column": "teardown_complete",
        "meaning": "false where the teardown itself is still incomplete. An incomplete teardown is published, marked, and never hidden."
      },
      {
        "column": "panel_transcribed",
        "meaning": "true only when every organism slot on the printed panel is in this file. false where the brand publishes no panel to transcribe."
      },
      {
        "column": "marketed_as",
        "meaning": "marketed-to-men, same-chassis-as-womens-sku, unisex, or marketed-to-women."
      },
      {
        "column": "cfu_claim",
        "meaning": "CFU figure exactly as printed. Empty means no CFU figure appears anywhere on the label."
      },
      {
        "column": "cfu_basis",
        "meaning": "What the CFU count is measured against: through-expiry, at-manufacture, both-endpoints, through-expiry-off-label-only, contradictory, none-stated, no-cfu-number."
      },
      {
        "column": "cfu_basis_verbatim",
        "meaning": "The panel’s own words about potency basis, verbatim, where it has any."
      },
      {
        "column": "strain_designators",
        "meaning": "Whether designators are printed: all-organisms-coded, some-organisms-coded, none. Printed, not resolvable — resolvability is per organism-slot in the other file."
      },
      {
        "column": "organism_slots",
        "meaning": "Number of organisms named on this label."
      },
      {
        "column": "slots_with_human_rct",
        "meaning": "Organism-slots with a human RCT under the exact code printed. Empty where not yet counted."
      },
      {
        "column": "price_amount_usd",
        "meaning": "Advertised US retail price, read from a dated source. Empty where no verifiable US price exists — three products are in that position, and this file says so rather than estimating."
      },
      {
        "column": "price_unit",
        "meaning": "What that price buys."
      },
      {
        "column": "cost_per_day_usd",
        "meaning": "Cost per day at the label’s own dosing instructions, not per capsule and not per serving."
      },
      {
        "column": "price_checked_on",
        "meaning": "ISO date the price was read."
      },
      {
        "column": "price_source_url",
        "meaning": "Where the price was read."
      },
      {
        "column": "price_note",
        "meaning": "Why there is no verifiable price, where there is none."
      },
      {
        "column": "certifications",
        "meaning": "programme=status pairs, semicolon separated. Status is the result of querying the certifier’s own public register, never of seeing a badge."
      },
      {
        "column": "womens_comparison",
        "meaning": "diffed, no-womens-sku, or not-yet-checked."
      },
      {
        "column": "findings_count",
        "meaning": "Named, cleared findings on this product, each with an identifier a reader can open."
      },
      {
        "column": "published_gaps_count",
        "meaning": "Things this teardown wanted and does not have. Published rather than deleted. This column scores us, not the brand."
      },
      {
        "column": "label_evidence",
        "meaning": "THE SOURCE COLUMN. type:id pairs, semicolon separated — DSLD record numbers, Wayback timestamps, dated captures. This is what makes the row checkable without the site."
      },
      {
        "column": "label_read_on",
        "meaning": "ISO date of the most recent artefact behind this row."
      },
      {
        "column": "product_url",
        "meaning": "The brand’s own product page the teardown was taken from."
      },
      {
        "column": "page_url",
        "meaning": "The teardown page on this site."
      },
      {
        "column": "last_verified",
        "meaning": "ISO date this record was last re-checked."
      }
    ],
    "label-audit-organisms-v1.csv": [
      {
        "column": "product_slug",
        "meaning": "Joins to slug in the product-level file."
      },
      {
        "column": "brand",
        "meaning": "Brand as printed on the label."
      },
      {
        "column": "product",
        "meaning": "SKU name as printed on the label."
      },
      {
        "column": "slot_index",
        "meaning": "Position of this organism on the panel, 1-based, in panel order."
      },
      {
        "column": "organism_as_printed",
        "meaning": "Species or genus exactly as printed, including any misspelling or invalid name."
      },
      {
        "column": "organism_corrected",
        "meaning": "The valid current name, where the panel prints an outdated or invalid one."
      },
      {
        "column": "designator_as_printed",
        "meaning": "Strain designator exactly as printed. Empty means the slot is species-only."
      },
      {
        "column": "quantity_as_printed",
        "meaning": "Per-organism quantity as printed. Empty means it is buried in a blend total."
      },
      {
        "column": "resolution",
        "meaning": "What the printed designator resolves to: human-rct, human-records-no-rct, non-human-records-only, no-records, untraceable-house-code, no-designator-printed, not-yet-checked."
      },
      {
        "column": "query_run",
        "meaning": "The exact query run, so the lookup can be repeated. A bare designator query returns noise, which is why every apparent hit was read."
      },
      {
        "column": "note",
        "meaning": "What the lookup found, and what it does not license anyone to claim."
      },
      {
        "column": "panel_transcribed",
        "meaning": "false where the brand publishes no panel, so this slot is an inference from marketing copy rather than a transcription."
      },
      {
        "column": "label_evidence",
        "meaning": "THE SOURCE COLUMN. The dated artefacts behind the panel this slot was read from."
      },
      {
        "column": "page_url",
        "meaning": "The teardown page on this site."
      },
      {
        "column": "last_verified",
        "meaning": "ISO date this record was last re-checked."
      }
    ]
  },
  "statistics": [
    {
      "name": "Products printing a strain designator for every organism",
      "value": 51.9,
      "unit": "percent",
      "description": "Fourteen of 27 products. Five of 27 (18.5%) print codes that lead anywhere. Nine of 27 (33.3%) print none at all.",
      "published_at": "https://bestprobioticformen.com/label-audit/findings/#label-designators"
    },
    {
      "name": "Products guaranteeing CFU through expiry on the label",
      "value": 33.3,
      "unit": "percent",
      "description": "9 of 27 products. Another 8 of 27 (29.6%) state no potency basis at all. Five state manufacture-only, two state through-expiry off-label only, one contradicts itself between label and website, and two have no CFU number anywhere. The headline is through-expiry 8 plus both-endpoints 1; the seven legs are exhaustive over 27.",
      "published_at": "https://bestprobioticformen.com/label-audit/findings/#label-cfu"
    },
    {
      "name": "Products with a third-party certification confirmed in the issuer’s own register",
      "value": 7.4,
      "unit": "percent",
      "description": "2 of 27 products. Confirmed means the certifier’s own public database was queried and the specific product was found: Legion (Labdoor, score 100.0, lot 0385A6, tested 14 July 2026) and Sports Research (Non-GMO Project). Checked at the issuer, never at the badge.",
      "published_at": "https://bestprobioticformen.com/label-audit/findings/#certification"
    },
    {
      "name": "Organism-slots carrying a strain with any human randomised controlled trial",
      "value": 14.6,
      "unit": "percent",
      "description": "43 of 294 organism-slots, one of which rests on a resolved label typo — Transparent Labs prints LLP-115, recorded as the strain marketed elsewhere as Lp-115. Fourteen of the 27 products contribute zero. Organisms administered alone in at least one human RCT, and so strictly attributable: 26 of 294 (8.8%).",
      "published_at": "https://bestprobioticformen.com/label-audit/findings/#label-designators"
    },
    {
      "name": "Organism-slots with a human trial for any male-specific outcome",
      "value": 0,
      "unit": "percent",
      "description": "0 of 294 organism-slots.",
      "published_at": "https://bestprobioticformen.com/label-audit/findings/#label-designators"
    },
    {
      "name": "Products with no published human trial of the finished formula",
      "value": 92.6,
      "unit": "percent",
      "description": "25 of 27 products. 2 of 27 (7.4%) have a published human RCT of the finished formula: Seed DS-01 and Pendulum Glucose Control (NCT03893422). Trial of the FORMULATION at any dose — Pendulum's ran at three times its label dose, so 1 of 27 (3.7%) was trialled at the dose sold. Every other trial registration in the cohort belongs to an ingredient.",
      "published_at": "https://bestprobioticformen.com/label-audit/findings/#label-designators"
    },
    {
      "name": "Products publishing no machine-readable Supplement Facts panel",
      "value": 55.6,
      "unit": "percent",
      "description": "Fifteen of 27 products. A screen-reader user cannot access the ingredient list for those 15, and neither can a price-comparison tool, an allergen checker or a drug-interaction checker.",
      "published_at": "https://bestprobioticformen.com/label-audit/findings/#label-accuracy"
    },
    {
      "name": "Multi-organism products concealing the per-organism split",
      "value": 80,
      "unit": "percent",
      "description": "20 of 25 multi-organism products. A proprietary blend total tells you nothing about any single organism in it. Two products are single-organism and trivially quantified, so they are outside this denominator.",
      "published_at": "https://bestprobioticformen.com/label-audit/findings/#check-a-label"
    },
    {
      "name": "Ungendered SKUs relabelled as men’s by retailers and affiliate listicles",
      "value": 63,
      "unit": "percent",
      "description": "17 of the 27 products. The manufacturers say so themselves on their own pages. The men’s-marketed universe is the remaining 10.",
      "published_at": "https://bestprobioticformen.com/label-audit/findings/#mens-vs-womens"
    },
    {
      "name": "Men’s or default formulas containing a designated strain selected on male-specific evidence",
      "value": 0,
      "unit": "percent",
      "description": "Zero of fourteen same-brand men’s-versus-women’s label diffs. The denominator caveat travels with the number: these fourteen diffs mix men’s-marketed SKUs with ungendered default SKUs from brands that sell a women’s product and no men’s, and the men’s-marketed universe is 10.",
      "published_at": "https://bestprobioticformen.com/label-audit/findings/#mens-vs-womens"
    },
    {
      "name": "Documented label regressions, where a disclosure was removed rather than improved",
      "value": 7,
      "unit": "products",
      "description": "Seven products removed a disclosure rather than improving it. Every one was found by comparing a current label against an older government record.",
      "published_at": "https://bestprobioticformen.com/label-audit/findings/#label-regressions"
    },
    {
      "name": "Products whose headline claim rests on a different dose than the label instructs",
      "value": 7,
      "unit": "products",
      "description": "Seven products. The gaps, product by product, are published as a table with the trial dose, the label dose and the multiple between them.",
      "published_at": "https://bestprobioticformen.com/label-audit/findings/#label-dose-gaps"
    },
    {
      "name": "Median verified cost per day",
      "value": 1.52,
      "unit": "USD per day",
      "description": "Median verified cost across the set is $1.52 a day — about $553 a year, over the 24 products with a verifiable US retail price. The annual figure is the unrounded median, $1.515 a day, times 365; the daily figure beside it is that same median rounded to the cent. The other 3 products are excluded from the median rather than estimated, and are published as unpriced.",
      "published_at": "https://bestprobioticformen.com/label-audit/findings/#label-pricing"
    }
  ],
  "products": [
    {
      "slug": "1md-complete-probiotics-platinum",
      "page_url": "https://bestprobioticformen.com/products/1md-complete-probiotics-platinum/",
      "brand": "1MD Nutrition",
      "product": "1MD Nutrition Complete Probiotics Platinum",
      "cohort": "D27-founding",
      "teardown_complete": true,
      "panel_transcribed": true,
      "marketed_as": "unisex",
      "lead_finding": "Every efficacy percentage on the product page traces to a compensated customer survey, not a trial. Five separately numbered footnotes, all 2021, all of repeat customers, all compensated — presented under the headings \"What to expect\" and \"Real, Powerful Results\".",
      "cfu": {
        "claim_as_printed": "51 Billion CFU (Complete Probiotic Blend, 308 mg)",
        "basis": "through-expiry-off-label-only",
        "basis_verbatim": "Nothing on the label. Across all three label generations, every statement field DSLD records — Formula re: Contains, Formulation re: Other, Storage, Suggested Use — contains no \"at time of manufacture\", no \"at expiration\" and no potency-guarantee language of any kind. The through-expiry claim exists only on the website FAQ: \"The product is designed with guaranteed potency through the expiration date, and the website does not list refrigeration as a requirement for maintaining its 51 billion CFU count.\"\""
      },
      "strain_designators": "some-organisms-coded",
      "organism_slots": [
        {
          "slot_index": 1,
          "organism_as_printed": "LactoSpore",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "LactoSpore",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "human-rct",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "The one real designator in this product — but read the panel carefully. The DSLD ingredient row says \"LactoSpore\" alone; the MTCC 5856 number appears only in a separate Brand IP Statement field, not in the Supplement Facts panel. LactoSpore is Sabinsa's trademark for Bacillus coagulans MTCC 5856, which has seven randomised-trial records — and both pivotal trials (PMID 26922379, PMID 29997457) are authored by Sabinsa and Sami Labs scientists, i.e. the entire randomised-trial base for this strain is manufacturer-run. Both used 2 x 10^9 CFU/day. The 1MD label gives one pooled 51 billion CFU across eleven organisms, so there is no way to tell whether a capsule delivers 2 billion CFU of MTCC 5856, or 200 million, or 20 billion."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 2,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus acidophilus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "Species-only on the current label. The 2021 and 2022 labels for this product printed \"L61A\" — a house code with zero literature presence, constructed from the species initials, and indistinguishable from a real accession to a shopper. It has since been deleted."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 3,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium animalis lactis",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "Was \"B42L\" on the 2021 and 2022 labels. Zero PubMed records."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 4,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium longum",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "Was \"B12L\"."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 5,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium bifidum",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "Was \"B66B\"."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 6,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus plantarum",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "Was \"L23P\". Zero PubMed records."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 7,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus bulgaricus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "Was \"L88B\"."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 8,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus casei",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "Was \"L30C\"."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 9,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus salivarius",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "Was \"L10S\"."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 10,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus gasseri",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "Was \"L22G\"."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 11,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus rhamnosus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "Was \"L08R\". Zero PubMed records."
        }
      ],
      "slots_with_human_rct": 1,
      "price": {
        "amount_usd": 49,
        "unit": "30-capsule bottle (30 servings, 1 capsule per serving)",
        "cost_per_day_usd": 1.63,
        "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
        "source_url": "https://1md.org/products/complete-probiotics-platinum"
      },
      "price_note": null,
      "certifications": [
        {
          "programme": "None claimed",
          "status": "not-checked",
          "register_url": null,
          "checked_on": null,
          "detail": "A search of the full product page text for NSF, USP, Informed, \"third party\", \"third-party\", \"tested\" and \"certificate of analysis\" returns nothing. What the page does claim is \"Manufactured in the USA from globally-sourced ingredients\" and a GMP seal — cGMP compliance being a legal baseline under 21 CFR 111, not a third-party certification. Recording the absence is the finding: this is the most expensive product in its batch, at $1.63 to $1.83 a day, with no independent verification offered."
        }
      ],
      "womens_comparison": {
        "status": "no-womens-sku",
        "womens_product": null,
        "differences": [],
        "shared": [],
        "required_caveat": "1MD demonstrably knows how to gender a probiotic — its catalogue carries BiomeMD at $54.00 and BiomeMD for Women at $54.00, the latter adding UREX (L. rhamnosus GR-1 and L. reuteri RC-14) to a 62-billion, 15-strain base. There is no men's counterpart to BiomeMD. Note also the disclosure irony: BiomeMD, the product 1MD did not put in this cohort, has better strain disclosure than the one it did — GR-1 and RC-14 are among the best-evidenced strains in the women's-health probiotic literature. And the only sex ever coded on this product's own label record is female: the 2022 label is coded \"Women (not pregnant or lactating)\".",
        "evidence": null,
        "checked_on": null
      },
      "findings": [
        {
          "code": "efficacy-percentages-from-compensated-customer-surveys",
          "summary": "\"Month 3: 73% of users feel less gas\". \"Month 3: 4 out of 5 users notice they are more regular\". \"Continued Use: 82% of users report significantly less bloating\". Every one of these traces to a footnote reading, verbatim: \"Based on a 2021 survey of [n] Complete Probiotics Platinum repeat customers. Customers were compensated for their survey participation.\" Five separately numbered surveys — 312, 259, 234, 241 and \"over 230\" respondents. Three compounding biases, none disclosed: survivor bias from surveying only repeat customers, payment bias from compensation by the brand being rated, and no control, blinding, pre-registration or placebo arm at all. The page presents them under \"What to expect\" and \"Real, Powerful Results / What Verified Complete Probiotics Platinum Users Reported\" — framing a compensated satisfaction poll as a prospective efficacy expectation.",
          "evidence": "1md.org product page, every footnote verified verbatim live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": "https://1md.org/products/complete-probiotics-platinum",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "house-codes-printed-then-deleted",
          "summary": "The 2021 and 2022 government label records for this product carry, as ingredient rows, Lactobacillus acidophilus L61A, Bifidobacterium lactis B42L, Bifidobacterium longum B12L, Bifidobacterium bifidum B66B, Lactobacillus plantarum L23P, Lactobacillus bulgaricus L88B, Lactobacillus casei L30C, Lactobacillus salivarius L10S, Lactobacillus gasseri L22G and Lactobacillus rhamnosus L08R. Every one follows the pattern [genus initial][two digits][species initial], every one returns zero PubMed records, and to a shopper they are indistinguishable from real culture-collection accessions. The 2024 label carries the same ten organisms as bare species names — the codes are gone. Disclosure went backwards either way: first a code that led nowhere, then no code at all.",
          "evidence": "DSLD 246726 · DSLD 274796 · DSLD 309806",
          "source_url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/246726",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "cfu-basis-absent-from-the-label-asserted-on-the-web",
          "summary": "No potency-basis language of any kind appears in any statement field of any of the three label generations. The website asserts a through-expiry guarantee twice — once in the FAQ and once from the brand's own gastroenterologist: \"It has 11 different strains and guarantees 51 billion live cultures per capsule.\"\"",
          "evidence": "DSLD 246726, 274796 and 309806 versus 1md.org FAQ, all checked 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "proprietary-blend-hides-the-only-evidenced-strain",
          "summary": "MTCC 5856's randomised trials used 2 billion CFU/day of that strain alone. The label reveals only a pooled 51 billion across eleven organisms. There is no way to determine whether a capsule delivers the trial dose, a tenth of it, or ten times it.",
          "evidence": "DSLD 309806 · PMID 26922379 · PMID 29997457",
          "source_url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/309806",
          "required_caveat": "Both pivotal MTCC 5856 trials are authored by Sami Labs and Sabinsa scientists — the same Sabinsa that owns the LactoSpore trademark printed on this label. The entire randomised-trial base for the strain is manufacturer-run."
        },
        {
          "code": "colonisation-claims",
          "summary": "\"designed to safely colonize the intestines\", \"helping them thrive and multiply in the gut\", and the product's full name, \"Microbiota Restoration Protocol\". The field's own consensus body states that probiotics typically do not take up residence in the gut and may not evoke any detectable change in the microbes normally present.",
          "evidence": "1md.org product page verbatim versus the ISAPP consumer infographic",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": "The ISAPP source is a consumer-facing infographic and is graded as expert consensus."
        },
        {
          "code": "black-friday-sale-on-30-july",
          "summary": "The page served a \"Black Friday Sale\" banner when fetched on 30 July 2026 — four months out of season. A permanent-discount pattern means the MSRP of $54.00, against which every price is discounted, is not a price anything is actually sold at.",
          "evidence": "1md.org product page, verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "formula-drift-in-the-prebiotic",
          "summary": "NutraFlora was 100 mg on the 2021 label, absent from the Supplement Facts panel altogether on the 2022 label (moved to Other Ingredients as fructo-oligosaccharides), and 50 mg on the 2024 label — halved. The CFU count and strain count stayed constant at 51 billion and eleven throughout.",
          "evidence": "DSLD 246726 · DSLD 274796 · DSLD 309806",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "unverifiable-social-proof",
          "summary": "\"2667 bottles sold this week\" as a live counter, \"Physician-recommended to rebalance and rejuvenate the natural microbiome\" where the physician is 1MD's own named formulator, and \"I consider this to be the most complete probiotic on the market today\" from the same brand-affiliated physician.",
          "evidence": "1md.org product page, all verified verbatim live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "most-expensive-in-batch-with-least-verification",
          "summary": "$1.63 a day one-time, $1.83 with shipping under the $80 threshold. No third-party testing is claimed or held.",
          "evidence": "1md.org product page and Shopify JSON, verified 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        }
      ],
      "could_not_verify": [
        {
          "item": "Any per-strain CFU allocation",
          "why": "None. Fifty-one billion CFU across eleven organisms in 308 mg, so the only ingredient in the product with a citable human randomised trial is dosed invisibly and the trial cannot be used to predict what the product does."
        },
        {
          "item": "Whether the through-expiry guarantee is real",
          "why": "It appears twice on the website and nowhere on any of three label generations. A through-expiry guarantee is the single most consequential potency disclosure a probiotic can make, and it is being made only in marketing copy, where it is not subject to labelling rules."
        },
        {
          "item": "The survey methodology behind every percentage on the page",
          "why": "Five 2021 surveys of 312, 259, 234, 241 and \"over 230\" repeat customers, all compensated. No control group, no blinding, no pre-registration, no placebo arm — and surveying only repeat customers excludes everyone who tried it once and stopped."
        }
      ],
      "audit_corrections": [
        {
          "finding": "The teardown's Supplement Facts block, presented as DSLD structured data, printed \"LactoSpore® (Bacillus coagulans MTCC-5856)\" inside the panel.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "It overstates the panel's disclosure in the brand's favour. DSLD 309806's ingredient nested row is \"LactoSpore\" alone; the MTCC number appears only in the separate Brand IP Statement field. The panel does not print the strain number. Corrected above — and the correction slightly strengthens the disclosure criticism rather than weakening it.",
          "evidence": "prod-c-audit.md §C9"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown attributed PMID 37686889 to MTCC 5856 being superior to placebo on the IBS Symptom Severity Scale.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "The paper — a network meta-analysis of 81 randomised trials — names Lactobacillus acidophilus DDS-1 as ranking first on IBS-SSS. MTCC 5856 is named for abdominal pain and for Bristol stool form scale in diarrhoea-predominant IBS. The specific IBS-SSS attribution is not supported and is not published here.",
          "evidence": "prod-c-audit.md §F6"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown flagged the LactoSpore trademark but did not flag that the strain's entire randomised-trial base is manufacturer-run.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Both pivotal trials are authored by Majeed M, Nagabhushanam K and colleagues of Sami Labs Limited and Sabinsa Corporation — the same Sabinsa that owns the trademark quoted on the label. Added above. Both trials used 2 x 10^9 CFU/day; the teardown left the dose cell blank for the 2016 study.",
          "evidence": "prod-c-audit.md §C4"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The compensated-survey finding, the house codes, and the label-versus-web potency split.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "All three verified independently and in full. Every survey footnote is verbatim on the live page with its exact respondent count. Both 2021 and 2022 DSLD records carry the ten house codes exactly as transcribed, the four PubMed probes return zero, and the pattern holds for all ten. And across all three label generations every statement field and every ingredient-row note was searched: there is no potency-basis language anywhere on the label, while the FAQ asserts one.",
          "evidence": "prod-c-audit.md §S14, §S16, §S17"
        }
      ],
      "label_evidence": [
        {
          "type": "dsld",
          "id": "309806",
          "url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/309806",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "Entered 2024-03-22, on-market. The current label: Complete Probiotic Blend 308 mg / 51 billion CFU across eleven organisms, NutraFlora 50 mg, and no potency-basis statement in any field."
        },
        {
          "type": "dsld",
          "id": "274796",
          "url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/274796",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "Entered 2022-11-22. Carries the ten house codes, and is coded for \"Women (not pregnant or lactating)\"."
        },
        {
          "type": "dsld",
          "id": "246726",
          "url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/246726",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "Entered 2021-03-25. Carries the ten house codes and NutraFlora at 100 mg."
        }
      ],
      "product_url": "https://1md.org/products/complete-probiotics-platinum",
      "last_verified": "2026-07-30"
    },
    {
      "slug": "ancient-nutrition-sbo-probiotics-mens-once-daily",
      "page_url": "https://bestprobioticformen.com/products/ancient-nutrition-sbo-probiotics-mens-once-daily/",
      "brand": "Ancient Nutrition",
      "product": "Ancient Nutrition SBO Probiotics Men's Once Daily",
      "cohort": "D27-founding",
      "teardown_complete": true,
      "panel_transcribed": true,
      "marketed_as": "same-chassis-as-womens-sku",
      "lead_finding": "The probiotic in the men's product is character-for-character identical to the probiotic in the women's product — same four species, same 245 mg, same 25 billion CFU, same $29.95. Both panels were read independently. The entire sex differentiation is a herbal blend whose per-herb doses are not disclosed.",
      "cfu": {
        "claim_as_printed": "25 Billion CFU",
        "basis": "at-manufacture",
        "basis_verbatim": "¹At time of manufacture."
      },
      "strain_designators": "none",
      "organism_slots": [
        {
          "slot_index": 1,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bacillus coagulans",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "The best-studied strains in this species — GBI-30 6086, MTCC 5856, Unique IS-2 — are named strains. This label claims none of them. The same undesignated B. coagulans is sold, in the identical blend at the identical dose, as women's vaginal and urogenital support on the sibling SKU."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 2,
          "organism_as_printed": "Saccharomyces boulardii",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "A yeast. The species' evidence base belongs to CNCM I-745; this label does not claim it."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 3,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bacillus subtilis",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "The strain with real human trial data in this species is DE111. Not claimed here."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 4,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bacillus clausii",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "The strains with trial data are the four Enterogermina strains — O/C, N/R, SIN, T. Not claimed here."
        }
      ],
      "slots_with_human_rct": 0,
      "price": {
        "amount_usd": 29.95,
        "unit": "30-capsule bottle (30 servings, 1 capsule per serving)",
        "cost_per_day_usd": 1,
        "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
        "source_url": "https://ancientnutrition.com/products/sbo-probiotics-mens-once-daily"
      },
      "price_note": null,
      "certifications": [
        {
          "programme": "Carbon Neutral Certified",
          "status": "not-checked",
          "register_url": null,
          "checked_on": null,
          "detail": "Listed by the brand under a \"3rd Party Certified\" heading. It is a carbon-accounting certification. It tests no identity, potency, purity, heavy metal or CFU count."
        },
        {
          "programme": "B Corp",
          "status": "register-unreachable",
          "register_url": "https://www.bcorporation.net/",
          "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
          "detail": "bcorporation.net returns 403 to automated requests. Corporate governance, not product quality."
        },
        {
          "programme": "BIO Bottle (biodegradable packaging)",
          "status": "not-checked",
          "register_url": null,
          "checked_on": null,
          "detail": "A packaging-material claim, presented under a \"3rd Party Certified\" heading."
        }
      ],
      "womens_comparison": {
        "status": "diffed",
        "womens_product": "SBO Probiotics Women's Once Daily",
        "differences": [
          {
            "statement": "Men's Support Blend 310 mg — organic fermented ginger root, fenugreek seed, licorice root, cordyceps mycelium and fruit body. Women's Support Blend 370 mg — organic chaste tree berry extract, sage leaf, fermented amla berry, turkey tail mycelium.",
            "evidence": "Men's and women's panel images, both read directly"
          }
        ],
        "shared": [
          "SBO Once Daily Blend 245 mg (25 Billion CFU) in both, containing the same four organisms: B. coagulans, S. boulardii, B. subtilis, B. clausii. Character-for-character identical.",
          "Both at manufacture. Both $29.95. Both one capsule a day, 30 per bottle.",
          "The same misspellings — \"Saccharomyces bouolardii\", \"Baciillus subtiilis\" — appear in the web ingredient copy on both pages."
        ],
        "required_caveat": "The sharpening detail is on the women's page, not the men's: it claims \"clinically studies [sic] Bacillus coagulans to support women's overall vaginal and urogenital health as well as healthy yeast balance\". That is a benefit attributed to an undesignated species — in the same blend, at the same dose, that the men's product also contains. The identical ingredient is sold as vaginal support to women and as male health support to men.",
        "evidence": "Brand panel image SPO5821 (men's) versus the women's panel image, both read directly",
        "checked_on": "2026-07-30"
      },
      "findings": [
        {
          "code": "identical-probiotic-in-both-sexes",
          "summary": "The 245 mg / 25 billion CFU SBO blend is the same four species at the same dose and the same price in the men's and women's products. Both panels were read independently from the brand's own images. Nothing about the probiotic in this product is male-specific.",
          "evidence": "Brand panel images for SPO5821 and the women's SKU, read directly",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "clinically-studied-with-no-strain-named",
          "summary": "The site states the strains are \"proprietary, clinically studied\". Four species, no ATCC, DSM, CNCM or NCIMB code, and both blends proprietary with no per-component amount. Because no strain is identified, that claim is unfalsifiable by construction.",
          "evidence": "Brand panel image SPO5821 · ancientnutrition.com product page",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "cfu-at-manufacture-only",
          "summary": "\"¹At time of manufacture\", printed on the panel and repeated in the FAQ. The number on the front of the bottle describes the product on the day it was blended, not the day it is swallowed.",
          "evidence": "Brand panel image SPO5821",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "third-party-certified-heading-over-non-product-certifications",
          "summary": "The brand's \"3rd Party Certified\" list is, verbatim, \"Carbon Neutral Certified, B Corp, BIO Bottle (Biodegradable Packaging)\". None of the three is a product-quality certification. None tests identity, potency, purity, heavy metals or CFU count. Presenting them under that heading on a supplement page invites the shopper to read them as quality assurance.",
          "evidence": "ancientnutrition.com product page, verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "undisclosed-licorice-dose",
          "summary": "Licorice root sits inside a 310 mg proprietary blend with no stated amount and no statement that it is deglycyrrhizinated. Glycyrrhizin has a documented pseudoaldosteronism mechanism associated with hypertension and hypokalaemia.",
          "evidence": "Brand panel image SPO5821",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": "This is a mechanistic concern based on an undisclosed dose. No adverse-event data for this product was found, and no harm is asserted."
        },
        {
          "code": "binomials-misspelled-in-web-copy",
          "summary": "The website ingredient list reads \"Bacillus coagulans, Saccharomyces bouolardii, Baciillus subtiilis, Bacillus clausii.\" The printed label is spelled correctly, so this is a web-copy defect rather than a labelling violation — but the identical typo string appears on both the men's and women's pages, indicating copy no scientifically literate reviewer has read.",
          "evidence": "ancientnutrition.com men's and women's product pages, verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "acquisition-discount-double-the-retention-discount",
          "summary": "35% off the first subscription order, 15% thereafter.",
          "evidence": "ancientnutrition.com product page, verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        }
      ],
      "could_not_verify": [
        {
          "item": "The glycyrrhizin content, or even the milligram dose, of the licorice root",
          "why": "Hidden inside a 310 mg proprietary blend. The label does not state deglycyrrhizinated (DGL). Glycyrrhizin is associated with hypertension and hypokalaemia via pseudoaldosteronism, so this is a safety-relevant non-disclosure rather than a marketing quibble — but no adverse event data for this product was found and none is asserted."
        },
        {
          "item": "Whether the B Corp certification is current",
          "why": "bcorporation.net returns 403 to automated requests."
        },
        {
          "item": "Per-strain CFU for any of the four organisms",
          "why": "Not disclosed. One blend figure covers all four."
        }
      ],
      "audit_corrections": [
        {
          "finding": "The teardown recorded the SKU as sold out at capture (2026-07-28) and carried that into a red flag.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Stale and dropped. The page emits schema.org/InStock and a live 3-pack/6-pack ladder. Stock is not a publishable fact at this latency.",
          "evidence": "prod-a-audit.md §4.7"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown reported PubMed counts of 71 hits for B. coagulans and 27 for B. clausii against \"species + RCT\".",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Neither reproduces under any plausible query form, and the teardown never recorded the query string. Both figures are marked unverifiable and are not published. Neither was load-bearing — the point they served (well-studied named strains exist in these species that this label does not claim) is demonstrated separately by named PMIDs.",
          "evidence": "prod-a-audit.md §4.6"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown quoted the allergen line as \"Produced on equipment that also processes…\".",
          "what_the_audit_did": "The label reads \"Produced on equipment that **may also process** peanuts, tree nuts, milk, soybean, wheat, sesame, shellfish, fish, egg.\" Corrected before use inside quotation marks.",
          "evidence": "prod-a-audit.md §4.8"
        }
      ],
      "label_evidence": [
        {
          "type": "photo-of-panel",
          "id": "CL-SPO5821-051425_SFP-DTC",
          "url": "https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0053/9952/files/CL-SPO5821-051425_SFP-DTC_4633aaf8-6416-4502-acc5-65884185b1ad_2900x2900.jpg",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-28",
          "note": "The brand's own full-resolution Supplement Facts image for SKU SPO5821, read directly and independently re-read during the audit."
        },
        {
          "type": "brand-page-capture",
          "id": "ancientnutrition-womens-panel-2026-07-30",
          "url": "https://ancientnutrition.com/products/sbo-probiotics-womens-once-daily",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "The women's panel, read independently rather than inferred, which is what makes the identical-probiotic finding a comparison rather than an assumption."
        }
      ],
      "product_url": "https://ancientnutrition.com/products/sbo-probiotics-mens-once-daily",
      "last_verified": "2026-07-30"
    },
    {
      "slug": "bioptimizers-p3-om",
      "page_url": "https://bestprobioticformen.com/products/bioptimizers-p3-om/",
      "brand": "BiOptimizers",
      "product": "BiOptimizers P3-OM (sold as Probiotic Breakthrough)",
      "cohort": "D27-founding",
      "teardown_complete": true,
      "panel_transcribed": true,
      "marketed_as": "unisex",
      "lead_finding": "The patent number printed on the current FDA-filed label — US 5,895,858 — is an Analog Devices accelerometer test system. The strain patent is US 5,895,758, one digit away; it was filed in 1997, expired in 2017, and the live page markets a \"New patented strain\".",
      "cfu": {
        "claim_as_printed": "5 billion CFU per 2-capsule serving (2.5 billion per capsule)",
        "basis": "none-stated",
        "basis_verbatim": "(5B CFU per serving) — printed with no qualifier. Neither DSLD record adds one, and a token search of the live page for \"at time of manufacture\", \"through expir\", \"until expir\" and \"guaranteed\" returns nothing in a CFU context."
      },
      "strain_designators": "all-organisms-coded",
      "organism_slots": [
        {
          "slot_index": 1,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus plantarum",
          "organism_corrected": "Lactiplantibacillus plantarum",
          "designator_as_printed": "OM",
          "quantity_as_printed": "500 mg per 2-capsule serving (5 billion CFU)",
          "resolution": "no-records",
          "query_run": "\"Lactobacillus plantarum OM\"",
          "note": "The entire active formula. \"OM\" is a house designation, not an ATCC, DSM, CNCM or NCIMB deposit number — but unlike a bare species name it is traceable, because the label prints a patent number and the patent describes the strain. Searched from four directions and it returns nothing human: \"Lactobacillus plantarum OM\" gives 16 hits, all false positives (pig solid-state fermentation, rat oral mucositis, an OM-85 lysate in mice, grape-pomace and corn silage, and an unrelated EPR-ENDOR physics paper); \"plantarum OM\" AND probiotic gives 7 of the same; P3-OM gives 0; \"P3OM\" gives 0; Majnarich AND plantarum gives 0. ClinicalTrials.gov gives 0 studies. The evidence base for the sole active ingredient in this product is, as far as the public record goes, the 1997 patent application itself."
        }
      ],
      "slots_with_human_rct": 0,
      "price": {
        "amount_usd": 74.99,
        "unit": "120-capsule bottle (30 days at the panel's own four-capsule Per Day column)",
        "cost_per_day_usd": 2.5,
        "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
        "source_url": "https://bioptimizers.com/shop/products/probiotic-breakthrough"
      },
      "price_note": null,
      "certifications": [
        {
          "programme": "None claimed",
          "status": "not-checked",
          "register_url": null,
          "checked_on": null,
          "detail": "A token census across the live page returns zero for COA, Certificate, third-party, third party, NSF, Informed, Labdoor, cGMP, GMP and tested. An icon asset named manufacturing-coa.png exists in the page's image set but is a 150x150 greyscale glyph, not a document. No certification is asserted, so there is nothing to verify."
        }
      ],
      "womens_comparison": {
        "status": "no-womens-sku",
        "womens_product": null,
        "differences": [],
        "shared": [],
        "required_caveat": null,
        "evidence": null,
        "checked_on": null
      },
      "findings": [
        {
          "code": "wrong-patent-number-on-the-fda-filed-label",
          "summary": "The 2024 government label record for this product prints, verbatim: \"P3-OM is proteolytic probiotic with its own patent # US 5895858 A.\" US 5,895,858 is titled \"Integrated accelerometer test system\", assigned to Analog Devices Inc, priority 1997-03-10 — 278 occurrences of \"accelerometer\" in the document and zero of \"plantarum\". The correct number, printed on the brand's own 2023 record, is US 5,895,758, \"Strain of lactobacillus Plantarum\". A single transposed digit — but it is on the label, it is the version on file, and it is the one a consumer or reviewer would look up.",
          "evidence": "DSLD 320990 versus DSLD 284049 · Google Patents US5895858A and US5895758A",
          "source_url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/320990",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "new-patented-strain-where-the-patent-expired-in-2017",
          "summary": "The live page markets a \"New patented strain that helps support better protein digestion and assimilation\". US 5,895,758 was filed 1997-06-10, granted 1999-04-20, and Google Patents records its legal status as \"Expired - Lifetime\" with an anticipated expiry of 2017-06-10. It is nine years out of force. Calling the strain \"new\" is not supportable; calling it \"patented\" is, at best, past tense.",
          "evidence": "Google Patents US5895758A",
          "source_url": "https://patents.google.com/patent/US5895758A/en",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "label-points-at-a-patent-asserting-anti-tumoral-properties",
          "summary": "US 5,895,758's abstract asserts the strain has \"proteolytic, anti-viral, anti-retroviral, anti-bacterial, anti-microbial, and anti-tumoral characteristics and uses\". Printing that patent number on a dietary supplement label, immediately adjacent to a structure/function claim, functions as a pointer to claims that could not lawfully be printed directly.",
          "evidence": "Google Patents US5895758A",
          "source_url": "https://patents.google.com/patent/US5895758A/en",
          "required_caveat": "Recorded as an observation about the label's construction, not as a legal conclusion."
        },
        {
          "code": "zero-human-trials-of-the-only-active-ingredient",
          "summary": "Searched from four directions across PubMed and ClinicalTrials.gov. There is no human randomised controlled trial of Lactobacillus plantarum OM, for any outcome, in either database. The strain's patent inventor has no PubMed publications on it. Nine PubMed and PMC links appear in the page source; all are general probiotic, synbiotic and gut-barrier literature, and none is a trial of this strain.",
          "evidence": "PubMed and ClinicalTrials.gov queries re-run 2026-07-30, all counts reproduced exactly",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "cfu-basis-unstated-and-the-bottle-carries-a-manufacture-date",
          "summary": "The panel prints \"(5B CFU per serving)\" with no qualifier, and neither government record adds one. The FAQ says: \"The date listed on the Probiotic Breakthrough is the MFD (Manufacturing Date)… The product expires 2 years after MFD.\" So the bottle is stamped with a manufacturing date and the consumer must add 24 months themselves. Printing MFD rather than a best-by date is legal; doing it while declining to state whether the CFU count is at manufacture or through expiry is the finding.",
          "evidence": "DSLD 320990 · DSLD 284049 · brand FAQ, verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "panel-per-day-column-is-half-the-maximum-directed-dose",
          "summary": "The Supplement Facts \"Per Day\" column declares 1 g — four capsules, 10 billion CFU. The directions, on the live page and on both government records, read: \"Take 1-2 capsules with each meal and take 1-2 capsules at night before bed.\" Three meals plus bedtime at two capsules each is eight capsules a day, twenty billion CFU — double what the panel's own Per Day column declares.",
          "evidence": "DSLD 320990 · brand page directions, verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "multi-strain-products-compete-claim-is-uncited",
          "summary": "\"We use only one strain of probiotics because it's a hyper-aggressive strain… Taking multiple or combined strains is not recommended since they can often compete against each other, don't survive the gastrointestinal tract, or upset the balance of the microbiome.\" No citation is offered for any part of that, and none was found. It is a marketing rationalisation of a single-ingredient formula presented as a scientific principle.",
          "evidence": "bioptimizers.com product page, verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "leaky-gut-repair-and-virus-control-claims",
          "summary": "\"Probiotic Breakthrough can support the leaky gut repair process\" and \"Helps Maintain the Growth Control of Bad Bacteria, Viruses, and Yeasts in the Gut\". \"Leaky gut\" is not an FDA-recognised disease, which is precisely why it is usable, but \"repair process\" implies treatment of a pathological state; and claiming control of viruses and yeasts implies antiviral and antifungal action. Read alongside the label's pointer to a patent asserting anti-viral and anti-retroviral properties, these are the highest-exposure claims on the page.",
          "evidence": "bioptimizers.com product page, verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "vaginal-flora-claim-on-a-mens-list-regular",
          "summary": "\"Support healthy vaginal flora… As a powerful lactobacillus, Probiotic Breakthrough can support your vaginal flora and health.\" This product is routinely listed as a top men's probiotic.",
          "evidence": "bioptimizers.com product page, verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "product-renamed-skus-unchanged",
          "summary": "P3-OM is now marketed as Probiotic Breakthrough, and the original URL 301s and then 302s to the new handle. The rename is cosmetic at the fulfilment layer — every cart SKU still carries the old name. Any comparison table listing \"P3-OM\" and \"Probiotic Breakthrough\" as separate products is double-counting one SKU.",
          "evidence": "bioptimizers.com redirect chain and cart SKUs, verified 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        }
      ],
      "could_not_verify": [
        {
          "item": "The bottle price, at second hand",
          "why": "The $74.99 published above was decoded from a base64 data-cart-item payload in the live page source during the teardown pass, alongside $21.99 for 30 capsules and $39.99 for 60. The audit did not re-decode those payloads, so the figure was read once and not re-checked — unreproduced rather than refuted."
        },
        {
          "item": "Which of the brand's two doses a cost per day should use",
          "why": "The Supplement Facts \"Per Day\" column declares four capsules; the directions permit up to eight. The cost per day above uses the panel's own four-capsule column. At the maximum directed dose the 120-capsule bottle is a 15-day supply and the cost is $5.00 a day."
        },
        {
          "item": "Whether the strain multiplies in the gut as claimed",
          "why": "\"Can multiply inside your gut so you don't need as many colony-forming units (CFUs) as other probiotics\" is uncited, and no supporting source was found. It is the load-bearing justification for a 5-billion-CFU product competing against 25–60-billion products, and as written it is unfalsifiable — it converts a low number into a feature."
        },
        {
          "item": "Material-connection disclosure for the page's testimonials",
          "why": "The page is influencer- and testimonial-heavy. No material-connection disclosure was located. Recorded as not found, not as absent."
        },
        {
          "item": "Any CFU basis",
          "why": "None is stated. The bottle is stamped with a manufacturing date rather than an expiry date and the FAQ tells the buyer to add two years themselves, so a buyer has no way to know what fraction of 5 billion is alive in the capsule being swallowed."
        }
      ],
      "audit_corrections": [
        {
          "finding": "The patent finding — the strongest single item in the product corpus.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Every element independently verified. DSLD 284049 (2023-02-21) prints \"patent #US 5895758 A\" and DSLD 320990 (2024-10-24) prints \"patent # US 5895858 A\", both verbatim exact including a dropped word in the newer record. Both UPCs exact. US 5,895,758 resolves to \"Strain of lactobacillus Plantarum\" with the abstract and the anti-tumoral claim list exact, inventor Majnarich, assignee Bio Energy Systems Inc, filed 1997-06-10, Expired – Lifetime, anticipated expiry 2017-06-10. US 5,895,858 resolves to \"Integrated accelerometer test system\", Analog Devices Inc. Publishable as stated.",
          "evidence": "prod-b-audit.md §4.2"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The zero-evidence finding for L. plantarum OM.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "All counts reproduced exactly, and every named false positive independently resolved. The unrelated ClinicalTrials.gov match was confirmed as an ExPEC9V vaccine trial matching on a fragment.",
          "evidence": "prod-b-audit.md §4.3"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown published bottle prices decoded from base64 cart payloads.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Not re-decoded during the audit. Unreproduced rather than refuted, so the price is published with that provenance attached rather than presented as a re-verified figure.",
          "evidence": "prod-b-audit.md §3"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The original product URL used across the research.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "It now 301s to /shop/products/p3om and then 302s to /shop/products/probiotic-breakthrough. The canonical handle has changed; the P3-OM name is retained on-page. The URL has been updated.",
          "evidence": "prod-a-audit.md §2.4"
        },
        {
          "finding": "FDA warning-letter sweep for BiOptimizers.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Zero records in FDA's warning-letter full-text index — with the scope caveat that this is one index searched by brand name and FTC was not searched.",
          "evidence": "prod-b-audit.md §4.30"
        }
      ],
      "label_evidence": [
        {
          "type": "dsld",
          "id": "320990",
          "url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/320990",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "Entered 2024-10-24, on-market, UPC 0 010709 984266. The current record — and the one printing the accelerometer patent number."
        },
        {
          "type": "dsld",
          "id": "284049",
          "url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/284049",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "Entered 2023-02-21, UPC 0 010709 984259. Prints the correct patent number, US 5895758 A."
        },
        {
          "type": "photo-of-panel",
          "id": "Probiotic-Breakthrough-Supplements-Facts-07",
          "url": "https://static-v1.cdn-bio.com/bio-shop/2025/split-tests/Probiotic-Breakthrough-Supplements-Facts-07.jpg",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "The brand's own Supplement Facts JPEG, read directly and cross-checked against the DSLD record at the per-capsule level."
        }
      ],
      "product_url": "https://bioptimizers.com/shop/products/probiotic-breakthrough",
      "last_verified": "2026-07-30"
    },
    {
      "slug": "codeage-mens-daily-probiotic",
      "page_url": "https://bestprobioticformen.com/products/codeage-mens-daily-probiotic/",
      "brand": "Codeage",
      "product": "Codeage Men's Daily Probiotic 50 Billion CFU",
      "cohort": "D27-founding",
      "teardown_complete": true,
      "panel_transcribed": true,
      "marketed_as": "same-chassis-as-womens-sku",
      "lead_finding": "The men's ingredient is 80 mg of saw palmetto — one quarter of the 320 mg daily dose that failed in a 32-trial, 5,666-man Cochrane review, and one twelfth of the 960 mg that also failed in the 369-man CAMUS trial. The page never says what it is for, which is the point.",
      "cfu": {
        "claim_as_printed": "50 Billion CFU",
        "basis": "at-manufacture",
        "basis_verbatim": "‡At time of manufacture"
      },
      "strain_designators": "all-organisms-coded",
      "organism_slots": [
        {
          "slot_index": 1,
          "organism_as_printed": "L. rhamnosus",
          "organism_corrected": "Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus",
          "designator_as_printed": "GG",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "human-rct",
          "query_run": "\"Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG\" AND randomized",
          "note": "= ATCC 53103. Genuinely the most-studied probiotic strain in existence. Its share of the 50 billion is not disclosed."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 2,
          "organism_as_printed": "L. plantarum",
          "organism_corrected": "Lactiplantibacillus plantarum",
          "designator_as_printed": "Lp39",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "non-human-records-only",
          "query_run": "\"Lp39\" AND plantarum",
          "note": "Five records, none human-clinical: PMID 41360551 (murine depression/anxiety model), PMID 40896252 (in-vitro MIC and antibiotic resistance), PMID 40401972 (honey-bee mite infestation). No human RCT."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 3,
          "organism_as_printed": "L. acidophilus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "LAC361",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "human-rct",
          "query_run": "\"LAC-361\"",
          "note": "One record: PMID 24200199, Demers 2014, 246 randomised / 229 analysed, pelvic radiotherapy patients. The intervention was Bifilact® — LAC-361 paired with B. longum BB-536, which this product does not contain — and the primary endpoint was missed (p = 0.13). The positive results are secondary and subgroup findings at a single timepoint."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 4,
          "organism_as_printed": "B. lactis",
          "organism_corrected": "Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis",
          "designator_as_printed": "P23",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-records",
          "query_run": "\"P23\" AND Bifidobacterium lactis",
          "note": "Zero records. Not a weak evidence base — an absent one."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 5,
          "organism_as_printed": "B. longum",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "S12",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "non-human-records-only",
          "query_run": "\"S12\" AND Bifidobacterium longum",
          "note": "Two records, and the audit resolved one of them as a false positive: PMID 25778800 is a keyword collision with the 30S ribosomal protein S12 promoter, in a paper studying B. longum CECT 4551. The single remaining record, PMID 32988256, is an in-vitro epithelial-cell study of B. longum subsp. infantis S12, and whether that organism is the one on this label is unverified. Net: no human evidence and effectively one ambiguous record."
        }
      ],
      "slots_with_human_rct": 2,
      "price": {
        "amount_usd": 29.99,
        "unit": "30-capsule bottle (30 servings, 1 capsule per serving)",
        "cost_per_day_usd": 1,
        "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
        "source_url": "https://www.codeage.com/products/mens-daily-probiotic-zinc"
      },
      "price_note": null,
      "certifications": [
        {
          "programme": "cGMP facility",
          "status": "not-checked",
          "register_url": null,
          "checked_on": null,
          "detail": "Not a third-party certification. cGMP for dietary supplements is a baseline legal requirement under 21 CFR Part 111, binding on every US supplement manufacturer. Presented adjacent to \"for quality and purity\" it invites reading as a quality credential; it is a statement of minimum legal compliance. No USP, NSF, Informed Choice or ConsumerLab mark is claimed anywhere."
        }
      ],
      "womens_comparison": {
        "status": "diffed",
        "womens_product": "Codeage Women's Daily Probiotic",
        "differences": [
          {
            "statement": "The sex-specific add is the only real difference: saw palmetto 80 mg plus zinc 5 mg in the men's, cranberry fruit powder in the women's.",
            "evidence": "Codeage live catalogue, 183 products, and both product pages"
          }
        ],
        "shared": [
          "Both are a five-strain, 50-billion-CFU chassis at time of manufacture, and both are $29.99.",
          "Both use chicory inulin as the prebiotic."
        ],
        "required_caveat": "This is a corrected comparison. The teardown originally asserted that Codeage sells no women's daily probiotic and compared the men's SKU against the brand's unisex Probiotic+ instead. The women's SKU exists. The real diff — one chassis, one botanical swapped by sex — is structurally identical to what Physician's Choice does with selenium and hawthorn against D-mannose and cranberry, and it is a cross-brand pattern worth naming.",
        "evidence": "Brand panel image (men's) versus the live women's product listing and copy",
        "checked_on": "2026-07-30"
      },
      "findings": [
        {
          "code": "saw-palmetto-at-quarter-of-a-failed-dose",
          "summary": "80 mg of saw palmetto. The standard clinical dose is 320 mg/day, and it does not work at that dose: Cochrane pooled 32 randomised trials in 5,666 men and concluded, verbatim, that \"Serenoa repens, at double and triple doses, did not improve urinary flow measures or prostate size in men with lower urinary tract symptoms consistent with BPH\". The 369-man CAMUS trial escalated to 640 and then 960 mg/day over 72 weeks and found a group mean difference of 0.79 points favouring placebo. This product supplies a quarter of the lowest failed dose, in an unspecified extract form.",
          "evidence": "PMID 23235581 · PMID 21954478",
          "source_url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21954478/",
          "required_caveat": "Those trials establish absence of support for BPH and lower urinary tract symptoms at 320 to 960 mg. They do not prove 80 mg is inert for some other endpoint. The honest phrasing is absence of support, not proof of inertness."
        },
        {
          "code": "ingredient-makes-the-claim-copy-stays-clean",
          "summary": "Searching the full page for prostate, testosterone, urinary, virility and libido returns zero matches. The copy is purely descriptive: it names ingredients and never says what they do. Saw palmetto has essentially no consumer use case other than prostate and lower-urinary-tract symptoms, so putting it in a bottle labelled \"Men's\" communicates the benefit while the text commits to nothing challengeable. Regulatorily immaculate, and it leaves the buyer nothing to hold the brand to.",
          "evidence": "codeage.com product page string search, verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": "https://www.codeage.com/products/mens-daily-probiotic-zinc",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "zinc-below-the-male-rda",
          "summary": "5 mg per capsule, labelled 45% DV against the 11 mg Daily Value. The RDA for adult men is 11 mg/day. In a product positioned on men's health, zinc at 45% DV is a gesture rather than a dose, and no rationale for the amount is offered.",
          "evidence": "Brand panel image, verified 2026-07-28",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "three-of-five-strains-have-no-human-evidence",
          "summary": "Lp39, P23 and S12. P23 returns zero PubMed records of any kind; Lp39's five records are murine, in-vitro and apicultural; S12's two records are one keyword collision and one in-vitro study of an organism whose identity match to this label is unverified.",
          "evidence": "PubMed exact-phrase queries re-run 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "the-one-non-gg-trial-missed-its-primary-endpoint",
          "summary": "PMID 24200199 is the sole human trial behind any non-GG strain here. It used a different strain combination (LAC-361 with BB-536), a different dose, and a pelvic-radiotherapy oncology population — and its primary endpoint, time to first grade ≥2 diarrhoea, was not met (p = 0.13).",
          "evidence": "PMID 24200199",
          "source_url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24200199/",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "cgmp-presented-as-a-quality-credential",
          "summary": "\"Manufactured in the USA … in a cGMP-certified facility for quality and purity.\" cGMP is a legal floor under 21 CFR Part 111, not a distinction, and no certifier is named. The only page matches for \"third-party\" are boilerplate disclaimers about user reviews.",
          "evidence": "codeage.com product page, verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "cfu-at-manufacture-only",
          "summary": "\"‡At time of manufacture\" on the panel, with no through-expiry guarantee anywhere on the page or label.",
          "evidence": "Brand panel image, verified 2026-07-28",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        }
      ],
      "could_not_verify": [
        {
          "item": "Whether the saw palmetto is a lipidosterolic or liposteroidal extract, or standardised at all",
          "why": "Not disclosed. The label says only \"Saw Palmetto Extract (Serenoa repens; Berry) 80 mg\" — no extract ratio, no fatty-acid percentage. Trial material was standardised, so even the 80 mg is not demonstrably comparable to what was tested."
        },
        {
          "item": "Funding source and author conflicts for PMID 24200199",
          "why": "Not retrieved."
        },
        {
          "item": "Whether B. longum S12 on this label is the organism in PMID 32988256",
          "why": "Unverified. Strain-identity match was never established."
        },
        {
          "item": "Per-strain CFU across the five organisms",
          "why": "Not disclosed. Five strains share one 200 mg / 50 billion CFU figure."
        }
      ],
      "audit_corrections": [
        {
          "finding": "The teardown opened its men's-versus-women's section with \"Codeage sells no women's daily probiotic\" and compared the men's SKU against the brand's unisex Probiotic+ instead.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Refuted by the brand's own live catalogue: Women's Daily Probiotic exists at handle womens-daily-probiotic-prebiotic-cranberry, SKU WomenDailyProbiotic, at $29.99 — the same price as the men's — with the same five-strain 50-billion chassis and cranberry in place of saw palmetto. The men's-versus-women's check had never actually been run for this brand. It is run above, and the corrected finding is a better one.",
          "evidence": "prod-a-audit.md §4.2"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown listed PMID 25778800 as one of two B. longum S12 records, described as fluorescent-protein reporter gene expression.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "False positive — the same failure mode this project documents elsewhere. The paper studies B. longum CECT 4551, and its \"S12\" is the 30S ribosomal protein S12 promoter, listed alongside EF-P, IF-2, EF-G, EF-Tu, NusA and Ts. It has nothing to do with a strain designator. The corrected count is one ambiguous record, not two.",
          "evidence": "prod-a-audit.md §4.3"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown's scorecard row read \"Strain codes traceable: Codeage 1 of 5\".",
          "what_the_audit_did": "It is 2 of 5 — the file's own body text found a PubMed record for LAC-361. Corrected.",
          "evidence": "prod-a-audit.md §4.8"
        }
      ],
      "label_evidence": [
        {
          "type": "photo-of-panel",
          "id": "MensDailyProbiotic-30ct_SF_square_black",
          "url": "https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0014/4719/8797/files/MensDailyProbiotic-30ct_SF_square_black.jpg",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-28",
          "note": "The brand's own Supplement Facts image, read directly and independently re-read during the audit: zinc 5 mg / 45% DV, Probiotic Blend (50 Billion CFU‡) 200 mg with GG, Lp39, LAC361, P23 and S12, chicory inulin 100 mg, Saw Palmetto Extract 80 mg, ‡At time of manufacture."
        },
        {
          "type": "brand-page-capture",
          "id": "codeage-mens-pdp-2026-07-30",
          "url": "https://www.codeage.com/products/mens-daily-probiotic-zinc",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "Live page and Shopify JSON: $29.99, SKU MenDailyProbiotic, and the zero-match search for prostate, testosterone, urinary, virility and libido."
        }
      ],
      "product_url": "https://www.codeage.com/products/mens-daily-probiotic-zinc",
      "last_verified": "2026-07-30"
    },
    {
      "slug": "drfoster-probiotics-for-men",
      "page_url": "https://bestprobioticformen.com/products/drfoster-probiotics-for-men/",
      "brand": "DRFOSTER",
      "product": "DRFOSTER Probiotics for Men Digestive Health, 120 Billion CFUs with Saw Palmetto & Cranberry",
      "cohort": "D27-founding",
      "teardown_complete": true,
      "panel_transcribed": true,
      "marketed_as": "marketed-to-men",
      "lead_finding": "Seven nutrients with established Daily Values — vitamin C, B12, B6, K2, D3, magnesium and zinc — are concealed inside an undifferentiated 46 mg \"Vitamin and Mineral Blend\". 21 CFR 101.36(b)(2) requires vitamins and minerals with established RDIs to be declared individually with amounts and percent Daily Value; they may not be rolled into a proprietary blend total.",
      "cfu": {
        "claim_as_printed": "120 Billion CFUs (Men's Probiotic Complex, 500 mg)",
        "basis": "none-stated",
        "basis_verbatim": null
      },
      "strain_designators": "none",
      "organism_slots": [
        {
          "slot_index": 1,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bacillus coagulans",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "Listed first, which under proprietary-blend rules means it is present in the greatest amount by weight. B. coagulans is by far the cheapest and most stable organism on this panel. Nothing on the label excludes a distribution where it accounts for almost the whole 120 billion."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 2,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bacillus subtilis",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 3,
          "organism_as_printed": "Saccharomyces boulardii",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "A yeast, not a bacterium, counted as one of the \"24 probiotic strains\". It is a legitimate probiotic with a real trial literature, but the trials are for specific strains at specific doses — typically CNCM I-745 — and this label names none."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 4,
          "organism_as_printed": "Pediococcus pentosaceus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 5,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus acidophilus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 6,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus plantarum",
          "organism_corrected": "Lactiplantibacillus plantarum",
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 7,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus rhamnosus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 8,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus casei",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 9,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus paracasei",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 10,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus lactis",
          "organism_corrected": "Lactococcus lactis",
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "Not a valid species name. The organism is Lactococcus lactis — a different genus. A basic taxonomic error printed on a Supplement Facts panel."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 11,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus reuteri",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 12,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus crispatus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "A dominant species of the healthy vaginal microbiome, in a men's product."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 13,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus salivarius",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 14,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus fermentum",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 15,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus helveticus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 16,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus gasseri",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 17,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus bulgaricus",
          "organism_corrected": "Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus",
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 18,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium animalis",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 19,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium adolescentis",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 20,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium longum",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 21,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium bifidum",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 22,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium breve",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 23,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium lactis",
          "organism_corrected": "Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis",
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "The same taxon as Bifidobacterium animalis, listed separately five rows above. One of three double-counts that inflate the \"24\"."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 24,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium infantis",
          "organism_corrected": "Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis",
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "A subspecies of Bifidobacterium longum, listed separately. A defensible distinct-taxon count for this panel is about 21, not 24."
        }
      ],
      "slots_with_human_rct": 0,
      "price": null,
      "price_note": "No verifiable US price exists. The Amazon listing showed \"No featured offers available\" and \"This item cannot be shipped to your selected delivery location\" from the fetching locale, and the buy box was empty — which also means availability is unstable. A EUR 15.03 figure was observed from an EU locale for the 90-count, but a euro price from a different marketplace is not a US price. The $24.97 visible on the page belongs to a sponsored Physician's Choice placement, not to this product. No cost per day is computed.",
      "certifications": [
        {
          "programme": "\"GMP CERTIFIED\" roundel",
          "status": "not-checked",
          "register_url": null,
          "checked_on": null,
          "detail": "No certifying body named. cGMP compliance under 21 CFR Part 111 is legally mandatory for every US dietary supplement manufacturer — a floor, not a distinction — and \"GMP Certified\" without a named certifier (NSF, NPA, UL) is not a third-party certification. No certificate of analysis, no batch lookup, no laboratory named."
        },
        {
          "programme": "\"NON-GMO\" seal",
          "status": "not-checked",
          "register_url": null,
          "checked_on": null,
          "detail": "Generic text on the panel, not the Non-GMO Project mark."
        }
      ],
      "womens_comparison": {
        "status": "not-yet-checked",
        "womens_product": null,
        "differences": [],
        "shared": [],
        "required_caveat": null,
        "evidence": null,
        "checked_on": null
      },
      "findings": [
        {
          "code": "vitamins-and-minerals-hidden-in-a-proprietary-blend",
          "summary": "The \"Vitamin and Mineral Blend — 46 mg\" contains vitamin C, B12, B6, K2, D3, magnesium glycinate and zinc with no individual amounts and no percent Daily Value for any of them. 21 CFR 101.36(b)(2) defines \"(b)(2)-dietary ingredients\" as those with an established Reference Daily Intake or Daily Reference Value, and the regulation states that ingredients in a proprietary blend listed under (b)(2) \"shall be declared in accordance with paragraph (b)(2)\"; only (b)(3) \"other dietary ingredients\" may be rolled into a blend total. All seven of these nutrients have established Daily Values. This appears to be a straightforward compliance problem — and it is substantive as well as technical: 46 mg across seven nutrients, one of them magnesium glycinate at roughly 14% elemental magnesium by weight, is necessarily a trivial dose, and the blend is what conceals that.",
          "evidence": "21 CFR 101.36(b)(2), verified against the eCFR current text",
          "source_url": "https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-101/subpart-A/section-101.36",
          "required_caveat": "Stated as \"appears to be\" and left there. This site does not assert that the product violates the regulation; that is a determination for a regulator, and it is conditional on the panel transcription, which rests on a single listing image."
        },
        {
          "code": "single-500mg-blend-across-24-organisms",
          "summary": "One 500 mg proprietary complex, 120 billion CFU claimed, and no per-strain CFU or milligram allocation whatsoever. The entire probiotic content could be 119 billion CFU of the cheapest spore-former plus trace amounts of 23 others. Nothing on the label excludes that.",
          "evidence": "Amazon listing Supplement Facts image, ASIN B0D41MW6T2",
          "source_url": "https://www.amazon.com/Probiotics-Digestive-Probiotic-Prebiotics-Cranberry/dp/B0D41MW6T2",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "cfu-basis-completely-unstated",
          "summary": "No \"at manufacture\", no \"through expiration\", nowhere — not on the panel, not in the bullets, not in the A+ content, not in the product description. Combined with the 500 mg blend, the 120 billion figure is accountable to nothing: not to a per-strain split and not to a point in time.",
          "evidence": "Amazon listing, ASIN B0D41MW6T2",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "invalid-species-name-on-the-panel",
          "summary": "\"Lactobacillus lactis\" is not a valid species. The organism is Lactococcus lactis — a different genus.",
          "evidence": "Amazon listing Supplement Facts image, ASIN B0D41MW6T2",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "strain-count-inflated-by-double-counting",
          "summary": "B. animalis and B. lactis are the same taxon; B. longum and B. infantis are species and subspecies of each other; L. casei and L. paracasei are a long-standing taxonomic muddle frequently sold as two. A defensible distinct-taxon count is about 21, not 24.",
          "evidence": "Amazon listing Supplement Facts image, ASIN B0D41MW6T2",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "clinically-studied-strains-with-no-strain-named",
          "summary": "The listing claims \"24 unique clinically studied probiotic strains\". Zero strain designators appear on the panel. The claim is unverifiable by construction: you cannot identify a clinically studied strain that has no name. For fairness, several of these species do have substantial trial literatures at strain level — 58 randomised-trial records for Bacillus coagulans, 119 for Saccharomyces boulardii — which is the point: the evidence exists for named strains and this product has severed itself from it.",
          "evidence": "Amazon listing, ASIN B0D41MW6T2",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "uti-relief-claim",
          "summary": "\"Includes 140mg Cranberry extract with Vitamin C to relieve UTI discomfort without pain or burning and to support kidney & bladder health.\" A urinary tract infection is a diagnosed infection; relieving its discomfort is a treatment claim. The 2023 Cochrane cranberry review analysed no male subgroup at all and found cranberry null in the elderly and in bladder-emptying dysfunction.",
          "evidence": "PMID 37947276",
          "source_url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37947276/",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "urinary-frequency-claim-contradicted-by-cochrane",
          "summary": "\"This saw palmetto for men aids in reducing urinary frequency, reducing frequent bathroom trips, and supporting overall prostate and urinary health.\" Cochrane found nocturia not significantly reduced at 72 weeks (one-sided P = 0.19), peak urine flow mean difference 0.40 mL/s (95% CI −0.30 to 1.09) and AUA symptom score 0.25 (95% CI −0.58 to 1.07) — all null, at double and triple the dose this product uses.",
          "evidence": "PMID 23235581",
          "source_url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23235581/",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "saw-palmetto-panel-and-marketing-disagree",
          "summary": "The panel says \"Saw Palmetto — 200 mg\" with no extract ratio, no standardisation, no fatty-acid percentage and no plant part. As printed, that could be milled berry powder, which is not what any BPH trial used. The Amazon bullet says \"200mg per serving highly absorbable saw palmetto extract\". And 200 mg is below the 320 mg/day the Cochrane trials used — which was itself null.",
          "evidence": "Amazon listing Supplement Facts image versus the listing bullets, ASIN B0D41MW6T2",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "ten-times-more-survivability-with-no-comparator",
          "summary": "\"10 TIMES MORE SURVIVABILITY\" — a specific quantitative claim with no comparator stated and no data cited. Ten times more than what?",
          "evidence": "Amazon listing, ASIN B0D41MW6T2",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "enteric-coating-claimed-not-declared",
          "summary": "The listing claims \"enteric-coated capsules and delayed-release technology\". Other Ingredients lists only \"Vegetable Capsule\" — no enteric polymer is declared, no HPMCP, no shellac, no methacrylate.",
          "evidence": "Amazon listing Supplement Facts image, ASIN B0D41MW6T2",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "fairy-dusted-vigor-ingredients",
          "summary": "Taurine 20 mg against a typical energy-drink dose of 1,000–2,000 mg. An Amino Acid Blend of 100 mg across five amino acids — a single dietary gram of protein contains vastly more. The 46 mg vitamin and mineral blend across seven nutrients.",
          "evidence": "Amazon listing Supplement Facts image, ASIN B0D41MW6T2",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "no-dsld-record-no-corporate-entity",
          "summary": "The brand returns an empty hit set in the NIH DSLD, confirmed on re-query, and the Amazon manufacturer field reads only \"DRFOSTER\" — no corporate entity, no address.",
          "evidence": "DSLD brand query returning count 0, re-run 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/",
          "required_caveat": null
        }
      ],
      "could_not_verify": [
        {
          "item": "Any US price",
          "why": "See the price note. Empty Amazon buy box, item not shippable to the fetching locale."
        },
        {
          "item": "Whether a DRFOSTER women's version exists",
          "why": "Not located. The men's-versus-women's argument for this batch is carried by the GNC and Nature Target comparisons instead."
        },
        {
          "item": "The Supplement Facts panel against any independent source",
          "why": "DRFOSTER has no NIH DSLD record — the query returns an empty hit set — so the Amazon listing image is the sole source for this panel. The 21 CFR argument above is airtight only if that transcription is right."
        },
        {
          "item": "Whether 120 billion CFU in 500 mg is physically plausible",
          "why": "That implies about 240 billion CFU per gram of blend before carriers, which sits at the very top of what commercial freeze-dried concentrates achieve. Flagged as questionable; no assay and no source establishing a commercial ceiling was obtained, so it is not asserted as false."
        },
        {
          "item": "A corporate entity or address for the seller",
          "why": "The Amazon manufacturer field reads only \"DRFOSTER\"."
        }
      ],
      "audit_corrections": [
        {
          "finding": "The 21 CFR 101.36(b)(2) finding — the strongest single item in this batch.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Verified against the eCFR current text. Both regulatory quotations are verbatim exact, and the legal gloss holds: (b)(2)(i)(B) enumerates vitamin C, vitamin K, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, vitamin D, magnesium and zinc — all seven of the nutrients in this 46 mg blend. The audit's instruction was to keep the \"appears to be\" hedge and not upgrade it to \"violates\". That hedge is preserved above.",
          "evidence": "prod-b-audit.md §4.1"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown reported an Amazon rating of 4.6 from 1,278 ratings and a Best Sellers Rank of #97.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "The rating reproduces (1,282 ratings two days later — normal drift). The BSR does not: it was #88 on re-check and it moves hourly. The precise rank is not published.",
          "evidence": "prod-b-audit.md §4.25"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown recorded a 3-star review reporting angular cheilitis with dechallenge and rechallenge.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Safe only as written — labelled as an anecdote and explicitly graded as no evidence of causation. It is not promoted to a finding on this page.",
          "evidence": "prod-b-audit.md §5"
        }
      ],
      "label_evidence": [
        {
          "type": "photo-of-panel",
          "id": "519Trsv3epL",
          "url": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/519Trsv3epL",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-28",
          "note": "The listing's own Supplement Facts image, read directly. DRFOSTER has no NIH DSLD record, so this image is the only source for the panel — and the 21 CFR finding is conditional on this transcription being right."
        },
        {
          "type": "brand-page-capture",
          "id": "amazon-B0D41MW6T2-2026-07-30",
          "url": "https://www.amazon.com/Probiotics-Digestive-Probiotic-Prebiotics-Cranberry/dp/B0D41MW6T2",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "Listing metadata re-confirmed during the audit: title, 4.6 stars, \"No featured offers available\", \"cannot be shipped\", first available 2024-05-13."
        }
      ],
      "product_url": "https://www.amazon.com/Probiotics-Digestive-Probiotic-Prebiotics-Cranberry/dp/B0D41MW6T2",
      "last_verified": "2026-07-30"
    },
    {
      "slug": "garden-of-life-once-daily-mens",
      "page_url": "https://bestprobioticformen.com/products/garden-of-life-once-daily-mens/",
      "brand": "Garden of Life",
      "product": "Garden of Life Dr. Formulated Probiotics Once Daily Men's (Shelf-Stable)",
      "cohort": "D27-founding",
      "teardown_complete": true,
      "panel_transcribed": true,
      "marketed_as": "marketed-to-men",
      "lead_finding": "Not one of the 15 organisms on this label carries a strain designator — not on the record this page transcribes and not on the current one. The men's species list is also a strict subset of the same brand's women's list, all 15 appearing in the women's SKU, which adds a sixteenth; that diff, and the identical 625 mg combined fill published with it, were both computed from a men's label record DSLD has since flagged off-market, and the current men's record reads 583 mg. \"Men have unique needs\" is printed over a formula with nothing in it a woman's version does not.",
      "cfu": {
        "claim_as_printed": "50 billion CFU (35 billion Lacto, 15 billion Bifido)",
        "basis": "through-expiry",
        "basis_verbatim": "Total Lacto Cultures (35 billion CFU) · Total Bifido Cultures (15 billion CFU) · Total Probiotic Cultures 50 billion CFU (At expiration date under recommended storage conditions.)"
      },
      "strain_designators": "none",
      "organism_slots": [
        {
          "slot_index": 1,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus acidophilus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 2,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus casei",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 3,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus gasseri",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 4,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus plantarum",
          "organism_corrected": "Lactiplantibacillus plantarum",
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 5,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus paracasei",
          "organism_corrected": "Lacticaseibacillus paracasei",
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 6,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus brevis",
          "organism_corrected": "Levilactobacillus brevis",
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 7,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus bulgaricus",
          "organism_corrected": "Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus",
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 8,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus rhamnosus",
          "organism_corrected": "Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus",
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 9,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus salivarius",
          "organism_corrected": "Ligilactobacillus salivarius",
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 10,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus fermentum",
          "organism_corrected": "Limosilactobacillus fermentum",
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 11,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 12,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium bifidum",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 13,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium breve",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 14,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium infantis",
          "organism_corrected": "Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis",
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 15,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium longum",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        }
      ],
      "slots_with_human_rct": 0,
      "price": {
        "amount_usd": 36.79,
        "unit": "30-capsule bottle (30 servings, 1 capsule per serving)",
        "cost_per_day_usd": 1.23,
        "checked_on": "2026-04-20",
        "source_url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20260420213209/https://www.gardenoflife.com/dr-formulated-once-daily-mens-shelf-stable-vegetarian-capsules"
      },
      "price_note": null,
      "certifications": [
        {
          "programme": "Non-GMO Project Verified",
          "status": "register-unreachable",
          "register_url": "https://www.nongmoproject.org/find-non-gmo/",
          "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
          "detail": "The seal is on the label — DSLD 173775 records \"Non GMO Project Verified\" under Seals/Symbols, so that the label bears the mark is a fact. Whether the certification is current is not: the Non-GMO Project product finder returned 404 to every automated route tried, so the register was never actually queried."
        },
        {
          "programme": "NSF Certified Gluten-Free",
          "status": "register-unreachable",
          "register_url": "https://www.nsf.org/",
          "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
          "detail": "nsf.org returns HTTP 403 to automated requests, so this could not be checked at the issuer. Note the scope even if it is current: it certifies the absence of gluten. It says nothing about CFU count, strain identity, potency at expiry or contaminants, and it is not NSF's contents certification or Certified for Sport."
        },
        {
          "programme": "Green-e renewable energy",
          "status": "not-checked",
          "register_url": null,
          "checked_on": null,
          "detail": "A corporate energy-purchasing claim, not a product-quality claim. Listed here only because it appears among the marks a shopper sees."
        }
      ],
      "womens_comparison": {
        "status": "diffed",
        "womens_product": "Dr. Formulated Probiotics Once Daily Women's",
        "differences": [
          {
            "statement": "The men's SKU lists 15 organisms; the women's lists 16. The men's 15 species are a strict subset of the women's 16 — the only additional organism in the women's product is Lactobacillus reuteri.",
            "evidence": "DSLD 173775 versus DSLD 83155"
          },
          {
            "statement": "Probiotic blend 218 mg (men's) versus 248 mg (women's); prebiotic fibre 407 mg versus 377 mg.",
            "evidence": "DSLD 173775 versus DSLD 83155"
          },
          {
            "statement": "The Lacto-to-Bifido CFU split is re-proportioned: 35 billion / 15 billion in the men's, 40 billion / 10 billion in the women's.",
            "evidence": "DSLD 173775 versus DSLD 83155"
          }
        ],
        "shared": [
          "Total 50 billion CFU at expiry in both.",
          "Combined blend-plus-fibre fill weight is identical at 625 mg in both, which is why the two read as one capsule architecture with a re-proportioned blend rather than two separately engineered formulas.",
          "30 capsules, one daily, in both."
        ],
        "required_caveat": "SUPERSEDED IN PART, 2026-07-31 — read this before quoting the 625 mg figure. The men's record used here (DSLD 173775) is a 2018 label version DSLD has flagged off-market. A later pass located the CURRENT on-market men's record, DSLD 275467 (entry 2022-10-24), which reads 218 mg of probiotic blend plus 365 mg of prebiotic fibre — 583 mg, not 625 mg. The formula was revised. The \"identical 625 mg combined fill\" therefore describes the 2018 men's label against the women's record, not the men's product as sold now, and the whole men's-versus-women's diff needs re-running against 275467 before it is republished. What did not change in the revision is the thing the page is actually about: the current men's label still carries zero strain designators across all 15 organisms.",
        "evidence": "DSLD 173775 versus DSLD 83155, with DSLD 275467 as the current men's record",
        "checked_on": "2026-07-30"
      },
      "findings": [
        {
          "code": "species-counted-as-strains",
          "summary": "The label and the marketing both say \"15 probiotic strains\". These are 15 species. No ATCC, DSM, CNCM, NCIMB or proprietary strain code appears anywhere on the panel, so not one of the 15 can be matched to a published trial — not because the trials do not exist, but because the label does not say which organism it contains.",
          "evidence": "DSLD 173775",
          "source_url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/173775",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "brand-names-strains-on-a-sibling-sku",
          "summary": "Garden of Life discloses a real strain designator elsewhere in this same product line: Dr. Formulated Once Daily Ultra lists \"Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM\". Same brand, same line, same panel format. The capability and the labelling convention exist inside the company and are not applied to the men's SKU.",
          "evidence": "DSLD 275474",
          "source_url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/275474",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "clinical-substantiation-at-genus-level",
          "summary": "The page claims 50 billion CFU of \"15 diverse probiotic strains including Lactobacilli and Bifidobacteria — highly studied strains shown to support colon and digestive health\". The organisms are identified to genus in that sentence and to species on the panel. Whatever studies are alluded to were run on named strains this label does not name.",
          "evidence": "Wayback 20260420213209",
          "source_url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20260420213209/https://www.gardenoflife.com/dr-formulated-once-daily-mens-shelf-stable-vegetarian-capsules",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "number-one-selling-claim-on-2021-data",
          "summary": "The \"#1 selling probiotic\" claim is footnoted, verbatim: \"Based on U.S. Supplement Market, 52 Weeks Ending 7-11-21, Combined Sales: SPINS Natural Channel, iRi US MULO Channel, Amazon.com, Whole Foods Market, The Vitamin Shoppe.\" That measurement period ended in July 2021 and is still presented in the present tense. The footnote was confirmed still live and still present-tense in July 2026.",
          "evidence": "Wayback 20260420213209",
          "source_url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20260420213209/https://www.gardenoflife.com/dr-formulated-once-daily-mens-shelf-stable-vegetarian-capsules",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "mens-formula-is-a-subset-of-womens",
          "summary": "\"We've got a specialized formula just for you since men have unique needs\" sits over a formula whose 15 species are all present in the women's SKU, at an identical 625 mg combined fill. There is no prostate ingredient, no androgen-related ingredient, no urinary ingredient and no male-specific organism.",
          "evidence": "DSLD 173775 versus DSLD 83155",
          "source_url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/83155",
          "required_caveat": "The \"identical 625 mg combined fill\" in this finding is computed from DSLD 173775, the 2018 men's label record, which DSLD flags off-market. The current on-market men's record, DSLD 275467, reads 218 mg of blend plus 365 mg of fibre — 583 mg. Read the fill equivalence as a statement about the 2018 men's label only, and the species subset as dated rather than current until both are re-run against 275467. What is unaffected is the absence of any prostate, androgen-related, urinary or male-specific ingredient on the record this finding was run against."
        },
        {
          "code": "reuteri-is-in-the-womens-product",
          "summary": "The one species in this product family with any testosterone literature at all — Lactobacillus reuteri — is in the women's product and absent from the men's.",
          "evidence": "PMID 24392159",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": "That literature is a mouse study (Poutahidis 2014, aging mice, serum testosterone and testicular size). It does not support a human claim, and the organism is not in this product either way."
        }
      ],
      "could_not_verify": [
        {
          "item": "Whether the Non-GMO Project and NSF gluten-free certifications are current",
          "why": "Both issuers' registers refused automated queries — Non-GMO Project 404 on every product-finder path tried, nsf.org 403. The label bears both seals; that is as far as checking goes. Unverified is not the same as false."
        },
        {
          "item": "Per-organism CFU for any of the 15 species",
          "why": "Not disclosed. The panel gives Lacto and Bifido subtotals and nothing finer, so any one of the 15 organisms could be present at a token dose."
        },
        {
          "item": "A price read from a live retailer listing",
          "why": "The price here comes from the brand's own archived product page, so it is as old as that capture and may not be what the product sells for today."
        }
      ],
      "audit_corrections": [
        {
          "finding": "THE HEADLINE NUMBER ON THIS PAGE — \"an identical 625 mg combined fill\" in the men's and women's SKUs — was computed from a superseded label record and does not describe the product as sold today.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "A later pass (2026-07-31) located the current on-market men's record, DSLD 275467, entry 2022-10-24. It reads 218 mg of probiotic blend plus 365 mg of prebiotic fibre — 583 mg, against the 625 mg on the 2018 record this page was built from. The formula was revised at some point after 2018 and the fibre blend shrank by 42 mg. The 625 mg equivalence is therefore true of the 2018 men's label and not of the current one, and the entire men's-versus-women's fill comparison must be re-run against 275467 before it is republished anywhere. This page carries a verification flag for that reason. The finding the page exists to make is unaffected: the current men's label still names zero strains across 15 organisms, which means the revision changed the fibre and left the anonymity in place.",
          "evidence": "v2-t2-1.md §5.6, correcting batch-0"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown wrote that the UPC cross-check ties the reported Supplement Facts to \"the exact SKU currently sold\".",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Overstated. DSLD 173775's own fields read offMarket: 1, entryDate 2018-05-24, product version DFMDSS30L-070717, ©2017. The UPC match is real and reproduces; the label version is a 2018 one DSLD has flagged off-market. The claim on this page is now scoped to what the record supports: Supplement Facts as transcribed by the NIH DSLD from the label version carrying this UPC.",
          "evidence": "prod-a-audit.md §3.1"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown quoted SELECT's conclusion as \"Selenium or vitamin E, alone or in combination at the doses and formulations used, did not prevent prostate cancer.\"\"",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Truncated. The published sentence ends \"…in this population of relatively healthy men.\" The dropped clause is material and has been restored wherever the quote is used on this site.",
          "evidence": "prod-a-audit.md §3.4"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown described PMID 41152052 as a combination intervention in which \"the probiotic contribution cannot be isolated\".",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Refuted by the paper's own abstract: the five-Lactobacillus blend was a randomised add-on arm, which is how a contribution is isolated. The finding that survives is narrower — the abstract does not name the five strains, so no match to any organism on this label is possible, and the population is prostate-cancer patients on active surveillance.",
          "evidence": "prod-a-audit.md §3.2"
        }
      ],
      "label_evidence": [
        {
          "type": "dsld",
          "id": "173775",
          "url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/173775",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "UPC 6 58010 11829 3, matching the live page's \"Item 658010118293\". Entered 2018-05-24 and flagged off-market by DSLD; the UPC still matches the SKU on sale."
        },
        {
          "type": "dsld",
          "id": "83155",
          "url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/83155",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "Women's comparator, on-market."
        },
        {
          "type": "wayback",
          "id": "20260420213209",
          "url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20260420213209/https://www.gardenoflife.com/dr-formulated-once-daily-mens-shelf-stable-vegetarian-capsules",
          "captured_on": "2026-04-20",
          "note": "Brand page capture carrying the $36.79 price, the $1.23/serving figure and every marketing quote used here. gardenoflife.com returns HTTP 403 to automated requests."
        }
      ],
      "product_url": "https://www.gardenoflife.com/dr-formulated-once-daily-mens-shelf-stable-vegetarian-capsules",
      "last_verified": "2026-07-30"
    },
    {
      "slug": "garden-of-life-raw-probiotics-men",
      "page_url": "https://bestprobioticformen.com/products/garden-of-life-raw-probiotics-men/",
      "brand": "Garden of Life",
      "product": "Garden of Life RAW Probiotics Men",
      "cohort": "D27-founding",
      "teardown_complete": true,
      "panel_transcribed": true,
      "marketed_as": "marketed-to-men",
      "lead_finding": "The advertised \"$0.53/serving\" beside \"$47.99\" is the per-capsule price. The government label record for the same UPC confirms 90 capsules, 30 servings, three capsules per serving — so the real cost is $1.60 a day, understated threefold on the brand's own page.",
      "cfu": {
        "claim_as_printed": "85 billion CFU",
        "basis": "through-expiry",
        "basis_verbatim": "Total cultures 85 Billion CFU at end of Best Use Date under recommended storage conditions"
      },
      "strain_designators": "none",
      "organism_slots": [
        {
          "slot_index": 1,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus plantarum",
          "organism_corrected": "Lactiplantibacillus plantarum",
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 2,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus fermentum",
          "organism_corrected": "Limosilactobacillus fermentum",
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "The one organism on this panel that is not on the women's RAW panel. It is also the organism the brand's own men's claim points at, so the formula and the claim are internally consistent — the gap is that no strain is named, so the claim cannot reach the VRI-003 / PCC trials it evokes."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 3,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium bifidum",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 4,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 5,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium longum",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 6,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus acidophilus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 7,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus bulgaricus",
          "organism_corrected": "Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus",
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 8,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus casei",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 9,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus gasseri",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 10,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus helveticus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "Nested inside \"Eastern European Wild Kefir Culture\"."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 11,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 12,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus kefirgranum",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 13,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactococcus lactis",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 14,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactococcus cremoris",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 15,
          "organism_as_printed": "Streptococcus thermophilus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 16,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus kefir",
          "organism_corrected": "Lentilactobacillus kefiri",
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 17,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus parakefir",
          "organism_corrected": "Lentilactobacillus parakefiri",
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 18,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus brevis",
          "organism_corrected": "Levilactobacillus brevis",
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 19,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis biovar diacetylactis",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 20,
          "organism_as_printed": "Leuconostoc lactis",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 21,
          "organism_as_printed": "Leuconostoc mesenteroides",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 22,
          "organism_as_printed": "Leuconostoc cremoris",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 23,
          "organism_as_printed": "Leuconostoc dextranicum",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 24,
          "organism_as_printed": "Kluyveromyces marxianus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "A yeast, counted toward the brand's \"31 Probiotic Strains\" headline. Eight of the 31 organisms on this panel are yeasts."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 25,
          "organism_as_printed": "Brettanomyces anomalus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 26,
          "organism_as_printed": "Debaryomyces hansenii",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "Enriched in Crohn's disease intestinal tissue and shown to impair colonic healing in mice (PMID 33707263). Reported at that strength and no higher: this is a normal fermented-dairy inhabitant and no adverse event is asserted for this product. A reasonable exclusion for readers with IBD or Crohn's."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 27,
          "organism_as_printed": "Saccharomyces unisporus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 28,
          "organism_as_printed": "Saccharomyces turicensis",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 29,
          "organism_as_printed": "Saccharomyces cerevisiae",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 30,
          "organism_as_printed": "Saccharomyces exiguus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 31,
          "organism_as_printed": "Torulaspora delbrueckii",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        }
      ],
      "slots_with_human_rct": 0,
      "price": {
        "amount_usd": 47.99,
        "unit": "90-capsule bottle (30 servings, 3 capsules per serving)",
        "cost_per_day_usd": 1.6,
        "checked_on": "2026-05-17",
        "source_url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20260517144303/https://www.gardenoflife.com/raw-probiotics-men-vegetarian-capsules"
      },
      "price_note": null,
      "certifications": [
        {
          "programme": "Non-GMO Project Verified",
          "status": "register-unreachable",
          "register_url": "https://www.nongmoproject.org/find-non-gmo/",
          "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
          "detail": "DSLD 321381 records the seal under Seals/Symbols, so the label bears the mark. Whether the certification is current was not established: the product finder returned 404 to every automated route tried."
        },
        {
          "programme": "NSF Certified Gluten-free",
          "status": "register-unreachable",
          "register_url": "https://www.nsf.org/",
          "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
          "detail": "On the label per DSLD 321381. nsf.org returns 403 to automated requests. Certifies absence of gluten only — not potency, identity or contaminants."
        },
        {
          "programme": "Certified B Corporation",
          "status": "register-unreachable",
          "register_url": "https://www.bcorporation.net/",
          "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
          "detail": "On the label per DSLD 321381. bcorporation.net returns 403 to automated requests. A corporate-governance certification; it makes no claim about this product's contents."
        },
        {
          "programme": "Arrive Alive! / Potency Promise",
          "status": "not-checked",
          "register_url": null,
          "checked_on": null,
          "detail": "Garden of Life trademarks, not third-party certifications. Recorded here so they are not mistaken for one."
        }
      ],
      "womens_comparison": {
        "status": "diffed",
        "womens_product": "RAW Probiotics Women 85 Billion",
        "differences": [
          {
            "statement": "One organism is exclusive to the men's product: Lactobacillus fermentum. Two are exclusive to the women's: L. reuteri and L. rhamnosus. Men's total 31 organisms, women's 32.",
            "evidence": "DSLD 321381 versus DSLD 321382"
          },
          {
            "statement": "Probiotic blend 794 mg (men's) versus 764 mg (women's).",
            "evidence": "DSLD 321381 versus DSLD 321382"
          },
          {
            "statement": "Vitamin and mineral panels are identical except calcium 18 mg versus 30 mg, magnesium 7 mg versus 8.4 mg, and pantothenic acid 1.92 mg versus 1.9 mg.",
            "evidence": "DSLD 321381 versus DSLD 321382"
          }
        ],
        "shared": [
          "85 billion CFU at end of Best Use Date in both.",
          "The nested kefir culture is the same 22 organisms in both.",
          "Fruit & Veggie blend 207 mg and enzyme blend 56 mg in both."
        ],
        "required_caveat": "This diff cuts against the pattern found elsewhere in the brand. Unlike the Dr. Formulated line, where the men's species list is a strict subset of the women's, RAW Probiotics Men does have exactly one male-exclusive organism, and it is the one the men's claim points at. The gap is not the formula. It is that the label names no strain, so the claim cannot reach the trials it evokes.",
        "evidence": "DSLD 321381 versus DSLD 321382",
        "checked_on": "2026-07-30"
      },
      "findings": [
        {
          "code": "per-serving-price-is-per-capsule",
          "summary": "The brand's own archived product page advertises \"$47.99\" and \"$0.53/serving\" side by side, while the government label record for the same UPC confirms 90 capsules, 30 servings and \"Adults take 3 capsules per day, best taken as divided servings\". The advertised per-serving price is the per-capsule price; the real cost is $1.60 a day, understated threefold. The control test holds: the same brand's Once Daily SKU, where one capsule is one serving, shows an arithmetically correct $1.23/serving.",
          "evidence": "DSLD 321381 · Wayback 20260517144303",
          "source_url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/321381",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "clinically-studied-species-on-label",
          "summary": "The label itself reads: \"85 Billion CFU, typically containing 31 Probiotics with clinically studied Species plus Eastern European Wild Kefir Culture.\" The brand has written the species-level qualifier into its own label — a concession, in its own words, that its substantiation is at species level, not strain level.",
          "evidence": "DSLD 321381",
          "source_url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/321381",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "typically-containing",
          "summary": "The same label sentence says \"typically containing 31 Probiotics\". The organism roster is not guaranteed batch to batch. This sits in direct tension with the page's claim that the product is made \"so that what you see on the label is what you get in the bottle\".",
          "evidence": "DSLD 321381",
          "source_url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/321381",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "dangling-footnote-on-headline-cfu",
          "summary": "The page advertises \"85 billion live cultures¹\". The character ¹ appears exactly once in the entire rendered page — verified by character count, not by eye — with no footnote text anywhere.",
          "evidence": "Wayback 20260517144303",
          "source_url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20260517144303/https://www.gardenoflife.com/raw-probiotics-men-vegetarian-capsules",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "prostate-claim-with-no-prostate-ingredient",
          "summary": "\"Supports healthy stress levels, as well as prostate and heart health\" is claimed for a panel containing no saw palmetto, no lycopene, no zinc and no beta-sitosterol. The prostate claim rests on the probiotic blend alone, and no organism on this label carries any prostate evidence.",
          "evidence": "DSLD 321381",
          "source_url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/321381",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "proprietary-blend-794mg-31-organisms",
          "summary": "A single 794 mg \"Raw Whole Food Probiotic Blend\" across 31 organisms with no per-organism CFU.",
          "evidence": "DSLD 321381",
          "source_url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/321381",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "eight-yeasts-counted-as-probiotic-strains",
          "summary": "Eight of the 31 organisms are yeasts, counted toward the \"31 probiotic strains\" and \"record-setting 30+ probiotic strains\" headlines. One of them, Debaryomyces hansenii, has a published impaired-mucosal-healing signal.",
          "evidence": "DSLD 321381 · PMID 33707263",
          "source_url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/321381",
          "required_caveat": "The Debaryomyces finding is a mouse causal experiment plus human tissue association in a normal fermented-dairy organism. It is a reason to flag the product for readers with IBD or Crohn's, not a consumer alarm, and no adverse event is asserted for this product."
        },
        {
          "code": "contains-dairy-in-a-gut-health-product",
          "summary": "The label declares \"Contains: Dairy.\" in a product whose enzyme blend implicitly courts the lactose-intolerant buyer.",
          "evidence": "DSLD 321381",
          "source_url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/321381",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "cold-chain-buried",
          "summary": "Storage reads \"Store in a dry place at 71 Degrees F (22 Degrees C) or below. Best if refrigerated.\" The CFU guarantee is conditioned on \"recommended storage conditions\" — which matters for anyone ordering this online in summer.",
          "evidence": "DSLD 321381",
          "source_url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/321381",
          "required_caveat": null
        }
      ],
      "could_not_verify": [
        {
          "item": "Funding source and author conflicts of interest for PMID 18272539 and PMID 21477383",
          "why": "Not retrievable from the abstracts, and full text was not pulled. The characterisation of one named author's industry connection was dropped rather than published unconfirmed — it names a real person."
        },
        {
          "item": "Whether any of the three claimed certifications is current",
          "why": "All three issuers' registers refused automated queries (404, 403, 403)."
        },
        {
          "item": "Per-organism CFU across the 31 organisms",
          "why": "Not disclosed. Eighty-five billion spread across 31 organisms averages ~2.7 billion each, but nothing on the label prevents a distribution where one cheap organism carries almost all of it."
        },
        {
          "item": "A price read from a live retailer listing",
          "why": "The price here comes from the brand's archived page, so it is as old as that capture and may not be what the product sells for today."
        }
      ],
      "audit_corrections": [
        {
          "finding": "The teardown declined to publish a men's-versus-women's diff for the RAW line, recording that DSLD 321382 had been retrieved but not compared field by field.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "The audit ran the diff. It is now published above: men's-only organism L. fermentum, women's-only L. reuteri and L. rhamnosus, 794 mg versus 764 mg blend, identical 22-organism kefir culture. Note the direction — this diff is more favourable to the product than the Dr. Formulated one, and it is published that way.",
          "evidence": "prod-a-audit.md §5.3"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown said PubMed returns \"at least six distinct, separately-studied strains\" of Bacillus coagulans in IBS RCTs.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Re-read of all seven abstracts gives five separately named strains — GBI-30 6086, MTCC 5856, Unique IS2, LBSC/DSM 17654, BCP92 — plus one unnamed strain inside a Colinox device trial. The corrected version is stronger and is what this site publishes.",
          "evidence": "prod-a-audit.md §3.3"
        }
      ],
      "label_evidence": [
        {
          "type": "dsld",
          "id": "321381",
          "url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/321381",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "Entered 2025-01-23, on-market. UPC 6 58010 11565 0, matching the live page's \"Item 658010115650\". Confirms 90 capsules, 30 servings, three capsules per serving."
        },
        {
          "type": "dsld",
          "id": "321382",
          "url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/321382",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "RAW Probiotics Women comparator, entered the same day, on-market."
        },
        {
          "type": "wayback",
          "id": "20260517144303",
          "url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20260517144303/https://www.gardenoflife.com/raw-probiotics-men-vegetarian-capsules",
          "captured_on": "2026-05-17",
          "note": "Brand page capture carrying the \"$47.99\" and \"$0.53/serving\" pair."
        }
      ],
      "product_url": "https://www.gardenoflife.com/raw-probiotics-men-vegetarian-capsules",
      "last_verified": "2026-07-30"
    },
    {
      "slug": "gnc-probiotic-solutions-mens",
      "page_url": "https://bestprobioticformen.com/products/gnc-probiotic-solutions-mens/",
      "brand": "GNC",
      "product": "GNC Probiotic Solutions Men's — 30 Billion CFUs",
      "cohort": "D27-founding",
      "teardown_complete": true,
      "panel_transcribed": true,
      "marketed_as": "marketed-to-men",
      "lead_finding": "The four strains in the men's product are the identical Lab4 consortium GNC sells in its women's product — which gets a fifth strain and twice the capsules — and the consortium's confirmatory trial enrolled 70 women and no men, after the manufacturer's own post-hoc found the effect strongest in the female subgroup.",
      "cfu": {
        "claim_as_printed": "30 Billion Active Cultures (Men's Probiotic Blend)",
        "basis": "through-expiry",
        "basis_verbatim": "Guaranteed potency through expiration date — and: \"Probiotic Solutions Men's has been tested to ensure the full 30 billion cultures in each dose are live and active when used by the expiration date.\"\""
      },
      "strain_designators": "all-organisms-coded",
      "organism_slots": [
        {
          "slot_index": 1,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus acidophilus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "CUL-60",
          "quantity_as_printed": "NP (not provided)",
          "resolution": "human-rct",
          "query_run": "\"Lab4\" AND probiotic",
          "note": "NCIMB 30157. One quarter of the Lab4 consortium. The deposit number comes from the trial record (PMID 18785988), not from the label."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 2,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus acidophilus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "CUL-21",
          "quantity_as_printed": "NP (not provided)",
          "resolution": "human-rct",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "NCIMB 30156."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 3,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium bifidum",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "CUL-20",
          "quantity_as_printed": "NP (not provided)",
          "resolution": "human-rct",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "NCIMB 30153."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 4,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "CUL-34",
          "quantity_as_printed": "NP (not provided)",
          "resolution": "human-rct",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "NCIMB 30172. All four strains appear in human randomised trials only as an inseparable four-strain consortium, never individually, and none has been tested for the prostate or urinary outcome the product is named and sold for."
        }
      ],
      "slots_with_human_rct": 4,
      "price": null,
      "price_note": "No verifiable US price exists. GNC.com returns a 301 redirect to its discontinued-product path and the product is delisted, so there is no manufacturer price. The only price located anywhere was $76.31 on a marketplace reseller listing that was itself out of stock, for a discontinued SKU; publishing that as \"the price\" would be worse than publishing nothing. Google's index still carries a stale GNC.com listing at $36.99 with a promotion that expired in February 2026, which is a snapshot rather than a live price. No cost per day is computed.",
      "certifications": [
        {
          "programme": "None claimed",
          "status": "not-checked",
          "register_url": null,
          "checked_on": null,
          "detail": "No NSF, USP, Informed Choice or ConsumerLab mark appears on the DSLD record or on retail listings. GNC's \"Guaranteed potency\" is a first-party assertion backed by GNC's own in-house testing programme, which is not third-party certification. There is nothing to verify at an issuer because nothing is claimed — which is honest, and also means a buyer has no external check."
        }
      ],
      "womens_comparison": {
        "status": "diffed",
        "womens_product": "GNC Probiotic Solutions Women's",
        "differences": [
          {
            "statement": "The women's product carries a fifth strain, Lactobacillus gasseri CUL-09, in a Women's Health Blend. The men's gets no analogous men-specific strain.",
            "evidence": "DSLD 315325 versus DSLD 77203"
          },
          {
            "statement": "Men's ships 30 capsules; women's ships 60 — a 30-day versus a 60-day supply.",
            "evidence": "DSLD 315325 versus DSLD 77203"
          },
          {
            "statement": "Men's botanicals are saw palmetto berry extract 303 mg (with 136 mg of fatty acids nested inside it) plus lycopene 10 mg. Women's is cranberry fruit extract 200 mg.",
            "evidence": "DSLD 315325 versus DSLD 77203"
          }
        ],
        "shared": [
          "The Lab4 core is identical: L. acidophilus CUL-60, L. acidophilus CUL-21, B. bifidum CUL-20, B. animalis subsp. lactis CUL-34.",
          "30 billion CFU, guaranteed through expiration date, one capsule, in both.",
          "Both records carry \"Made in the UK\"."
        ],
        "required_caveat": "Lab4 is GNC's universal engine, not a men's formulation. The DSLD brand listing shows the same consortium across GNC's Stress, Multi Strain, Prenatal, Energy, Immune Support, Sport, with Enzymes, Weight Management Support, Adults 50 Plus and Complex SKUs. Strip the two botanicals and the men's product is a de-strained women's product.",
        "evidence": "DSLD 315325 versus DSLD 77203",
        "checked_on": "2026-07-30"
      },
      "findings": [
        {
          "code": "product-delisted-from-gncs-own-site",
          "summary": "The briefed product URL returns HTTP 301 with a Location header pointing at gnc.com/disco-offline/424654.html (\"disco\" is GNC's URL scheme for discontinued), which then 404s. GNC no longer sells this product on its own site; it survives on third-party marketplaces and in the DSLD archive. Any listicle currently ranking it as a live buy recommendation is out of date.",
          "evidence": "HTTP 301 Location header on gnc.com/probiotics-for-men/424654.html, reproduced 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": "The load-bearing evidence is the 301 Location header, not the 404. The /disco-offline/ path 404s for arbitrary input, so the 404 alone proves nothing. Independent corroboration: PricePlow reports the product is not currently available at any store."
        },
        {
          "code": "clinically-studied-doing-sex-inverted-work",
          "summary": "The Lab4 consortium's strongest data is in an all-female trial. The 2024 confirmatory study enrolled 70 women and zero men, and its own background section says why, verbatim: \"A previous exploratory study demonstrated the ability of the Lab4 probiotic to alleviate the symptoms of IBS, and post hoc data analysis indicated greatest improvements in the female subgroup. The aim of this study is to confirm the impact of this multistrain probiotic on IBS symptom severity in females.\" GNC sells this consortium as a men's product.",
          "evidence": "PMID 38287443 · ISRCTN 14866272",
          "source_url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38287443/",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "mens-sku-has-fewer-strains-and-half-the-capsules",
          "summary": "Four strains against the women's five; 30 capsules against the women's 60.",
          "evidence": "DSLD 315325 versus DSLD 77203",
          "source_url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/315325",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "mens-rationale-is-two-cochrane-negative-botanicals",
          "summary": "One hundred per cent of the men's differentiation is non-probiotic botany. Saw palmetto is null for BPH and lower urinary tract symptoms in NIH-funded, conflict-free Cochrane evidence — peak urine flow mean difference 0.40 mL/s (95% CI −0.30 to 1.09), AUA symptom score 0.25 points (95% CI −0.58 to 1.07), prostate size −1.22 cc (95% CI −3.91 to 1.47), all null, at double and triple doses. Lycopene is \"insufficient evidence\" across three trials and 154 participants.",
          "evidence": "PMID 23235581 · PMID 22071840",
          "source_url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23235581/",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "urinary-flow-claim-names-the-endpoint-cochrane-nulled",
          "summary": "\"Every capsule also delivers 303mg of saw palmetto berry extract and 10mg of lycopene to support prostate health and normal, healthy urinary flow.\" The phrasing stays inside structure/function grammar, but it asserts the exact endpoint the highest-quality evidence measured and found null.",
          "evidence": "PMID 23235581",
          "source_url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23235581/",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "no-per-strain-cfu",
          "summary": "All four strains are recorded as \"NP\" — not provided — inside a single 30 billion figure. You know which four strains; you do not know the split.",
          "evidence": "DSLD 315325",
          "source_url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/315325",
          "required_caveat": null
        }
      ],
      "could_not_verify": [
        {
          "item": "Any current US price",
          "why": "See the price note. GNC.com 301s to a discontinued-product 404."
        },
        {
          "item": "The per-strain CFU split across the four Lab4 strains",
          "why": "DSLD records all four as \"NP\" — not provided. A 30 billion blend with an undisclosed split is a soft proprietary blend; it could be 29.7 billion of the cheapest strain."
        },
        {
          "item": "The Cultech affiliation of two named authors on the 2009 Lab4 trial",
          "why": "PubMed exposes only the corresponding author's Sheffield affiliation for PMID 18785988. The Cultech connection is confirmed on the 2024 trial (PMID 38287443) and inferred for 2009 by authorship continuity. Published as \"manufacturer-connected\" rather than as a 2009 affiliation line."
        },
        {
          "item": "The EFSA opinion reference behind the titanium dioxide note",
          "why": "Not fetched. Titanium dioxide is in this product's other ingredients; it was banned as an EU food additive from 2022 and remains permitted in the US. Recorded as a market-divergence note, not a safety assertion."
        }
      ],
      "audit_corrections": [
        {
          "finding": "The teardown quoted a DSLD label statement as \"Multiple strains of live, active probiotic cultures... with prostate health support\" and criticised the sentence structure for attributing prostate support to the cultures.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "The joined sentence does not exist. DSLD 315325 carries those as two separate bullet lines in one statement block, and the ellipsis manufactured the defect being criticised. The quote has been removed. The same record does carry a genuine single statement supporting the point — \"Clinically studied multi-strain probiotic with a targeted men's prostate blend\" — and that is what this site uses instead.",
          "evidence": "prod-b-audit.md §F4"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown reported the delisting as a \"302/307-redirect\" to a page that returns 404, and leaned on the 404.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "The status code is 301, and the 404 proves nothing on its own because /disco-offline/ 404s for arbitrary input. Corrected to cite the 301 Location header, which is real and reproducible.",
          "evidence": "prod-b-audit.md §C5"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown said the saw palmetto's 45% fatty-acid standardisation is disclosed on the label.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "No percentage is printed anywhere. DSLD 315325 discloses \"Saw Palmetto Berry Extract 303 mg\" with a nested \"Fatty Acids 136 mg\"; 136 ÷ 303 = 44.9%. The 45% was the analyst's arithmetic presented as label disclosure. Restated as the record actually reads. The underlying credit — GNC discloses a fatty-acid quantity where DRFOSTER discloses nothing — is intact.",
          "evidence": "prod-b-audit.md §C9"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown said no price could be found for this SKU anywhere.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Slightly overstated: Google's index still carries a GNC.com listing at $36.99 with a promotion that expired 2026-02-18, i.e. a stale snapshot. The refusal to publish a cost per day remains the right call and stands.",
          "evidence": "prod-b-audit.md §C5"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown reported \"Made in: UK | —\" in the men's-versus-women's table, implying the women's SKU has no country of manufacture.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "DSLD 77203 also carries \"Made in the UK\". Both are UK. Corrected.",
          "evidence": "prod-b-audit.md §C10"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown described the seventh hit in the Lab4 male-relevance query as \"genomics\".",
          "what_the_audit_did": "It is PMID 18785988, the 2009 Lab4 IBS randomised trial the file itself relies on elsewhere. Two of the seven hits are also unrelated organisms that merely share the string \"LAB4\" — a Lactobacillus delbrueckii strain in rats and a Pediococcus acidilactici strain in zebrafish. The absence conclusion survives; the characterisation was loose.",
          "evidence": "prod-b-audit.md §C11"
        }
      ],
      "label_evidence": [
        {
          "type": "dsld",
          "id": "315325",
          "url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/315325",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "Entered 2024-10-24, on-market flag: No. The FDA-filed record carrying all four CUL- designators, the saw palmetto and lycopene amounts, the through-expiry statement and the \"Made in the UK\" line. Re-pulled during the audit and confirmed exactly."
        },
        {
          "type": "dsld",
          "id": "77203",
          "url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/77203",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "Women's comparator: same four Lab4 strains plus L. gasseri CUL-09, 60 capsules, cranberry 200 mg."
        }
      ],
      "product_url": "https://www.gnc.com/probiotics-for-men/424654.html",
      "last_verified": "2026-07-30"
    },
    {
      "slug": "hyperbiotics-pro-men",
      "page_url": "https://bestprobioticformen.com/products/hyperbiotics-pro-men/",
      "brand": "Hyperbiotics (Vital Nutrients)",
      "product": "Hyperbiotics (Vital Nutrients) PRO-Men",
      "cohort": "D27-founding",
      "teardown_complete": true,
      "panel_transcribed": true,
      "marketed_as": "marketed-to-men",
      "lead_finding": "The 2022 government record for this UPC disclosed, in the brand's own words, that its prostate claim was \"based on 4 tablets per day, providing 1000mg of Meriva Curcumin Phytosome\" — and offered a regimen that reached it. The 2025 record for the same UPC deletes that sentence, reduces suggested use to one tablet a day, and keeps the prostate claim. One tablet delivers 250 mg: 25% of the dose in the only study connecting that ingredient to a prostate outcome.",
      "cfu": {
        "claim_as_printed": "5 billion CFU at manufacture; minimum 1.5 billion CFU at expiration",
        "basis": "both-endpoints",
        "basis_verbatim": "5 billion CFU (At the time of manufacture. Minimum of 1.5 billion CFU at expiration.)"
      },
      "strain_designators": "some-organisms-coded",
      "organism_slots": [
        {
          "slot_index": 1,
          "organism_as_printed": "L. plantarum",
          "organism_corrected": "Lactiplantibacillus plantarum",
          "designator_as_printed": "6595 (Probi)",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "human-rct",
          "query_run": "\"Lactobacillus plantarum 299\" AND randomized controlled trial[pt]",
          "note": "The one-character trap. The 1996 founding paper states the identity outright: \"Two Lactobacillus plantarum strains of human intestinal origin, strains 299 (= DSM 6595) and 299v (= DSM 9843)\". So 6595 is strain 299, not 299v — and 299v is the strain carrying the consumer IBS literature, with 34 randomised-trial records. Searched under the name the literature actually uses, strain 299 does have trials: at least nine randomised-trial records, including PMID 18990201 (n=50, reducing pathogenic bacteria in the oropharynx of intubated patients), PMID 12764986 (n=45, acute pancreatitis) and PMID 12436353. What those trials are not: immune-health trials in healthy men, urological trials of any kind, or trials at this product's dose. Under \"prostate OR urinary OR benign prostatic\" the count for strain 299 is zero."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 2,
          "organism_as_printed": "L. reuteri",
          "organism_corrected": "Limosilactobacillus reuteri",
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 3,
          "organism_as_printed": "L. fermentum",
          "organism_corrected": "Limosilactobacillus fermentum",
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 4,
          "organism_as_printed": "L. casei",
          "organism_corrected": "Lacticaseibacillus casei",
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "One of two organisms exclusive to the men's SKU. Species-only, so the swap has no strain-level rationale."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 5,
          "organism_as_printed": "L. acidophilus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 6,
          "organism_as_printed": "B. longum",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "The second men's-only organism. Also species-only."
        }
      ],
      "slots_with_human_rct": 1,
      "price": {
        "amount_usd": 29.99,
        "unit": "30-tablet bottle (30 servings, 1 tablet per serving)",
        "cost_per_day_usd": 1,
        "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
        "source_url": "https://www.vitalnutrients.co/products/hyperbiotics-pro-men-probiotic"
      },
      "price_note": null,
      "certifications": [
        {
          "programme": "None claimed",
          "status": "not-checked",
          "register_url": null,
          "checked_on": null,
          "detail": "The Vital Nutrients product page and both current government label records were searched for NSF, USP, Informed Choice, \"third party\", \"third-party\" and \"certificate of analysis\". No third-party testing or certification claim appears. The 2022 label carried a \"Made in the USA\" seal; the 2025 labels carry no GMP seal in the Seals/Symbols field at all."
        }
      ],
      "womens_comparison": {
        "status": "diffed",
        "womens_product": "Hyperbiotics PRO-Women",
        "differences": [
          {
            "statement": "The entire differentiating active is a 250 mg slot: Curcumin Meriva Indena Phytosome Blend in the men's, Cran-Gyn (D-mannose plus cranberry, a Valensa International trademark) in the women's.",
            "evidence": "DSLD 328456/328457 versus DSLD 306768"
          },
          {
            "statement": "Organism diff: four shared (L. plantarum, L. fermentum, L. acidophilus, L. reuteri), two men's-only (L. casei, B. longum), two women's-only (L. rhamnosus, B. bifidum). None of the four differing organisms is designated on either label, so there is no strain-level rationale for the swap and none is offered.",
            "evidence": "DSLD 328456/328457 versus DSLD 306768"
          },
          {
            "statement": "The women's product adds magnesium 2 mg.",
            "evidence": "DSLD 328456/328457 versus DSLD 306768"
          },
          {
            "statement": "PRO-Women's L. plantarum is species-only where the men's carries the 6595 designator — so on this one axis the men's SKU discloses more.",
            "evidence": "DSLD 328456/328457 versus DSLD 306768"
          }
        ],
        "shared": [
          "Proprietary Probiotic Blend 150 mg, 5 billion CFU at manufacture and 1.5 billion at expiration, six organisms, FOS 25 mg, sodium 10 mg, BIO-tract delivery — identical in both.",
          "Prices identical at $29.99 for 30 tablets and $49.99 for 60. No pink tax here, and equally no men's premium."
        ],
        "required_caveat": "The women's add-on has the better mechanistic case: D-mannose and cranberry proanthocyanidins have a plausible, well-described anti-adhesion mechanism for urinary tract health. The men's add-on rests on a single unblinded registry study at four times the delivered dose. Structurally, both products are the same 5-billion-CFU BIO-tract probiotic with a different 250 mg botanical bolted on.",
        "evidence": "DSLD 328456 and 328457 versus DSLD 306768",
        "checked_on": "2026-07-30"
      },
      "findings": [
        {
          "code": "deleted-four-tablet-meriva-disclosure",
          "summary": "The 2022 record for this UPC states, verbatim: \"Formulated with six targeted probiotic strains and Meriva Turmeric Curcumin Phytosome, PRO-Men is designed to support digestive, immune, cardiovascular, prostate, bone, and eye health, along with normal energy levels. Claim based on 4 tablets per day, providing 1000mg of Meriva Curcumin Phytosome.\" The same record offered a regimen that could reach it: \"Daily Maintenance: Take 1 tablet once per day. Intense Support: Take 2 tablets twice daily.\" Four tablets is 1,000 mg — exactly the dose in the only study connecting Meriva to a prostate outcome. The 2025 records for the same UPC reduce suggested use to \"Take 1 tablet once per day\", delete the four-tablet sentence entirely, retain the prostate claim and promote it to the front panel, and change the DSLD target group from Adult Male (18-50 Years) to Adult (18-50 Years). The label now makes a prostate claim while instructing a dose that delivers one quarter of the curcumin the claim was built on, and the sentence that used to disclose the gap has been deleted.",
          "evidence": "DSLD 270251 versus DSLD 328456 and 328457",
          "source_url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/270251",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "the-prostate-evidence-is-one-unblinded-registry-study",
          "summary": "PubMed returns exactly one paper for Meriva and the prostate: a self-described \"pilot, product evaluation registry study\", n=61, in men aged 55–65 with diagnosed symptomatic BPH on top of best standard management, with no randomisation, no blinding and no placebo, published in a supplement issue. It used 2 x 500 mg of Meriva per day. PRO-Men delivers 250 mg per tablet at one tablet a day, and is sold to men the label codes as 18–50 — an age band that barely overlaps the study population.",
          "evidence": "PMID 23241931",
          "source_url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23241931/",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "prostate-support-re-attributed-from-the-curcumin-to-the-probiotics",
          "summary": "The 2023 Hyperbiotics page attributed it correctly: \"Urinary and Prostate Support from curcumin phytosome, clinically studied to support prostate health.\" The 2026 Vital Nutrients page attributes it to the bacteria instead: \"Formula includes six research-backed probiotics that support prostate and urinary tract health while promoting a balanced gut microbiome.\" No strain on this label has any prostate or urinary trial — five are species-only, and the sixth, strain 299, returns zero under prostate, urinary and benign prostatic terms. The re-attribution is unsupported.",
          "evidence": "Wayback 20230131204722 versus vitalnutrients.co, verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "clinically-studied-formula-with-no-trial-of-the-formula",
          "summary": "\"this clinically studied formula replenishes beneficial bacteria throughout the gastrointestinal tract and supports a healthy inflammatory response.\" No trial of this formula exists: \"PRO-Men\" AND probiotic returns zero, \"BIO-tract\" returns zero, \"Hyperbiotics\" returns zero.",
          "evidence": "PubMed queries re-run 2026-07-30, all confirmed",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "strain-6595-is-299-not-299v",
          "summary": "The panel's L. plantarum 6595 is strain 299 (DSM 6595), one character from 299v (DSM 9843) — the strain with 34 randomised-trial records and most of the L. plantarum IBS literature. A shopper, a retailer or an AI shopping assistant that sees \"L. plantarum 6595, clinically studied\" and reaches for the 299v evidence base is reaching for the wrong strain. The label is technically accurate and practically misleading.",
          "evidence": "PMID 8779562",
          "source_url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8779562/",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "fifteen-times-survivability-rests-on-an-unpublished-in-vitro-comparison",
          "summary": "\"This formula offers up to 15X more probiotic survivability than standard vegetarian capsules, allowing us to offer superior results at a lower CFU.\" That sentence is the justification for a 5-billion-CFU product costing more per day than a 100-billion-CFU one, and it rests on a patent plus an in vitro comparison with no peer-reviewed publication anywhere.",
          "evidence": "PubMed query \"BIO-tract\" returning 0, re-run 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": "Credit where it is due: the in vitro qualifier is on the label itself — \"BIO-tract vs. instant release formulations under in vitro test conditions\" — not buried."
        },
        {
          "code": "proprietary-blend",
          "summary": "No per-strain CFU split across the six organisms, so even the one designated strain cannot be tied to a dose.",
          "evidence": "DSLD 328457",
          "source_url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/328457",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "claims-across-seven-organ-systems-from-one-observational-study",
          "summary": "The 2022 label claimed digestive, immune, cardiovascular, prostate, bone and eye health plus normal energy levels. The evidence base underneath is one registry study and one 1996 cell-line paper.",
          "evidence": "DSLD 270251",
          "source_url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/270251",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "no-third-party-testing-claimed",
          "summary": "None claimed, so none to verify.",
          "evidence": "vitalnutrients.co product page and DSLD 328456/328457, all searched 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        }
      ],
      "could_not_verify": [
        {
          "item": "Any published evidence for the BIO-tract delivery technology",
          "why": "\"BIO-tract\" returns zero PubMed records, as do \"Hyperbiotics\" and \"PRO-Men\" AND probiotic. The \"15X more survivability\" claim is a patent plus an unpublished in vitro comparison — and the label itself says so, which is to the brand's credit. But that claim is the justification for a 5-billion-CFU product costing more per day than a 100-billion-CFU one."
        },
        {
          "item": "Per-strain CFU across the six organisms",
          "why": "Not disclosed."
        },
        {
          "item": "The source of the \"Other Ingredients\" line",
          "why": "The teardown's Other Ingredients list for this product is not in DSLD at all — the otherIngredients field is empty on both 328456 and 328457. It matches the Vital Nutrients product page, and is sourced there rather than to the government record."
        }
      ],
      "audit_corrections": [
        {
          "finding": "The teardown concluded that there is no randomised trial of DSM 6595 for immune health \"or for anything else\", that the strain's entire literature is one 1996 cell-line experiment, and that the brand's immune claim is therefore false as written.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Refuted, and this is the most consequential correction in the batch because it was used to call a named brand's marketing false. The teardown searched only under \"Lactobacillus plantarum 6595\" and \"DSM 6595\". Searched under the name the literature actually uses — strain 299, an identity the teardown itself establishes on the line above — there are at least nine randomised-trial records, including a 50-patient randomised controlled pilot in intubated patients and a 45-patient randomised double-blind study in acute pancreatitis. The strain's own supplier cites five human references for it, four of them controlled clinical trials. The scorecard moves from 0 of 6 to 1 of 6. What survives, and what this page publishes, is the narrower and defensible version: the 299 trials are infection-prevention and colonisation endpoints in intubated, post-surgical and pancreatitis patients — none is an immune-health trial in healthy men, none is urological, and none is at this product's dose. \"Clinically studied to support immune health\" is unsupported, not false.",
          "evidence": "prod-c-audit.md §F4"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown reported a PubMed count of 158 for L. plantarum 299v.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Does not reproduce under any query form tried — 126, 198 and 68 on three plausible variants. Dropped. The companion figure of 34 randomised-trial records reproduces exactly and is what this page uses.",
          "evidence": "prod-c-audit.md §F5"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown quoted Probi as writing \"Lactiplantibacillus plantarum 6595 (DSM 6595) has been isolated from healthy human colonic mucosa.\"\"",
          "what_the_audit_did": "The page says \"The specific strain L. plantarum 6595 (DSM 6595) has been isolated…\". Substance identical, but it was inside quotation marks. Corrected. The audit also notes the next sentence on that page is material and was left unquoted: Probi attaches five cited references to the strain, which is what the brand's \"clinically studied\" claim leans on.",
          "evidence": "prod-c-audit.md §C6"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown said hyperbiotics.com 302-redirects to Vital Nutrients.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "It is a 301. The destination is exactly as stated.",
          "evidence": "prod-c-audit.md §C10"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown's \"Other Ingredients\" line for this product was presented alongside DSLD data.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "It is not in DSLD at all — the otherIngredients field is empty on both current records. It matches the Vital Nutrients product page and is re-sourced there.",
          "evidence": "prod-c-audit.md §C9"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The four-tablet deletion finding and the both-endpoints potency disclosure.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Both verified to the character. The 2022 record's four-tablet sentence, its two-tier regimen, the 2025 records' single-tablet instruction, the deletion, the front-panel prostate claim and the target-group change from Adult Male to Adult are all exact, and the UPC match proves it is the same SKU. The 250 mg against 1,000 mg arithmetic checks. So does the 5 billion to 1.5 billion figure and its 70% decline — and the file's explicit warning that the competitor rows in that comparison are inference rather than measurement is the right guardrail and is kept.",
          "evidence": "prod-c-audit.md §S25, §S26"
        }
      ],
      "label_evidence": [
        {
          "type": "dsld",
          "id": "270251",
          "url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/270251",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "Entered 2022-09-22, UPC 9 506000 116921, target group Adult Male (18-50 Years). The record carrying the four-tablet Meriva sentence and the two-tier dosing regimen."
        },
        {
          "type": "dsld",
          "id": "328456",
          "url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/328456",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "Entered 2025-04-24, same UPC 9 506000 116921 — verified against the storefront barcode and SKU HBMEN30, so this is provably the same SKU. Four-tablet sentence deleted, suggested use reduced to one tablet, prostate claim retained, target group changed to Adult (18-50 Years)."
        },
        {
          "type": "dsld",
          "id": "328457",
          "url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/328457",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "The 60-count record, UPC 9 506000 116686, matching storefront SKU HBMEN60. Carries both potency endpoints in the blend note and in Formula re: Contains."
        },
        {
          "type": "dsld",
          "id": "306768",
          "url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/306768",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "PRO-Women comparator."
        }
      ],
      "product_url": "https://www.vitalnutrients.co/products/hyperbiotics-pro-men-probiotic",
      "last_verified": "2026-07-30"
    },
    {
      "slug": "just-thrive-probiotic",
      "page_url": "https://bestprobioticformen.com/products/just-thrive-probiotic/",
      "brand": "Just Thrive",
      "product": "Just Thrive Probiotic & Antioxidant",
      "cohort": "D27-founding",
      "teardown_complete": true,
      "panel_transcribed": true,
      "marketed_as": "unisex",
      "lead_finding": "\"Clinical study showed that Just Thrive Probiotic addressed leaky gut in participants within just 30 days.\" The study tested MegaSporeBiotic — a different company's five-strain product containing Bacillus licheniformis, which Just Thrive does not sell — at 4 billion spores across two capsules a day, funded by a grant from a different company, with fifteen people in the probiotic arm.",
      "cfu": {
        "claim_as_printed": "3 Billion Cells (Proprietary Probiotic Blend, 175 mg)",
        "basis": "none-stated",
        "basis_verbatim": "The panel prints \"3 Billion Cells\" — note the unit is cells, not CFU — with no at-manufacture or through-expiry qualifier anywhere."
      },
      "strain_designators": "all-organisms-coded",
      "organism_slots": [
        {
          "slot_index": 1,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bacillus indicus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "HU36",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "non-human-records-only",
          "query_run": "\"Bacillus indicus\" AND randomized controlled trial[pt]",
          "note": "Zero randomised-trial records. The brand's flagship \"patented superstrain\" has no randomised trial of its own. The nine records for the organism and designator together are carotenoid-characterisation work, which is why the page's claim that \"studies have proven HU36 creates 15 of the most potent and protective antioxidants\" is in-vitro and animal evidence, not human trial evidence. No human trial demonstrates that HU36 raises antioxidant status in a person."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 2,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bacillus clausii",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "SC-109",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "non-human-records-only",
          "query_run": "\"SC-208\" OR \"SC-109\"",
          "note": "Four records, in which the designators appear only as product descriptions inside blend papers. For fairness at species level: B. clausii has 17 randomised-trial records — but those are the Enterogermina strains O/C, N/R, SIN and T, and a species result does not transfer to SC-109."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 3,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bacillus subtilis",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "HU58",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "non-human-records-only",
          "query_run": "\"Bacillus subtilis HU58\"",
          "note": "Fifteen records, almost entirely the same spore-blend literature. No HU58-alone randomised trial was retrieved. Note that the one randomised trial linking a B. subtilis strain to testosterone used DE111 at 1 billion CFU/day — a different strain — and found no effect."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 4,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bacillus coagulans",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "SC-208",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "non-human-records-only",
          "query_run": "\"SC-208\" OR \"SC-109\"",
          "note": "As above. B. coagulans has 58 randomised-trial records at species level, but they belong to GBI-30 6086, MTCC 5856, Unique IS2 and others — not to SC-208."
        }
      ],
      "slots_with_human_rct": 0,
      "price": {
        "amount_usd": 49.99,
        "unit": "30-capsule bottle (30 servings, 1 capsule per serving)",
        "cost_per_day_usd": 1.67,
        "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
        "source_url": "https://justthrivehealth.com/products/probiotic"
      },
      "price_note": null,
      "certifications": [
        {
          "programme": "\"VERIFIED SURVIVES GASTRIC\" / \"VERIFIED DNA CHECKED\"",
          "status": "not-checked",
          "register_url": null,
          "checked_on": null,
          "detail": "Two seals printed on the label naming no certifier. The NIH label database classifies both, along with \"1000x better survivability\" and \"Pharmaceutical grade\", under General Statements: All Other Content — i.e. the government's own label database files these as marketing copy rather than as certifications."
        },
        {
          "programme": "\"GMP Certified locations\"",
          "status": "not-checked",
          "register_url": null,
          "checked_on": null,
          "detail": "Presented on the page as proof that \"what's on the label is exactly what's in the bottle\". A facility registration is not a product assay, and cGMP is a legal baseline under 21 CFR Part 111."
        },
        {
          "programme": "\"Pharmaceutical grade\"",
          "status": "not-checked",
          "register_url": null,
          "checked_on": null,
          "detail": "A term with no regulatory meaning for a dietary supplement."
        }
      ],
      "womens_comparison": {
        "status": "no-womens-sku",
        "womens_product": null,
        "differences": [],
        "shared": [],
        "required_caveat": "Just Thrive sells 25 products and none is gendered by title. Dosing is explicitly extended to children — \"Ages 5+: 1 capsule per day with your largest meal\", with instructions for opening capsules for children eight and under, and the 2019 label went further at \"Adults and children above the age of 3\". A product dosed identically for a five-year-old and a forty-five-year-old man is not formulated for men. The study the brand cites was run on \"apparently healthy men and women\" with a mean age of about 21 — college students of both sexes.",
        "evidence": null,
        "checked_on": null
      },
      "findings": [
        {
          "code": "clinically-proven-on-a-different-companys-product",
          "summary": "The product page says \"Clinical study showed that Just Thrive Probiotic addressed leaky gut in participants within just 30 days\" and \"Clinically-proven to address Leaky Gut in just 30 days\". The linked study's methods name the product tested, verbatim: \"Megasporebiotic; Physicians Exclusive, LLC; Glenview, IL, United States\", containing 4 billion spores from five strains including Bacillus licheniformis — which Just Thrive does not sell — taken as 2 capsules a day. Just Thrive is four strains at 3 billion cells in 1 capsule. The acknowledgments read: \"funded in part by a competitive research grant from Microbiome Labs, LLC (Glenview, IL) to the University of North Texas.\" The brand's own blog headline hedges correctly — \"with the Strains Used in Just Thrive Probiotic\" — but the product page does not hedge at all.",
          "evidence": "PMC5561432 · PMID 28868181",
          "source_url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28868181/",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "efficacy-arm-was-fifteen-people",
          "summary": "The blog describes the study as \"Conducted at the University of North Texas on nearly 100 people\". The paper screened 80 subjects and enrolled 25 responders; the final groups were placebo n=13 and probiotic n=15. \"Nearly 100\" describes the screening funnel, not the trial. The paper itself reports three different Ns (25 enrolled, 26 randomised, and 13 plus 15 in Table 1), which is the journal's problem rather than the brand's, but it further weakens the citation.",
          "evidence": "PMC5561432",
          "source_url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28868181/",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "placebo-figure-misreported",
          "summary": "The blog says \"those who got the placebo worsened by 32%\". The paper says placebo subjects presented with a 36% increase in endotoxin.",
          "evidence": "PMC5561432",
          "source_url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28868181/",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "adverse-events-reframed-as-die-off",
          "summary": "From the FAQ: \"Some people do experience bacterial die-off reactions… Temporary cold/flu-like feelings, gas/bloating, constipation/diarrhea, headaches, skin eruptions, irritability.\" This is not a claim about efficacy at all — it is a mechanism for reinterpreting adverse events as confirmation that the product is working. There is no clinical support for die-off as a probiotic phenomenon, and the passage's practical function is retention: a consumer experiencing headaches, skin eruptions and gastrointestinal upset is told these are signs of die-off and advised to lower the dose rather than stop.",
          "evidence": "justthrivehealth.com FAQ, verified verbatim live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": "https://justthrivehealth.com/products/probiotic",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "survivability-silently-escalated-to-effectiveness",
          "summary": "\"1000x better survivability\" becomes, elsewhere on the same page, \"studies have proven Just Thrive Probiotic arrives in your gut 100% alive, making it 1000x more effective than leading brands.\" Survivability and effectiveness are different claims and the second does not follow from the first.",
          "evidence": "justthrivehealth.com product page, both strings verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "proprietary-blend-despite-full-designators",
          "summary": "Four of four strains carry designators — genuinely good, and matched by 14 of the 27 founding teardowns — and it is nonetheless a proprietary blend: 175 mg and 3 billion cells in total, with no per-strain quantity for any of the four. You know exactly which organisms are in the capsule and nothing about how much of each.",
          "evidence": "Brand label image, read at 4x upscale 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "blend-mass-cut-sixty-five-percent",
          "summary": "The government record from 2019 gives a 500 mg Proprietary Probiotic Blend; the current label gives 175 mg — a 65% reduction with the same four strains and the same stated 3 billion cells. Without per-strain amounts at either date the delivered dose cannot be compared, which is precisely what a proprietary blend is for.",
          "evidence": "DSLD 201373 versus the current label",
          "source_url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/201373",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "named-condition-navigation-and-heal-language",
          "summary": "The site navigates by named conditions — \"Leaky Gut\", \"Candida\" — the linked study page uses \"heal and seal\" for the intestinal lining, and the blog ties the product to obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and inflammatory bowel disease. Just Thrive does carry the standard FDA structure/function disclaimer, and it crosses the line anyway, without the medical-food posture that makes another product in this batch's crossing defensible.",
          "evidence": "justthrivehealth.com site navigation and blog, verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "self-certification-styled-as-third-party-seals",
          "summary": "\"VERIFIED SURVIVES GASTRIC\" and \"VERIFIED DNA CHECKED\" are printed on the label and name no certifier. The government label database itself files them, along with \"1000x better survivability\" and \"Pharmaceutical grade\", under General Statements: All Other Content — i.e. as marketing copy.",
          "evidence": "DSLD 201373",
          "source_url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/201373",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "lowest-resolution-label-asset-in-the-project",
          "summary": "The Supplement Facts image is 350 by 575 pixels — the smallest label asset encountered anywhere in this research, legible only after four-times upscaling. It also carries a typo: \"hydroxpropyl methylcellulose\", missing a letter.",
          "evidence": "https://justthrivehealth.com/cdn/shop/files/Pro30-suppfacts-latest.png",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        }
      ],
      "could_not_verify": [
        {
          "item": "Any support for the survivability claims",
          "why": "\"1000x better survivability vs. yogurt, greek yogurt & leading probiotics\" and \"guaranteed to arrive 100% alive in your gut\" are stated with no source cited on the page. The first also appears in the government label record as label copy."
        },
        {
          "item": "What happened to the delivered dose when the blend mass fell",
          "why": "The blend fell from 500 mg to 175 mg across label generations with the same four strains and, per the government records, the same stated 3 billion cells. Without per-strain amounts at either date it is impossible to say what happened to the delivered dose. A mass reduction is not automatically a potency reduction, because carrier and excipient ratios change. The finding is that the label makes the question unanswerable."
        },
        {
          "item": "The potency basis",
          "why": "Neither at manufacture nor at expiry is stated anywhere."
        }
      ],
      "audit_corrections": [
        {
          "finding": "The teardown stated that the 2019 label carried no potency count at all, and that \"3 Billion Cells\" is a later addition.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Refuted by the very record it cited. DSLD 201373's ingredient note reads \"Proprietary Probiotic Blend Note: 3 billion cells\". The 2019 label does state a cell count. This is not a trivial slip — it inverts the finding. The corrected and stronger version is published above: the blend mass fell 65%, from 500 mg to 175 mg, while the stated cell count stayed fixed at 3 billion, which is the same structural point about milligram amounts being uninformative that the sibling teardown in this batch makes about a different product.",
          "evidence": "prod-d-audit.md §1.1"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The borrowed-study finding.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Confirmed verbatim against the paper's full text. The product name and manufacturer, the 4 billion spores, the five strains including B. licheniformis, the 2-capsules-a-day regimen, the Microbiome Labs funding line, the 80 screened / 25 enrolled / 13 plus 15 arms, the 36% placebo endotoxin increase and the \"apparently healthy\" college-aged population are all exact. The teardown's own disclosure that the paper reports three different Ns is corroborated and is to its credit. This finding would survive a brand's lawyer: every adverse statement is a verbatim quotation from the company's own cited paper.",
          "evidence": "prod-d-audit.md §6.2"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown wrote that a regex scan of both catalogues found zero gendered terms \"in titles or descriptions\".",
          "what_the_audit_did": "The title claim is correct and reconfirmed — zero across 25 Just Thrive products. The description claim is not: one product's body copy contains gendered terms, in a urinary-tract SKU whose copy addresses both sexes. Narrowed to titles. The substantive conclusion, that the brand sells no gendered probiotic, is unaffected.",
          "evidence": "prod-d-audit.md §1.3"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The government label record's classification of the brand's seals.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Exact. DSLD 201373 carries \"1000x better survivability\", \"Pharmaceutical grade\" and \"Verified survives gastric / Verified DNA checked\" all under General Statements: All Other Content, so the claim that the government's own label database classifies these as marketing copy rather than certifications is correct and verbatim.",
          "evidence": "prod-d-audit.md §9"
        }
      ],
      "label_evidence": [
        {
          "type": "photo-of-panel",
          "id": "Pro30-suppfacts-latest",
          "url": "https://justthrivehealth.com/cdn/shop/files/Pro30-suppfacts-latest.png",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "The brand's own Supplement Facts image, at a native 350 by 575 pixels — the lowest-resolution label asset in this research, legible only after four-times upscaling."
        },
        {
          "type": "dsld",
          "id": "201373",
          "url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/201373",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "Entered 2019-04-25, on-market, carrying no UPC. The archived label: a 500 mg Proprietary Probiotic Blend with the note \"3 billion cells\", the same four strains, and directions extending to children above the age of three. Also the record classifying the brand's seals as general marketing content."
        }
      ],
      "product_url": "https://justthrivehealth.com/products/probiotic",
      "last_verified": "2026-07-30"
    },
    {
      "slug": "legion-biome",
      "page_url": "https://bestprobioticformen.com/products/legion-biome/",
      "brand": "Legion",
      "product": "Legion Biome Probiotic",
      "cohort": "D27-founding",
      "teardown_complete": true,
      "panel_transcribed": true,
      "marketed_as": "unisex",
      "lead_finding": "Legion's own page states \"The clinically effective dose of PreticX xylooligosaccharide is 1,000 milligrams\" — and the two human trials Legion cites for it used 1.4 g and 2 g/day, with the authors of one concluding that 2.8 g may be more effective than 1.4 g. The label callout beside it claims XOS \"improves body composition and blood glucose\"; the trial Legion cites reports no effect on either.",
      "cfu": {
        "claim_as_printed": "25 billion CFU per 2-capsule serving (10 B420 + 10 LP299v + 5 DE111)",
        "basis": "none-stated",
        "basis_verbatim": "The panel prints per-strain CFU with no basis qualifier — no \"at manufacture\", no \"through expiry\". The FAQ says only: \"Does Biome require refrigeration? It's not essential, but Biome will remain potent longer if you store it in a cool, dark place.\"\""
      },
      "strain_designators": "all-organisms-coded",
      "organism_slots": [
        {
          "slot_index": 1,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium lactis",
          "organism_corrected": "Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis",
          "designator_as_printed": "B420",
          "quantity_as_printed": "75 mg (10 billion CFU)",
          "resolution": "human-rct",
          "query_run": "\"Bifidobacterium animalis\" AND B420 AND randomized",
          "note": "Two randomised-trial records; 15 PubMed records overall for \"B420\" AND probiotic. The dose on the label matches the pivotal trial's 10 billion CFU/day exactly — but the trial arm that produced a significant result was B420 plus 12 g/day of polydextrose, and Biome contains 1 g/day of a different fibre. The B420-alone arm was null (P = 0.28), and the trial's pre-specified primary endpoint failed in the intent-to-treat population."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 2,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus plantarum 299v",
          "organism_corrected": "Lactiplantibacillus plantarum",
          "designator_as_printed": "LP299V / DSM 9843",
          "quantity_as_printed": "60 mg (10 billion CFU)",
          "resolution": "human-rct",
          "query_run": "\"Lactobacillus plantarum\" AND 299v AND randomized",
          "note": "42 randomised-trial records. The 2026 strain-specific IBS meta-analysis lists 299v (DSM 9843) among five strains with demonstrated efficacy for key IBS symptoms — the best-supported ingredient in this product. Two caveats about population rather than validity: that evidence is in people with diagnosed IBS, not asymptomatic adults, and the other well-replicated 299v finding is iron absorption in menstruating women, which is by construction not available to men."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 3,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bacillus subtilis",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "DE111",
          "quantity_as_printed": "57.5 mg (5 billion CFU)",
          "resolution": "human-rct",
          "query_run": "\"Bacillus subtilis\" AND DE111 AND randomized",
          "note": "Nine randomised-trial records. The dose claim is correctly sourced — to a 23-woman trial. The only male-only trial of DE111 (PMID 30049931, 25 male Division I baseball athletes, 12 weeks) used one billion CFU/day, a fifth of Legion's dose, and found no effect on body composition, performance, hormonal status or gut permeability. No male-only trial of DE111 at 5 billion CFU/day exists."
        }
      ],
      "slots_with_human_rct": 3,
      "price": {
        "amount_usd": 49.99,
        "unit": "60-capsule bottle (30 servings, 2 capsules per serving)",
        "cost_per_day_usd": 1.67,
        "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
        "source_url": "https://legionathletics.com/products/supplements/biome-probiotic/"
      },
      "price_note": null,
      "certifications": [
        {
          "programme": "Labdoor",
          "status": "confirmed-at-issuer",
          "register_url": "https://labdoor.com/review/legion-biome-probiotic",
          "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
          "detail": "The only certification claim in its batch that could be checked against a certifier's live database, and it checks out: Labdoor score 100.0 of 100, lot 0385A6, tested 14 July 2026, probiotic found 49.1 billion CFU against a claimed 25 billion, and yeast, mould, coliforms, E. coli, S. aureus, Salmonella and Shigella all at 0 cfu/g. Two things Legion's marketing does not mention, both read off Labdoor's own pages: Labdoor's probiotics category contains exactly one product — this one — so any \"#1 ranked by Labdoor\" framing is #1 of 1; and Labdoor sells the products it ranks (Amazon Associates disclosure plus a \"BUY FROM THESE SELLERS\" block) and sells certification as a B2B service to brands. That does not make the assay results false. It does mean \"independently certified\" carries less weight than it reads."
        },
        {
          "programme": "NSF-certified facility",
          "status": "brand-asserted-unverified",
          "register_url": "https://www.nsf.org/",
          "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
          "detail": "Legion states its products are \"made in America… in NSF-certified, FDA-inspected facilities\". No facility name and no NSF registration number is published, so there is nothing to look up."
        },
        {
          "programme": "\"Accredited third-party laboratories\"",
          "status": "brand-asserted-unverified",
          "register_url": null,
          "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
          "detail": "Legion publishes a lot-specific certificate of analysis, which is more than almost any brand in this set. But the document offered as proof carries no issuing laboratory name, no accreditation number, no analyst signature and no letterhead — only method codes and internal reference numbers. The marketing claim names accredited third-party laboratories; the certificate names none."
        }
      ],
      "womens_comparison": {
        "status": "no-womens-sku",
        "womens_product": null,
        "differences": [],
        "shared": [],
        "required_caveat": null,
        "evidence": null,
        "checked_on": null
      },
      "findings": [
        {
          "code": "preticx-clinically-effective-dose-below-both-cited-trials",
          "summary": "Legion states, verbatim: \"The clinically effective dose of PreticX xylooligosaccharide is 1,000 milligrams.\" Legion cites exactly two human XOS trials. Finegold 2014 tested 1.4 g and 2.8 g/day and concluded \"2.8 g per day may be more effective than 1.4 g per day\". Yang 2015 tested 2 g/day. One thousand milligrams is below the lowest dose in either, and 36% of the dose Finegold's authors identified as more effective. This is the strongest single finding against the product because it is fully self-contained: Legion's claim, Legion's citation, and the citation's own stated result, all in one place.",
          "evidence": "PMID 24513849 · PMID 26300782",
          "source_url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24513849/",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "xos-body-composition-callout-contradicted-by-legions-own-citation",
          "summary": "The Supplement Facts graphic callout claims PreticX \"improves body composition and blood glucose\". Yang 2015 — Legion's own citation — reports verbatim: \"In Pre-DM, XOS showed a tendency to reduce OGTT 2-h insulin levels (P = 0.13), but had no effect on body composition, HOMA-IR, serum glucose, triglyceride, satiety hormones, and TNFα.\" The overreach is in the label graphic; Legion's body copy on the same page is narrower and defensible.",
          "evidence": "PMID 26300782",
          "source_url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26300782/",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "b420-body-fat-claim-rests-on-a-failed-primary-endpoint",
          "summary": "Legion calls B420 \"one of the most researched probiotic strains for reducing body fat and supporting a leaner body composition\". The pivotal trial Legion cites twice reports, verbatim: \"There were no significant differences between groups in body fat mass in the ITT population.\" The headline result is per-protocol, from 134 of 225 randomised subjects, and it belongs to the B420-plus-polydextrose arm (−4.5%, P = 0.02, N = 37). B420 alone was −3.0%, P = 0.28. Overall ANOVA P = 0.095. The dose matches; the co-ingredient does not — the arm that worked used 12 g/day of polydextrose and Biome contains 1 g/day of xylooligosaccharide.",
          "evidence": "PMID 27810310 · NCT01978691",
          "source_url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27810310/",
          "required_caveat": "The trial's lead and several co-authors were employees of DuPont Nutrition & Health, which owns B420. Industry-funded and industry-authored."
        },
        {
          "code": "boosts-workout-recovery-contradicted-by-both-athlete-trials",
          "summary": "The DE111 label callout claims it \"increases immune cell production and boosts workout recovery\". The female trial states verbatim that probiotic consumption \"had no effect on physical performance but may improve body composition in female Division I soccer and volleyball players\". The male trial states verbatim that supplementation \"had no effect on body composition, performance, hormonal status, or gut permeability\". Neither found a performance effect.",
          "evidence": "PMID 33105368 · PMID 30049931",
          "source_url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30049931/",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "the-one-male-only-de111-trial-was-null",
          "summary": "Twenty-five male Division I baseball athletes, twelve weeks, double-blind placebo-controlled, DE111 at one billion CFU/day — one fifth of Legion's dose. Null across body composition, performance, hormones and gut permeability. The single positive (TNF-α, P = 0.024) is one hit among about seven biochemical markers with no multiplicity adjustment reported. The body-composition benefit Legion's marketing leans on comes from a 23-woman trial. This is the most on-topic finding in the whole product corpus for a men's-probiotic question.",
          "evidence": "PMID 30049931",
          "source_url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30049931/",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "cfu-basis-unstated",
          "summary": "Per-strain CFU is printed with no temporal qualifier. The certificate of analysis proves potency at about one month post-manufacture, 23 months before expiry. No through-expiry guarantee appears on the label, the page or the certificate.",
          "evidence": "Legion-hosted certificate of analysis, lot 411-0676",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "coa-names-no-laboratory-while-marketing-claims-accredited-labs",
          "summary": "The published certificate carries no issuing laboratory name, no accreditation number, no analyst signature and no letterhead — only method codes and internal reference numbers — while Legion's marketing says it \"tests all products for purity and potency in accredited third-party laboratories\".",
          "evidence": "Legion-hosted certificate of analysis, lot 411-0676",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "potency-varies-four-and-a-half-fold-across-lots",
          "summary": "Three CFU measurements of the same product: the manufacturer certificate found 34 billion against a 25 billion claim (lot 411-0676, December 2024); the Labdoor report Legion hosts found 154 billion (lot 0456E4, February 2025); Labdoor's live database found 49.1 billion (lot 0385A6, July 2026). All three are above label, which is the most important fact — nothing is under-dosed. But a 4.5-fold spread tells you how loosely CFU enumeration in a multi-strain product is controlled, and a 616% result does not mean more probiotic for your money: it means the assay and the label are measuring different things.",
          "evidence": "Legion certificate of analysis lot 411-0676 · Labdoor lots 0456E4 and 0385A6",
          "source_url": "https://labdoor.com/review/legion-biome-probiotic",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "legions-own-comparison-table-omits-legions-price",
          "summary": "Legion publishes a comparison table with a \"Price Per Serving\" row listing Transparent Labs $1.53, Garden of Life $1.43 and NOW Foods $1.50. Legion's own cell in that row is empty. Legion's actual price per serving is $1.67 — higher than all three competitors it chose to list. It is the only row in the table where Legion's cell is blank, and the only metric on which Legion loses.",
          "evidence": "legionathletics.com comparison table markup, extracted 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": "https://legionathletics.com/products/supplements/biome-probiotic/",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "citation-eight-is-a-supplement-companys-content-page",
          "summary": "Legion's supporting citation for B420 reducing \"toxic compounds… that can cause inflammation throughout the body\" is, verbatim: \"Science Review: Bifidobacterium lactis 420 Metagenics Institute. Accessed October 16, 2022.\" That is a supplement company's content page, not a study.",
          "evidence": "legionathletics.com reference list, verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        }
      ],
      "could_not_verify": [
        {
          "item": "The CFU basis",
          "why": "Never stated. The published certificate of analysis settles the timing empirically — the CFU assay was run on 10 December 2024, about one month after the 11/2024 manufacture date and 23 months before the 11/2026 expiry, at 34 billion CFU total against a 25 billion label claim, a 36% overage. That strongly implies Legion formulates to hold 25 billion through expiry. But Legion never says so, there is no through-expiry guarantee anywhere, and a buyer holding a bottle twenty months post-manufacture has no stated assurance and no published stability data."
        },
        {
          "item": "The issuing laboratory behind the certificate of analysis",
          "why": "Not named on the document, which also carries no accreditation number, signature or letterhead."
        },
        {
          "item": "The exact subscription discount rate for this SKU",
          "why": "Advertised on-page as \"Save up to 30%\"; the rate for this product was not confirmed."
        },
        {
          "item": "Legion's \"over 60\" and \"over 30\" peer-reviewed study counts for B420 and DE111",
          "why": "PubMed indexes 15 and 12 on the corresponding queries. Supplier dossiers legitimately count conference abstracts, in-vitro work and unpublished reports, so these are overstated rather than fabricated — but as printed next to the words \"peer-reviewed\" on a consumer page they are not reproducible from the public literature."
        }
      ],
      "audit_corrections": [
        {
          "finding": "The PreticX dose finding.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Verified in full and it holds completely. Legion's wording confirmed live; Finegold 2014 re-read (n=32, 1.4 g and 2.8 g/day, with three verbatim quotations confirmed exact including the null on stool pH, SCFA and lactic acid); Yang 2015 re-read (n=29, 2 g/day, NCT01944904, the \"no effect on body composition… serum glucose\" sentence exact). 1,000 mg is below both trialled doses.",
          "evidence": "prod-b-audit.md §4.12"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The B420 and DE111 findings.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Every figure re-checked and exact — n=225, ITT n=209, per-protocol n=134, the verbatim ITT null sentence, −4.5% P=0.02 N=37, B420 alone −3.0% P=0.28, ANOVA P=0.095, and the DuPont affiliations on the author line. Both DE111 athlete trials verified verbatim including the male trial's \"no effect on body composition, performance, hormonal status, or gut permeability\" and its \"authors declare no conflict of interest\".",
          "evidence": "prod-b-audit.md §4.13, §4.14"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The Labdoor verification.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Confirmed at the certifier's own live database, including the score, lot, test date, found and claimed CFU, and every microbiological result. The independence caveats — Amazon Associates disclosure, \"BUY FROM THESE SELLERS\", and an ENTERPRISE footer offering Custom Testing, Certifications and Manufacturer Partners — were confirmed on Labdoor's own pages, as was the \"TOP 1 PROBIOTICS — See our 1 product reports\" line. #1 of 1 is confirmed.",
          "evidence": "prod-b-audit.md §4.11"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown reported an aggregate rating of 4.78 from 301 reviews.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Live figure is 4.7714286 from 305 reviews. Any published rating for this product should be dated.",
          "evidence": "prod-b-audit.md §C13"
        },
        {
          "finding": "Two of the sharpest DE111 and PreticX charges rest on text that appears only in Legion's label PNG.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "The graphic callouts \"boosts workout recovery\" and \"Improves body composition and blood glucose\" are not present in the page HTML — they exist only in the label image. The teardown said so explicitly and correctly; it is repeated here because those two callouts carry the sharpest claims on this page and they rest on image transcription alone. The certificate of analysis is likewise a PNG.",
          "evidence": "prod-b-audit.md §3"
        }
      ],
      "label_evidence": [
        {
          "type": "photo-of-panel",
          "id": "Image-2-Carousel-Suppl-Facts-Biome",
          "url": "https://legionathletics.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Image-2-Carousel-Suppl-Facts-Biome.png",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "The brand's own Supplement Facts PNG, read directly: per-strain designators, per-strain milligrams and per-strain CFU, with supplier trademarks footnoted. Not in DSLD — the brand's own image is the only source. The graphic callouts criticised above exist only in this image."
        },
        {
          "type": "brand-page-capture",
          "id": "legion-biome-pdp-2026-07-30",
          "url": "https://legionathletics.com/products/supplements/biome-probiotic/",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "Live page: $49.99, InStock, the comparison table with the empty price cell, the three \"clinically effective dose\" sentences, and the reference list."
        },
        {
          "type": "photo-of-panel",
          "id": "Biome-COA-Morgan-Walsh",
          "url": "https://legionathletics.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Biome-COA-Morgan-Walsh.png",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "Lot-specific certificate of analysis: lot 411-0676, manufactured 11/2024, expires 11/2026, per-strain CFU assayed 10-Dec-2024, heavy metals and microbials. Names no issuing laboratory."
        }
      ],
      "product_url": "https://legionathletics.com/products/supplements/biome-probiotic/",
      "last_verified": "2026-07-30"
    },
    {
      "slug": "nature-made-probiotics-extra-strength",
      "page_url": "https://bestprobioticformen.com/products/nature-made-probiotics-extra-strength/",
      "brand": "Nature Made",
      "product": "Nature Made Probiotics Extra Strength 15 Billion CFU",
      "cohort": "D27-founding",
      "teardown_complete": true,
      "panel_transcribed": true,
      "marketed_as": "unisex",
      "lead_finding": "Two organisms, both with real strain designators, both with their own CFU count and their own milligram amount — the best disclosure in its batch by a distance. And the brand's own fine print concedes what \"clinically studied\" rests on: studies of LGG \"alone or in combination with other probiotic strains\". There is no randomised trial of this combination.",
      "cfu": {
        "claim_as_printed": "15 Billion CFU (13 billion L. rhamnosus GG, 2 billion B. lactis HN019)",
        "basis": "through-expiry",
        "basis_verbatim": "Formulated to provide at least 13 billion live cells per capsule of Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG and 2 billion live cells per capsule of Bifidobacterium lactis HN019 if continuously stored in a cool, dry place at or below 77°F (25°C) and consumed prior to expiration date. Storage and handling conditions can vary and may affect the total amount of cells delivered at time of consumption."
      },
      "strain_designators": "all-organisms-coded",
      "organism_slots": [
        {
          "slot_index": 1,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus rhamnosus",
          "organism_corrected": "Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus",
          "designator_as_printed": "GG",
          "quantity_as_printed": "13 Billion CFU / 104 mg",
          "resolution": "human-rct",
          "query_run": "\"Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG\" AND randomized controlled trial[pt]",
          "note": "= ATCC 53103. 170 randomised-trial records. The brand assigns it the small-intestine job — relieving occasional gas, bloating, abdominal discomfort and diarrhoea — and that specific claim is where it over-reaches: the strict bloating query returns three trials, of which one is an antibiotic-adjunct study in H. pylori eradication, one is a four-strain mixture run by a manufacturer in diagnosed IBS patients where only borborygmi reached significance individually, and the third (PMID 15472792) is LGG alone in a randomised crossover with a flatulence and bloating scale, and it was null: \"no difference between LGG and placebo could be detected.\"\""
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 2,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium lactis",
          "organism_corrected": "Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis",
          "designator_as_printed": "HN019",
          "quantity_as_printed": "2 Billion CFU / 12 mg",
          "resolution": "human-rct",
          "query_run": "\"Bifidobacterium lactis HN019\" AND randomized controlled trial[pt]",
          "note": "= AGAL NM97/09513, per the trial record. 20 randomised-trial records. This is the rare case where a label dose matches a published trial dose for the exact claimed outcome: the dose-response trial (PMID 21663486, n=100, 14 days) tested 17.2 billion CFU/day and 1.8 billion CFU/day, and the low dose worked — whole-gut transit 60±33 to 41±39 hours, p=0.01, against no change on placebo. Nature Made's 2 billion sits essentially on top of that 1.8 billion low dose. Caveats for balance: a 14-day trial, 64% female with no male subgroup reported, and an author list including Fonterra (HN019's originator) and Danisco/DuPont."
        }
      ],
      "slots_with_human_rct": 2,
      "price": {
        "amount_usd": 28.69,
        "unit": "30-capsule bottle (30 servings, 1 capsule per serving)",
        "cost_per_day_usd": 0.96,
        "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
        "source_url": "https://www.naturemade.com/products/probiotics-extra-strength-capsules"
      },
      "price_note": null,
      "certifications": [
        {
          "programme": "None claimed for this SKU",
          "status": "not-checked",
          "register_url": null,
          "checked_on": null,
          "detail": "Notable precisely because Nature Made carries USP Verified marks on many of its products — this probiotic does not display one, on either the page or the label. A scripted search of the product page found exactly one occurrence of the string \"USP\", inside a bot-detection script, not a certification claim. What is claimed is first-party: \"Encapsulated and quality tested in the USA. Made to our guaranteed purity and potency standards\" — Nature Made's own standard, not an external certifier's."
        },
        {
          "programme": "\"#1 Pharmacist Recommended Vitamin & Supplement Brand\"",
          "status": "not-checked",
          "register_url": null,
          "checked_on": null,
          "detail": "Footnoted only as \"Based on a survey of pharmacists who recommend branded vitamins and supplements\" — no survey name, no fielding year, no sample size, no sponsor disclosure. A brand-level marketing award claim, not a product quality certification, and it should never be presented as the latter."
        }
      ],
      "womens_comparison": {
        "status": "no-womens-sku",
        "womens_product": null,
        "differences": [],
        "shared": [],
        "required_caveat": null,
        "evidence": null,
        "checked_on": null
      },
      "findings": [
        {
          "code": "clinically-studied-where-no-study-used-this-formulation",
          "summary": "The lead sentence calls these \"clinically studied probiotic supplements\". The brand's own ‡ footnote, on the same page, reads verbatim: \"Based on publicly available information. Includes studies that use Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG alone or in combination with other probiotic strains.\" Independently confirmed: the query \"rhamnosus GG\" AND \"HN019\" AND randomized returns zero. There is no randomised trial of the 13-billion LGG plus 2-billion HN019 combination. Each strain is well studied alone; the product as formulated has never been tested.",
          "evidence": "Nature Made ‡ footnote, quoted verbatim · PubMed query returning 0, re-run 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": "https://www.naturemade.com/products/probiotics-extra-strength-capsules",
          "required_caveat": "The unusual wrinkle is that the brand documents this rather than hiding it. A hostile dietitian will hold the footnote up; an honest reviewer should note that Nature Made wrote it down, which most of this category does not."
        },
        {
          "code": "guaranteed-on-the-website-formulated-to-provide-on-the-label",
          "summary": "The label footnote says the product is \"formulated to provide at least\" 13 billion and 2 billion live cells — a formulation statement conditioned on storage, not a potency guarantee. The website upgrades this to the flat assertion \"No refrigeration required: Guaranteed potency until expiration\". The word \"Guaranteed\" appears in the marketing and not in the footnote it points at.",
          "evidence": "Brand back-label render versus naturemade.com product page, both verified 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "lgg-gas-and-bloating-claim-over-reaches",
          "summary": "The page assigns LGG the job of relieving occasional gas, bloating, abdominal discomfort and diarrhoea in the small intestine. The strict bloating query returns three trials: an antibiotic-adjunct study in H. pylori eradication whose own conclusion is that probiotic supplementation did not significantly reduce new or aggravated symptoms; a four-strain mixture in diagnosed IBS run by a manufacturer's research centre, where only borborygmi was individually significant; and a randomised crossover of LGG alone with a flatulence and bloating scale that found no difference from placebo. Directionally defensible, materially over-stated.",
          "evidence": "PMID 23838939 · PMID 16128676 · PMID 15472792",
          "source_url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15472792/",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "two-storage-thresholds",
          "summary": "77°F (25°C) on the label, 75°F (23°C) in the on-page FAQ — and storage is the exact variable the potency footnote is conditioned on.",
          "evidence": "Brand back-label render versus naturemade.com FAQ, both verified 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "pharmacist-recommended-badge-with-an-unnamed-survey",
          "summary": "\"#1 Pharmacist Recommended Vitamin & Supplement Brand*\" footnoted only as \"Based on a survey of pharmacists who recommend branded vitamins and supplements\". No survey name, no year, no sample size, no sponsor.",
          "evidence": "naturemade.com product page, verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "no-third-party-certification-on-a-usp-brand",
          "summary": "The absence is notable precisely because Nature Made verifies many other SKUs with USP. This one carries no USP mark on the page or the label.",
          "evidence": "naturemade.com product page string search, verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "no-dsld-record",
          "summary": "The UPC returns zero hits in the NIH Dietary Supplement Label Database, so the panel has no government-transcribed copy and the brand's own render is the sole source.",
          "evidence": "DSLD UPC query, re-run 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "not-a-mens-product",
          "summary": "The brand says so itself: \"These mens and womens probiotics work in both the small and large intestines…\", and the Amazon listing is titled \"Probiotics for Women and Men\". Nature Made's 194-product catalogue contains men's and women's multivitamins but no gendered probiotic in either direction.",
          "evidence": "naturemade.com product page and products.json, 194 products, fetched 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        }
      ],
      "could_not_verify": [
        {
          "item": "The \"#1 Pharmacist Recommended\" survey",
          "why": "Unnamed, undated, unsized, sponsor undisclosed."
        },
        {
          "item": "Any government label record",
          "why": "None exists — the UPC returns zero hits in DSLD, so the panel rests on the brand's own 1800x1800 back-label render, read directly and independently re-read during the audit. Brand-filtered DSLD returns eight Nature Made probiotic records, none of them this SKU."
        },
        {
          "item": "Which storage temperature governs",
          "why": "The label specifies at or below 77°F (25°C); the on-page FAQ says at or below 75°F (23°C). Two different thresholds from the same brand for the same product. Note the 77°F figure is also a website footnote, so this is a footnote-versus-FAQ inconsistency rather than a label-versus-web one."
        }
      ],
      "audit_corrections": [
        {
          "finding": "The teardown's finding that this SKU has no DSLD record.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Confirmed. Brand-filtered DSLD returns eight Nature Made probiotic records and none is Probiotics Extra Strength. The batch-level claim that none of three products in this batch had a DSLD record was wrong — Sports Research does — but for this product the absence holds.",
          "evidence": "prod-c-audit.md §F1"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The entire label transcription and every quoted marketing string.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Re-read off the brand's own 1800x1800 back-label render and verified verbatim, including both footnotes, the \"Guaranteed potency until expiration\" website line, the small-and-large-intestine claim sentence, the \"#1 Pharmacist Recommended\" badge and its footnote, and the 77°F versus 75°F inconsistency on both surfaces. The single \"USP\" occurrence was confirmed as sitting inside a bot-detection user-agent regex, not a certification claim. Prices and subscription intervals confirmed live.",
          "evidence": "prod-c-audit.md §S5"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown said both retrievable LGG bloating trials had been fetched and read.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "A third hit was retrievable and is a null result: PMID 15472792, LGG alone, randomised placebo-controlled crossover, visual analogue scale covering flatulence and bloating, \"no difference between LGG and placebo could be detected\". Omitting it understated the case. It is included above. The audit also notes that PMID 23838939's own conclusion is negative, which the teardown's table did not mention; that too is now included.",
          "evidence": "prod-c-audit.md §C3"
        }
      ],
      "label_evidence": [
        {
          "type": "photo-of-panel",
          "id": "NM_3011_PK002685_EXTRA_STRENGTH_PROBIOTICS_back",
          "url": "https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0066/7569/3639/files/NM_3011_PK002685_EXTRA_STRENGTH_PROBIOTICS_back.jpg",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "The brand's own back-label render, read at 1800x1800 with the Supplement Facts and the ♦ footnote both fully legible, and independently re-read during the audit. There is no DSLD record for this SKU."
        },
        {
          "type": "brand-page-capture",
          "id": "naturemade-extra-strength-pdp-2026-07-30",
          "url": "https://www.naturemade.com/products/probiotics-extra-strength-capsules",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "Live page: item 3011, $28.69, subscribe $25.82, the ‡ footnote, the \"Guaranteed potency\" marketing line and the 75°F FAQ figure."
        }
      ],
      "product_url": "https://www.naturemade.com/products/probiotics-extra-strength-capsules",
      "last_verified": "2026-07-30"
    },
    {
      "slug": "nature-target-probiotics-for-men",
      "page_url": "https://bestprobioticformen.com/products/nature-target-probiotics-for-men/",
      "brand": "Nature Target",
      "product": "Nature Target Probiotics for Men, 60 Billion CFU, 14 Strains (90 Tablets)",
      "cohort": "D27-founding",
      "teardown_complete": true,
      "panel_transcribed": true,
      "marketed_as": "marketed-to-men",
      "lead_finding": "The number \"60 billion CFU\" appears nowhere on the Supplement Facts panel. The panel quantifies all fourteen organisms in milligrams of powder — 684 mg in total — and the CFU claim lives only on the marketing badge, the bottle front and the product title.",
      "cfu": {
        "claim_as_printed": null,
        "basis": "no-cfu-number",
        "basis_verbatim": null
      },
      "strain_designators": "none",
      "organism_slots": [
        {
          "slot_index": 1,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus fermentum",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": "160 mg",
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "The largest single line on the panel at 160 mg — of powder. Milligrams of freeze-dried biomass tell you nothing about how many organisms are alive."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 2,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus plantarum",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": "60 mg",
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 3,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium animalis",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": "60 mg",
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "Listed as a separate line item from \"Bifidobacterium lactis\" further down the panel. They are the same taxon — B. lactis is B. animalis subsp. lactis — so this pair inflates the strain count by one."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 4,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus rhamnosus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": "60 mg",
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 5,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus paracasei",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": "60 mg",
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 6,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus acidophilus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": "60 mg",
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 7,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium infantis",
          "organism_corrected": "Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis",
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": "60 mg",
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "A subspecies of B. longum, counted as a distinct entry. A defensible count for this panel is 13 distinct species, not the 14 in the product title, URL, H1 and page title tag."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 8,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus crispatus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": "54 mg",
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "The dominant species of the healthy vaginal microbiome and the signature ingredient of women's vaginal-health probiotics. It is the eighth-largest component of a men's product."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 9,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus helveticus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": "30 mg",
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 10,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium lactis",
          "organism_corrected": "Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis",
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": "20 mg",
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 11,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium breve",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": "20 mg",
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 12,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus salivarius",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": "20 mg",
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 13,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus bulgaricus",
          "organism_corrected": "Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus",
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": "10 mg",
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 14,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus reuteri",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": "10 mg",
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        }
      ],
      "slots_with_human_rct": 0,
      "price": {
        "amount_usd": 16.99,
        "unit": "90-tablet bottle (45 servings, 2 tablets per serving)",
        "cost_per_day_usd": 0.38,
        "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
        "source_url": "https://www.naturaltarget.us/products/nature-target-probiotics-for-men-90-tablets"
      },
      "price_note": null,
      "certifications": [
        {
          "programme": "Non-GMO Project Verified",
          "status": "register-unreachable",
          "register_url": "https://www.nongmoproject.org/find-non-gmo/",
          "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
          "detail": "Claimed on the website, verbatim: \"The formulas of men probiotic are Non GMO Project verified, NSF certified, gluten free, and soy free.\" The certifier's register could not be queried — /find-verified-products/, /find-by-product/ and /verified-products/ all return 404 and the site search returns 403. What is checkable is the label itself: the seals printed on the brand's own Supplement Facts image are GLUTEN FREE / SOY FREE / NON GMO / DOCTOR FORMULATED / PREMIUM QUALITY, with no Non-GMO Project butterfly mark. \"NON GMO\" as plain text is a self-claim; \"Non-GMO Project Verified\" is a licensed mark."
        },
        {
          "programme": "NSF certified",
          "status": "register-unreachable",
          "register_url": "https://www.nsf.org/",
          "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
          "detail": "Claimed on the website. No NSF mark appears on the product's own Supplement Facts image, and NSF's database did not return retrievable listings. Could neither be confirmed nor refuted."
        },
        {
          "programme": "\"Tested by 3rd-party\"",
          "status": "not-checked",
          "register_url": null,
          "checked_on": null,
          "detail": "No certificate of analysis, no laboratory named, no batch lookup offered. There is nothing to check."
        },
        {
          "programme": "GMP-certified facility",
          "status": "not-checked",
          "register_url": null,
          "checked_on": null,
          "detail": "No certifying body named. cGMP is a facility requirement under 21 CFR Part 111, legally mandatory for every US supplement manufacturer — a floor, not a distinction."
        },
        {
          "programme": "\"DOCTOR FORMULATED\" / \"PREMIUM QUALITY\" roundels",
          "status": "not-checked",
          "register_url": null,
          "checked_on": null,
          "detail": "Not certifications. Decorative roundels styled to read as seals, printed on the brand's own panel image."
        }
      ],
      "womens_comparison": {
        "status": "diffed",
        "womens_product": "Nature Target Women's Probiotics 60B CFUs + Cranberry & D-Mannose (90 Tablets)",
        "differences": [
          {
            "statement": "The men's product costs $16.99 and the women's $15.99 — men pay $1.00 more for the version with no sex-specific active.",
            "evidence": "Live Shopify JSON for both SKUs, fetched 2026-07-30"
          },
          {
            "statement": "The women's product names cranberry and D-Mannose on its front panel as headline components. The men's product has no men-specific active of any kind — no saw palmetto, no lycopene, no zinc, no pumpkin seed, no selenium.",
            "evidence": "Both product pages, fetched 2026-07-30"
          },
          {
            "statement": "The men's formula nonetheless contains D-Mannose, buried in Other Ingredients — the brand's own women's urinary-health ingredient — and Lactobacillus crispatus, the dominant healthy-vaginal-microbiome species, at 54 mg on the panel.",
            "evidence": "Brand Supplement Facts panel image, men's SKU"
          }
        ],
        "shared": [
          "Same 60 billion CFU claim, same 14-strain claim, same 90 tablets, same 2-tablet serving.",
          "Same mg-denominated 14-row panel structure."
        ],
        "required_caveat": "The women's panel could not be resolved at row level from the available image, so row-by-row equivalence between the two formulas is not established. The structural comparison — same 14-row milligram panel plus cranberry and D-mannose rows — is what is supported. Note also that the brand's own catalogue dominates this SKU: Nature Target sells Men's Probiotics 100B CFUs / 20 Strains / + Saw Palmetto 200 mg at $14.99 — more CFU, more strains, the botanical this SKU lacks, and two dollars cheaper.",
        "evidence": "Live Shopify JSON and both product pages, fetched 2026-07-30",
        "checked_on": "2026-07-30"
      },
      "findings": [
        {
          "code": "panel-denominated-in-milligrams-not-cfu",
          "summary": "Serving size 2 tablets, 45 servings. Every one of the fourteen organisms is quantified in milligrams of powder, totalling 684 mg. The number \"60 billion CFU\" does not appear anywhere in the Supplement Facts box — it appears only on the badge outside the panel, on the product title and on the bottle front. Milligrams of freeze-dried biomass are a weight of material blended with carriers; they tell you nothing about how many organisms are alive, and they are the standard way to make a potency claim the label is not accountable for.",
          "evidence": "Brand Supplement Facts panel image, read directly 2026-07-28",
          "source_url": "https://www.naturaltarget.us/cdn/shop/files/NATURE-TARGET-Probiotics-for-Men-with-Men-Care-Supplement-90-Tablets-Nature-Target-538-_2.png",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "through-expiry-impression-with-no-number-attached",
          "summary": "The label graphic carries a badge reading \"HIGH POTENCY — Until Expiration\". That is a badge in the marketing frame surrounding the Supplement Facts box, not a statement inside the panel, and it is attached to a CFU number the panel never states. The consumer-friendly-sounding claim without the accountable number.",
          "evidence": "Brand Supplement Facts panel image, read directly 2026-07-28",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "no-men-specific-ingredient-at-all",
          "summary": "No saw palmetto, no lycopene, no zinc, no pumpkin seed, no selenium. The entire \"for men\" proposition is the word Men's on the label and a blue colourway — while the formula contains D-Mannose and L. crispatus, both of which are the brand's own women's ingredients.",
          "evidence": "Brand Supplement Facts panel image versus the women's product page",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "priced-above-the-womens-version",
          "summary": "$16.99 against $15.99 for identical CFU, identical claimed strain count, identical format and identical dosing.",
          "evidence": "Live Shopify JSON for both SKUs, fetched 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "dominated-by-the-brands-own-cheaper-mens-sku",
          "summary": "Nature Target also sells Men's Probiotics 100B CFUs / 20 Strains / + Saw Palmetto 200 mg at $14.99 — more CFU, more strains, the botanical this SKU lacks, and cheaper.",
          "evidence": "Live Shopify JSON, fetched 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "harvard-and-mgh-authority-claim",
          "summary": "Verbatim from the product page: \"Nature Target R&D scientist team are from outstanding scientists in Harvard Medical School and the doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital.\" No individual is named anywhere on the site — no title, no affiliation letter, no institutional confirmation.",
          "evidence": "naturaltarget.us product page, verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": "What is checkable here is a negative about the site itself: no scientist is named anywhere on it. This site does not assert the claim is false — only that it is unverifiable as published."
        },
        {
          "code": "disease-claims",
          "summary": "\"Relieves Constipation & Diarrhea\" with no \"occasional\" hedge; \"Bifidobacterium can build a good immune system and limit the growth of harmful ones in the intestine, which is greatly helpful for IBS\"; \"Probiotics for Weight Loss — Burn Fat & Reduce Bulge\" and \"accelerate lipolysis\"; \"Research has shown that men's probiotics tablet can be a natural way to improve men's mental health and mood\", cited to unnamed research.",
          "evidence": "naturaltarget.us product page, all quotes verified verbatim live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "fda-approved-trust-badge",
          "summary": "The site header carries \"FDA-Approved\" as a trust badge. Dietary supplements are not FDA-approved. FDA does not approve dietary supplements before they go on sale.",
          "evidence": "naturaltarget.us site header, verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "clinically-proven-strains-with-no-strain-named",
          "summary": "\"14 clinically recognized probiotic strains\" on the site and \"14 CLINICALLY PROVEN STRAINS\" on the same product family's badge, for a panel with zero strain designators. Unfalsifiable by construction.",
          "evidence": "Brand Supplement Facts panel image and product page",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "contains-lactose-in-an-ibs-and-bloating-product",
          "summary": "Lactose is in Other Ingredients, in a product marketed on relieving constipation, diarrhoea, bloating and gas and described as \"greatly helpful for IBS\". Lactose is a FODMAP and a common trigger for exactly those symptoms. The amount is undisclosed. The site claims gluten free and soy free; lactose free is conspicuously not claimed, while the competing GNC product is labelled lactose free and DRFOSTER prints \"No Lactose\".",
          "evidence": "Brand Supplement Facts panel image, read directly 2026-07-28",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "patented-bottle-with-no-patent-number",
          "summary": "\"Patented protective bottle and cap technology\", with no patent number given.",
          "evidence": "naturaltarget.us product page, verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "no-dsld-record-for-this-sku",
          "summary": "The probiotic SKU has no NIH Dietary Supplement Label Database record, so there is no government-transcribed copy of this panel. The brand does have exactly one DSLD record — for an unrelated CoQ10 product.",
          "evidence": "DSLD brand query, re-run 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "brand-domain-mismatch",
          "summary": "The brand is given as \"Nature Target\"; the domain is naturaltarget.us. The URL resolves 200 and the inconsistency is unexplained.",
          "evidence": "naturaltarget.us, verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        }
      ],
      "could_not_verify": [
        {
          "item": "Whether the brand holds Non-GMO Project verification or NSF certification",
          "why": "Both issuers' registers were unreachable — Non-GMO Project 404 on every product-finder path and 403 on site search, NSF returning no retrievable listings. Neither claim can be confirmed or refuted. What is checkable is that neither mark appears on the brand's own label image."
        },
        {
          "item": "The women's SKU's panel at row level",
          "why": "Visible on the box image but not legible at the available resolution."
        },
        {
          "item": "The review star histogram and the spam entries",
          "why": "The review widget is JavaScript-rendered. The headline \"4.7 ( 127 Reviews )\" was confirmed; the claimed distribution of 92 five-star, 35 four-star and zero below four stars, and the individual spam reviews, were not independently rendered. A strong claim about a named seller's review integrity should not be published on an unrendered widget."
        },
        {
          "item": "Subscription cancellation terms",
          "why": "Not audited."
        },
        {
          "item": "The 200 mg figure on the \"200 MGS Prebiotic Blend\" badge",
          "why": "The panel does not quantify polydextrose at all; it sits in Other Ingredients."
        }
      ],
      "audit_corrections": [
        {
          "finding": "The teardown concluded \"No 'Nature Target' brand found in Non-GMO Project listings\", red-flagged it at the highest severity, and instructed that the claim was safe to report as unfound.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Reversed. Its own stated evidence was that the product-finder path returned 404 — and a 404 means the search never ran. The audit reproduced this from four angles: /find-verified-products/ 404, /find-by-product/ 404, /verified-products/ 404, site search 403. The register is unreachable to automated access and there is no basis for an absence finding. Correct status: brand-asserted, unverified. Publishing an implication that a certification mark is unbacked, when the certifier's register was never actually queried, is the highest-risk sentence available here. What survives and is published above is the label observation: no butterfly mark on the panel.",
          "evidence": "prod-b-audit.md §C1"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown said the brand is not in the NIH DSLD and has no US label-registry footprint.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "The brand is in DSLD — one record, for a Nature Target CoQ10 400 mg product. The correct statement, published above, is narrower: the probiotic SKU has no DSLD record.",
          "evidence": "prod-b-audit.md §C4"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown quoted the page as claiming \"100% Natural\".",
          "what_the_audit_did": "The page says \"100% Nature\". Corrected before use inside quotation marks.",
          "evidence": "prod-b-audit.md §4.24"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown published a review distribution of 127 reviews with 92 five-star, 35 four-star and none below four stars, plus specific spam entries.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "The review widget is JavaScript-rendered and could not be reproduced. The headline 4.7 across 127 reviews was confirmed; the histogram and the individual spam entries were not. Held back rather than published — this is a strong claim about a named seller's review integrity.",
          "evidence": "prod-b-audit.md §3, §5"
        },
        {
          "finding": "A finding the teardown missed.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "The site header carries \"FDA-Approved\" as a trust badge. Dietary supplements are not FDA-approved. The audit judged this arguably a harder violation than anything in the teardown's own claims section; it is published above.",
          "evidence": "prod-b-audit.md §4.24"
        }
      ],
      "label_evidence": [
        {
          "type": "photo-of-panel",
          "id": "NATURE-TARGET-Probiotics-for-Men-with-Men-Care-Supplement-90-Tablets-538-2",
          "url": "https://www.naturaltarget.us/cdn/shop/files/NATURE-TARGET-Probiotics-for-Men-with-Men-Care-Supplement-90-Tablets-Nature-Target-538-_2.png",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-28",
          "note": "The brand's own Supplement Facts image, read directly. Alt text: \"Nature Target Probiotics for Men Ingredient Information\". There is no DSLD record for this SKU, so this image is the only source for the panel."
        },
        {
          "type": "brand-page-capture",
          "id": "naturaltarget-mens-pdp-2026-07-30",
          "url": "https://www.naturaltarget.us/products/nature-target-probiotics-for-men-90-tablets",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "Live page and Shopify JSON: $16.99, subscribe $14.44, compare-at $20.99, all claims quoted verbatim and re-confirmed during the audit."
        }
      ],
      "product_url": "https://www.naturaltarget.us/products/nature-target-probiotics-for-men-90-tablets",
      "last_verified": "2026-07-30"
    },
    {
      "slug": "natures-bounty-probiotic-10",
      "page_url": "https://bestprobioticformen.com/products/natures-bounty-probiotic-10/",
      "brand": "Nature's Bounty",
      "product": "Nature's Bounty Probiotic 10 (Ultra Strength)",
      "cohort": "D27-founding",
      "teardown_complete": true,
      "panel_transcribed": true,
      "marketed_as": "unisex",
      "lead_finding": "The current label states no CFU basis at all — and the brand's own archived labels did. Both the 2015 and 2016 government records say \"20 billion active cultures per serving guaranteed at time of manufacture\". The disclosure was removed rather than upgraded, and what was removed was the consumer-unfavourable answer.",
      "cfu": {
        "claim_as_printed": "20 Billion Live Cultures CFU (Proprietary Probiotic Blend, 170 mg)",
        "basis": "none-stated",
        "basis_verbatim": "The current panel reads only \"Which contains 20 Billion Live Cultures CFU\". A full-text scan of the live page for \"manufactur\", \"expir\", \"guarant\" and \"potency\" returns only \"Carefully Manufactured by NATURE'S BOUNTY, INC.\" and a corporate satisfaction-guarantee footer link."
      },
      "strain_designators": "all-organisms-coded",
      "organism_slots": [
        {
          "slot_index": 1,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus plantarum 299v",
          "organism_corrected": "Lactiplantibacillus plantarum",
          "designator_as_printed": "Lp299v (DSM 9843)",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "human-rct",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "The strongest single-strain evidence in its batch: 27 randomised-trial records, including PMID 22912552 (Ducrotte 2012, n=214, Rome III IBS, four weeks, pain severity 0.68±0.53 against 0.92±0.57, P<0.05). Probi AB strain, trademark acknowledged on the label."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 2,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus paracasei",
          "organism_corrected": "Lacticaseibacillus paracasei",
          "designator_as_printed": "8700:2 (DSM 13434)",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "human-rct",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "Trialled only paired with HEAL9 (PMID 33296464). The label prints \"DSM 8700:2\", conflating the strain name with the deposit number — 8700:2 is the strain, DSM 13434 is the deposit."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 3,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus plantarum",
          "organism_corrected": "Lactiplantibacillus plantarum",
          "designator_as_printed": "HEAL9 (DSM 15312)",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "human-rct",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "Eight randomised-trial records. PMID 32687924 tested it as a single strain in acute stress; PMIDs 33296464 and 31734734 paired it with 8700:2."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 4,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus acidophilus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "La-14",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "human-rct",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "PMID 18422632."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 5,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus brevis",
          "organism_corrected": "Levilactobacillus brevis",
          "designator_as_printed": "Lbr-35",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-records",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "No human trial. The single title/abstract hit, PMID 34488774, is a transcriptomics and in-vitro paper authored by IFF Health & Biosciences scientists."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 6,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus casei",
          "organism_corrected": "Lacticaseibacillus casei",
          "designator_as_printed": "Lc-11",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "human-rct",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "Mixtures only — PMIDs 31250099 and 34111674."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 7,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium lactis",
          "organism_corrected": "Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis",
          "designator_as_printed": "Bl-04",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "human-rct",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "PMID 18422632."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 8,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus paracasei",
          "organism_corrected": "Lacticaseibacillus paracasei",
          "designator_as_printed": "Lpc-37",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "human-rct",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "PMIDs 36235651, 35634695, 38842655."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 9,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus salivarius",
          "organism_corrected": "Ligilactobacillus salivarius",
          "designator_as_printed": "Ls-33",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "human-rct",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "PMID 23510724 — randomised, and null on its clinical outcome."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 10,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus bulgaricus",
          "organism_corrected": "Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus",
          "designator_as_printed": "Lb-87",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-records",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "No human trial. The single title/abstract hit, PMID 31189434, is titled \"Impact of a workplace holiday weight gain prevention program\" — a wholly unrelated false positive."
        }
      ],
      "slots_with_human_rct": 8,
      "price": null,
      "price_note": "No verifiable US price exists. Nature's Bounty does not sell direct — naturesbounty.com is a \"where to buy\" catalogue whose Shopify products.json returns a price of 0.00 for all 186 products. Retailer verification failed across the board: Walmart served a CAPTCHA interstitial, the Walgreens product page failed to connect and its category page renders prices in JavaScript, Vitacost redirected to an unrelated product, and Brookshire's, Stop & Shop, Pavilions, Target and iHerb all failed or served no price in HTML. A search-engine snippet reported $29.99 for 30 count at one retailer; that page could not be opened to confirm it, so the figure is not published. This product cannot be ranked on cost per day, and saying so is better than importing a snippet.",
      "certifications": [
        {
          "programme": "None claimed",
          "status": "not-checked",
          "register_url": null,
          "checked_on": null,
          "detail": "No third-party certification of any kind is claimed for this product. What is claimed is first-party: \"Guaranteed Quality / Laboratory Tested\", with no laboratory named, no certifier, no certificate and no methodology. Site copy reads \"TESTING, TESTING Every single month\" with nothing behind it. \"Non-GMO\" is self-asserted with no Non-GMO Project butterfly and no verifying body."
        }
      ],
      "womens_comparison": {
        "status": "no-womens-sku",
        "womens_product": null,
        "differences": [],
        "shared": [],
        "required_caveat": null,
        "evidence": null,
        "checked_on": null
      },
      "findings": [
        {
          "code": "cfu-basis-removed-not-upgraded",
          "summary": "The current label and product page state no CFU basis anywhere. Both archived government records state one, verbatim: \"20 billion active cultures per serving guaranteed at time of manufacture\". The historically documented basis is the consumer-unfavourable one, and the disclosure has since been deleted rather than improved.",
          "evidence": "DSLD 49498 · DSLD 62743",
          "source_url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/49498",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "proprietary-blend-hides-the-best-evidenced-strain",
          "summary": "Twenty billion CFU across ten strains in a single 170 mg line with no per-strain split. This product carries the strongest strain-evidence profile in its batch — Lp299v alone has 27 randomised-trial records including a 214-patient IBS trial — and the blend makes it impossible to confirm that Lp299v is present at the dose that produced them.",
          "evidence": "Live Supplement Facts panel, verified 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "ultra-strength-redeemed-by-a-strain-count-footnote",
          "summary": "\"Ultra Strength†\" where the dagger reads \"Compared to single strain probiotics\". The phrase implies potency; the footnote reveals it means only \"more strains than a one-strain product\". Twenty billion is mid-range, and NOW's 25 billion costs less. The comparator is chosen to make the claim unfalsifiable.",
          "evidence": "naturesbounty.com product page, verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "upper-respiratory-claim-rests-on-a-failed-primary-endpoint",
          "summary": "\"Contributes to Digestive, Immune and Upper Respiratory Health\" traces to PMID 33296464 — n=898, twelve weeks, three cold seasons, 10^9 CFU/day. Its primary endpoint was symptom severity on WURSS-21, and the paper states verbatim: \"Symptom severity was not reduced after intake of the probiotic, despite the positive trend seen in the first season.\" The significant result is a secondary endpoint: mean colds 1.24 against 1.36, P=0.044 — a difference of 0.12 colds per person over twelve weeks, roughly one fewer cold per eight people per season. Two supporting secondaries were null (recurring colds P=0.055, analgesic use P=0.07).",
          "evidence": "PMID 33296464",
          "source_url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33296464/",
          "required_caveat": "Four of the five authors are employees of Probi AB, the company that owns and sells the strains; the fifth is a university co-author at Lund. Any page repeating \"clinically studied for immune support\" without the failed primary endpoint, the 0.12-cold effect size, the two null secondaries and the authorship is misleading its readers."
        },
        {
          "code": "clinically-studied-strains-is-false-for-two-of-them",
          "summary": "The label statement \"Contains clinically studied strains\" is true for Lp299v, HEAL9, 8700:2, La-14, Bl-04, Lpc-37 and Ls-33 — and false for Lbr-35 and Lb-87, which have zero human trials. Their sole PubMed hits are an in-vitro transcriptomics paper by IFF authors and a workplace weight-gain prevention programme.",
          "evidence": "DSLD 62743 label statement · PubMed queries re-run 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/62743",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "laboratory-tested-with-no-laboratory",
          "summary": "\"Guaranteed Quality / Laboratory Tested\" with no laboratory named, no certifier, no certificate and no methodology. No third-party certification of any kind is claimed for this product.",
          "evidence": "naturesbounty.com product page, verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "delivers-additional-good-bacteria-is-a-tautology",
          "summary": "\"Lp299v… This clinically studied strain delivers additional good bacteria to your system.\" Delivering additional good bacteria describes swallowing a probiotic. It is not an outcome.",
          "evidence": "DSLD 62743",
          "source_url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/62743",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "deposit-number-conflated-with-strain-name",
          "summary": "The live panel prints \"Lactobacillus paracasei DSM 8700:2\". 8700:2 is the strain name; its DSM deposit number is 13434. Minor, but it is a printed error on a Supplement Facts panel from a Nestlé Health Science brand.",
          "evidence": "Live Supplement Facts panel versus DSLD 62743",
          "source_url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/62743",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "allergen-profile-changed-twice",
          "summary": "\"Contains milk ingredients\" on the 2015 label, \"Contains soy ingredients\" on the 2016 label, neither on the current one. Anyone relying on a cached review for allergen safety would be wrong.",
          "evidence": "DSLD 49498 · DSLD 62743",
          "source_url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/49498",
          "required_caveat": null
        }
      ],
      "could_not_verify": [
        {
          "item": "Any US price",
          "why": "See the price note. Eight retailer verification attempts failed."
        },
        {
          "item": "Whether Lp299v is present at its trialled dose",
          "why": "Not determinable. All ten strains share one undisclosed 20 billion CFU line in 170 mg. If the 20 billion were split evenly each strain would be 2 billion, and whether that clears Lp299v's trialled dose is unverified — the Ducrotte and Niedzielin abstracts specify \"one capsule daily\" and a liquid suspension respectively without stating CFU, and full text was not obtained. The commonly cited 10^10 CFU/day figure is not asserted from memory. For the Probi immune pair the dose IS recoverable and is reassuring: the trial states a total daily dose of 10^9 CFU with the two strains equally represented, so an even ten-way split of 20 billion would put HEAL9 and 8700:2 comfortably above their trialled dose. \"Probably\" is as far as a proprietary blend permits anyone to go, and that is the whole cost of the blend."
        },
        {
          "item": "What laboratory performs the \"Laboratory Tested\" testing",
          "why": "None is named, and no certificate is published."
        }
      ],
      "audit_corrections": [
        {
          "finding": "The teardown stated three times, including in its \"findings most worth leading with\", that all five authors of PMID 33296464 are affiliated to Probi AB.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "It is four of five. Hillman M is at the Department of Clinical Sciences, Lund University. This is a conflict-of-interest accusation naming real academics, and it is corrected everywhere it appears: four of the five authors are employees of Probi AB, the company that owns and sells the strains; the fifth is a university co-author. The corrected form is still strong.",
          "evidence": "prod-b-audit.md §C2"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown attributed the at-manufacture quotation to DSLD 62743 as a label statement.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "It is verbatim correct but lives in the ingredient-row note on that record rather than in the statements block. On DSLD 49498 it is a label statement. Immaterial to the finding, noted so a fact-checker does not come up empty.",
          "evidence": "prod-b-audit.md §C14"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown could not price this product and declined to publish a snippet figure.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "The right call, and it stands. Eight retailer verification attempts failed. This product cannot be ranked on cost per day.",
          "evidence": "prod-b-audit.md §4.8"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The strain-evidence and label-history findings.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Verified in full at DSLD. Record 62743 (2016) confirms L. paracasei DSM 13434 and L. plantarum DSM 15312, confirming the 8700:2 and HEAL9 mapping, and the at-manufacture blend note verbatim. Record 49498 (2015) confirms the 393 mg blend plus 200 mg inulin, the species-only strain list with zero designators — so the \"label got substantially better\" credit is earned — and the allergen progression. The Lp299v count of 27 randomised-trial records and every figure in the Ducrotte trial are exact, and the refusal to assert the 10^10 CFU/day figure from the abstract is correct and preserved.",
          "evidence": "prod-b-audit.md §4.8, §4.10"
        }
      ],
      "label_evidence": [
        {
          "type": "brand-page-capture",
          "id": "naturesbounty-probiotic10-pdp-2026-07-30",
          "url": "https://naturesbounty.com/products/probiotic-10-30-capsules",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "The live product page carrying the current one-capsule, 170 mg, 20 billion CFU panel with all ten designators — and no CFU basis anywhere."
        },
        {
          "type": "dsld",
          "id": "62743",
          "url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/62743",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "The 2016 label, entered 2016-07-25, UPC 0 74312 58162 5, 140 count, two-capsule serving. Carries the at-manufacture guarantee the current label has dropped, and the DSM deposit numbers behind the 8700:2 and HEAL9 marketing names."
        },
        {
          "type": "dsld",
          "id": "49498",
          "url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/49498",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "The 2015 label, entered 2015-08-25, UPC 0 74312 31644 9, 60 count. Species-only, zero strain designators, 393 mg blend plus 200 mg inulin — the baseline against which the label's later improvement is measured."
        }
      ],
      "product_url": "https://naturesbounty.com/products/probiotic-10-30-capsules",
      "last_verified": "2026-07-30"
    },
    {
      "slug": "now-foods-probiotic-10",
      "page_url": "https://bestprobioticformen.com/products/now-foods-probiotic-10/",
      "brand": "NOW Foods",
      "product": "NOW Foods Probiotic-10, 25 Billion",
      "cohort": "D27-founding",
      "teardown_complete": true,
      "panel_transcribed": true,
      "marketed_as": "unisex",
      "lead_finding": "NOW is the only product in its batch with a falsifiable potency guarantee — a number bound to a date — and it silently swapped one of its ten strains. The Bifidobacterium breve went from Bb-03 to Bb-18 between the 2017 label and the current one, same product name, no notice, and the replacement has zero PubMed records of any kind.",
      "cfu": {
        "claim_as_printed": "25 Billion CFU (Blend of 10 Strains, 160 mg)",
        "basis": "through-expiry",
        "basis_verbatim": "This product is formulated to deliver a potency of 25 billion CFU through the Best By date."
      },
      "strain_designators": "all-organisms-coded",
      "organism_slots": [
        {
          "slot_index": 1,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus acidophilus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "La-14",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "human-rct",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "PMID 18422632, separate arm, 2 x 10^10 CFU."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 2,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium lactis",
          "organism_corrected": "Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis",
          "designator_as_printed": "Bl-04",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "human-rct",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "PMID 18422632."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 3,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus plantarum",
          "organism_corrected": "Lactiplantibacillus plantarum",
          "designator_as_printed": "Lp-115",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "human-rct",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "Human evidence only inside a nine-strain synbiotic in colicky infants (PMID 33765904). Not attributable."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 4,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus casei",
          "organism_corrected": "Lacticaseibacillus casei",
          "designator_as_printed": "Lc-11",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "human-rct",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "Mixtures only — PMID 31250099 (32 women), PMID 34111674 (rheumatoid arthritis)."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 5,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus rhamnosus",
          "organism_corrected": "Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus",
          "designator_as_printed": "Lr-32",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "human-rct",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "PMID 28346730, denture wearers, oral Candida."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 6,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus paracasei",
          "organism_corrected": "Lacticaseibacillus paracasei",
          "designator_as_printed": "Lpc-37",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "human-rct",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "PMIDs 36235651, 35634695, 38842655."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 7,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium breve",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "Bb-18",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-records",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "Zero PubMed records of any kind under this designator — not a randomised trial, not an animal study, not an in-vitro paper. This is the strain NOW substituted IN, replacing Bb-03, which itself had no human evidence."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 8,
          "organism_as_printed": "Streptococcus thermophilus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "St-21",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "non-human-records-only",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "No human randomised trial. The strict species-level query returns two records: a case report and a mouse Clostridioides difficile study."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 9,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus salivarius",
          "organism_corrected": "Ligilactobacillus salivarius",
          "designator_as_printed": "Ls-33",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "human-rct",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "PMID 23510724 — a randomised trial that was null on its clinical outcome."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 10,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium longum",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "Bl-05",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-records",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "Zero human randomised trials. The four title/abstract hits are fish feed (where \"BL-05.7\" is a Bacillus licheniformis dose code, not this strain), a duck-egg gel study, an encapsulation study and an in-vitro oligosaccharide growth experiment."
        }
      ],
      "slots_with_human_rct": 7,
      "price": {
        "amount_usd": 19.99,
        "unit": "30-capsule bottle (30 servings, 1 capsule per serving)",
        "cost_per_day_usd": 0.67,
        "checked_on": "2025-12-18",
        "source_url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20251218192433/https://www.nowfoods.com/products/supplements/probiotic-10-25-billion-veg-capsules"
      },
      "price_note": null,
      "certifications": [
        {
          "programme": "Intertek GMP Supplement Certification",
          "status": "brand-asserted-unverified",
          "register_url": null,
          "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
          "detail": "A named, real certifying body — materially stronger disclosure than the unattributed \"GMP CERTIFIED\" roundels elsewhere in this cohort. Not verified on Intertek's own registry."
        },
        {
          "programme": "\"Strain Verified\" (DNA fingerprinting)",
          "status": "brand-asserted-unverified",
          "register_url": null,
          "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
          "detail": "Verbatim on the label: \"The probiotic strains in this product have been identity-verified using DNA-fingerprinting technology.\" A genuine and unusual quality practice, and NOW is one of very few brands in this project to state it. It verifies identity, not potency or purity, and no laboratory is named and no certificate published."
        },
        {
          "programme": "Kosher (Triangle K), Halal, Non-GMO, Vegan",
          "status": "not-checked",
          "register_url": null,
          "checked_on": null,
          "detail": "Dietary and religious attributes, not product-quality certifications."
        },
        {
          "programme": "2013 Better Nutrition Best of Supplements Award",
          "status": "not-checked",
          "register_url": null,
          "checked_on": null,
          "detail": "A thirteen-year-old trade-magazine award still displayed. Not evidence of anything."
        }
      ],
      "womens_comparison": {
        "status": "diffed",
        "womens_product": "NOW Women's Probiotic 20 Billion",
        "differences": [
          {
            "statement": "The women's product is three strains — B. animalis subsp. lactis HN019, L. acidophilus La-14 and L. rhamnosus HN001 — against Probiotic-10's ten. Only La-14 is shared.",
            "evidence": "Wayback 20251218192433 versus DSLD 314222"
          },
          {
            "statement": "The women's blend is 139 mg / 20 billion CFU; Probiotic-10 is 160 mg / 25 billion.",
            "evidence": "Wayback 20251218192433 versus DSLD 314222"
          },
          {
            "statement": "The women's label names a sex-specific anatomical target and the strains claimed to reach it, verbatim: \"This product features L. rhamnosus HN001 and L. acidophilus La-14 which have been shown to colonize the vaginal tract and help to maintain healthy vaginal pH when taken orally.\" Probiotic-10's positioning is \"Healthy Intestinal Flora\".",
            "evidence": "DSLD 314222"
          }
        ],
        "shared": [
          "La-14 is the only strain on both panels."
        ],
        "required_caveat": "This is the cleanest natural experiment in the research, and it runs in the direction people do not expect. NOW — founded in 1968, a brand that plainly will build a sex-specific SKU when the biology supports one — makes a women's probiotic and no men's probiotic. A DSLD search for a NOW men's probiotic returns only multivitamins and unisex products. What a coherent sex-specific rationale looks like is on the women's label: a target that exists in one sex only, named strains claimed to reach it, and a real findable literature behind those strains (HN001 has 49 randomised-trial records, HN019 has 36). Apply the same test to a hypothetical men's version and it collapses — there is no male anatomical analogue an orally dosed probiotic has been shown to reach, and no strain with a male-organ colonisation literature. NOW's revealed judgement is the strongest evidence in this batch that \"probiotic for men\" is a merchandising category rather than a formulation category.",
        "evidence": "Wayback capture of the current Probiotic-10 label versus DSLD 314222",
        "checked_on": "2026-07-30"
      },
      "findings": [
        {
          "code": "undisclosed-strain-substitution",
          "summary": "The 2017 government label record lists Bifidobacterium breve Bb-03. The current label lists Bb-18. Same product name, same Probiotic-10 branding, same CFU count, no announcement and no reformulation notice. It is legal and common — and it means any review, listicle or PubMed cross-reference written against the 2017 label is describing a product that is not on shelves, while DSLD, the government reference database, still carries only the superseded version.",
          "evidence": "DSLD 73822 versus Wayback 20251218192433",
          "source_url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/73822",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "the-replacement-strain-has-no-literature-at-all",
          "summary": "\"Bb-18\"[tiab] returns zero PubMed records — not a randomised trial, not an animal study, not an in-vitro paper. The strain NOW substituted in has no indexed literature whatsoever under that designator, and the strain it replaced had none either.",
          "evidence": "PubMed query re-run 2026-07-30, confirmed exact",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "three-of-ten-strains-with-zero-human-evidence",
          "summary": "Bb-18, St-21 and Bl-05. Because the blend is not split per strain, there is no way to know how much of the 25 billion CFU those three account for. They could be 10% of the product or 60%.",
          "evidence": "PubMed queries re-run 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "colonize-overstates-persistence",
          "summary": "\"NOW Probiotic-10 offers a balanced spectrum of live organisms consisting of acid-resistant probiotic bacterial strains that are known to naturally colonize the human GI tract.\" The field's own consensus body says the opposite, verbatim: \"Probiotics typically do not take up residence in your gut and may not evoke any detectable change in the microbes that are normally present.\"\"",
          "evidence": "DSLD 73822 label statement versus the ISAPP consumer infographic, both quoted verbatim",
          "source_url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/73822",
          "required_caveat": "The ISAPP source is a consumer-facing infographic and is graded as expert consensus, not as a systematic review."
        },
        {
          "code": "detoxification-process-is-an-undefined-mechanism",
          "summary": "\"Probiotic bacteria are critical for healthy digestion, help maintain the integrity of the intestinal lining, support proper intestinal motility and participate in the detoxification process.\" Note also that this sentence is about probiotic bacteria in general, not about this product.",
          "evidence": "Wayback 20251218192433",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "clinically-validated-immune-claim-cannot-be-dose-checked",
          "summary": "\"Probiotic-10 utilizes bacterial strains that have been clinically validated for their support of healthy immune system function.\" Defensible for La-14 and Bl-04 via PMID 18422632 — but that trial dosed 20 billion CFU of a single strain, and here ten strains share 25 billion with no disclosed split. The trialled dose cannot be confirmed to be present.",
          "evidence": "PMID 18422632",
          "source_url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18422632/",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "manufacturer-site-blocks-verification",
          "summary": "nowfoods.com returns HTTP 403 to automated requests. This is a category-level finding — the same wall appears at GNC, Seed, Garden of Life and several retailers — and its practical consequence is that the NIH DSLD and the Internet Archive are the only reliable public label sources for this category, while DSLD's copies are frequently years stale, as this product demonstrates.",
          "evidence": "HTTP 403 on all three Probiotic-10 URLs, reproduced 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        }
      ],
      "could_not_verify": [
        {
          "item": "The retailer prices that underwrote the published 4.9x price gap",
          "why": "The teardown cited Vitacost at $15.73 for 50 count and $30.61 for 100 count, giving $0.31 a day. Vitacost 301s to a redirect that could not be resolved, and the same method note records Vitacost silently redirecting to an unrelated product on another attempt in the same batch. Those two numbers are not published. The price shown on this page is the manufacturer's own archived price instead."
        },
        {
          "item": "The per-strain CFU split",
          "why": "Not disclosed. All ten strains sit inside a single \"Blend of 10 Strains\" line totalling 25 billion CFU in 160 mg. The 25 billion could be overwhelmingly one cheap strain — and three of the ten have no human evidence at all, so there is no way to know how much of the product they account for."
        },
        {
          "item": "The Intertek GMP certification",
          "why": "Named but not verified on Intertek's own registry."
        },
        {
          "item": "Whether the dropped refrigeration instruction reflects a genuine stability improvement",
          "why": "The 2017 label said \"Keep refrigerated to maintain potency\"; the current label says \"Store in a cool, dry place to maintain potency\". Recorded as an observed label change. No stability data is available either way."
        },
        {
          "item": "The label itself, from the manufacturer's own site",
          "why": "nowfoods.com returns HTTP 403 to automated requests on all three Probiotic-10 URLs, and iHerb also returns 403. The current label was recovered only via an Internet Archive snapshot. A consumer or a tool attempting to verify this label programmatically against the manufacturer's own site cannot do so."
        }
      ],
      "audit_corrections": [
        {
          "finding": "The strain substitution finding.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Confirmed at the DSLD end. Record 73822 (entered 2017-05-24, UPC 7 33739 02933 1, 100 veg capsules, off-market) lists La-14, Bl-04, Lp-115, Lc-11, Lr-32, Lpc-37, Bb-03, St-21, Ls-33 and Bl-05, with per-strain quantity \"NP\" throughout. The 2017 label carries Bb-03; the current label carries Bb-18. The Wayback side of the comparison was not re-pulled during the audit; the DSLD half is solid. \"NOW substituted in a strain with no PubMed record of any kind\" is confirmed — \"Bb-18\"[tiab] returns 0.",
          "evidence": "prod-b-audit.md §4.4, §4.5"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The CFU-basis quotation and the colonize claim.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Both verbatim exact from DSLD 73822, including \"Keep refrigerated to maintain potency\" on the 2017 label — so the drop to \"cool, dry place\" is real. The ISAPP rebuttal quotation is also verbatim exact.",
          "evidence": "prod-b-audit.md §4.6"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The two Vitacost prices underwriting the published 4.9x price gap.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Not re-verifiable — vitacost.com 301s to a redirect that could not be resolved, and the project's own method note records Vitacost silently redirecting to an unrelated product on another attempt in the same batch. Both figures are withheld, and the price on this page is the manufacturer's own archived figure instead. The gap arithmetic itself reproduces from its stated inputs; the input is the unverified link.",
          "evidence": "prod-b-audit.md §3, §4.27"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown reported the ST-21 randomised-trial query as returning zero, and illustrated designator noise with counts of 163 and 69.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "The zero is wrong (the query returns 20 acupuncture false positives, because ST-21 is the acupoint Liangmen) and the 163/69 pair does not reproduce. Corrected and deleted respectively; neither appears on this site.",
          "evidence": "prod-b-audit.md §C3, §F3"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The women's-probiotic comparison.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "DSLD 314222 verified in full: three strains, 139 mg blend, La-14 the only shared strain, and the full vaginal-colonisation rationale quotation verbatim exact. The literature counts behind it are exact too — HN001 with vaginal terms 11, HN001 randomised-trial records 49, HN019 36.",
          "evidence": "prod-b-audit.md §4.7"
        }
      ],
      "label_evidence": [
        {
          "type": "wayback",
          "id": "20251218192433",
          "url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20251218192433/https://www.nowfoods.com/products/supplements/probiotic-10-25-billion-veg-capsules",
          "captured_on": "2025-12-18",
          "note": "The current label, recovered via the Internet Archive because nowfoods.com returns HTTP 403 to automated requests. Source for the Bb-18 strain, the 160 mg blend, the through-expiry sentence and the manufacturer price."
        },
        {
          "type": "dsld",
          "id": "73822",
          "url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/73822",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "The 2017 label, entered 2017-05-24 and flagged off-market. Carries Bb-03 where the current label carries Bb-18, and \"Keep refrigerated to maintain potency\" where the current label says \"cool, dry place\"."
        },
        {
          "type": "dsld",
          "id": "314222",
          "url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/314222",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "NOW Women's Probiotic 20 Billion, entered 2024-07-25, on-market. The comparator."
        }
      ],
      "product_url": "https://www.nowfoods.com/products/supplements/probiotic-10-25-billion-veg-capsules",
      "last_verified": "2026-07-30"
    },
    {
      "slug": "onnit-total-gut-health",
      "page_url": "https://bestprobioticformen.com/products/onnit-total-gut-health/",
      "brand": "Onnit",
      "product": "Onnit Total GUT HEALTH",
      "cohort": "D27-founding",
      "teardown_complete": true,
      "panel_transcribed": false,
      "marketed_as": "unisex",
      "lead_finding": "Onnit publishes no Supplement Facts panel for this product in any form. The string \"CFU\" appears zero times on either product page, four of the seven advertised probiotic strains are not named even to species, and no ingredient in the product carries a milligram amount.",
      "cfu": {
        "claim_as_printed": null,
        "basis": "no-cfu-number",
        "basis_verbatim": null
      },
      "strain_designators": "none",
      "organism_slots": [
        {
          "slot_index": 1,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bacillus subtilis",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "Named to species in prose only; there is no panel. No designator, no quantity. The strain with real human trial data in this species is DE111, which Onnit does not claim."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 2,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bacillus coagulans",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "No designator, no quantity. Two B. coagulans strains — Unique IS2 and MTCC 5856 — carry meta-analytic support in IBS; Onnit does not claim either."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 3,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus rhamnosus",
          "organism_corrected": "Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus",
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "No designator. L. rhamnosus GG is among the most-trialled probiotic strains in existence and the 2026 strain-specific IBS meta-analysis finds it efficacious — but \"L. rhamnosus\" with no designator cannot be assumed to be GG, and Onnit does not say it is. The trial evidence for GG does not transfer."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 4,
          "organism_as_printed": "Saccharomyces boulardii",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "A yeast. The only S. boulardii preparation with a meta-analytic evidence base is CNCM I-745, and even that comes out \"conflicting\" in the 2026 IBS synthesis. Onnit names no strain."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 5,
          "organism_as_printed": "Unnamed strain 5",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "Onnit advertises \"7 Strains of Probiotics\" and names three bacteria plus, separately, Saccharomyces boulardii. The remaining slots are not identified even to species level, anywhere on either product page or in the archived capture. Whether S. boulardii is one of the seven or an eighth organism is not stated either, so this teardown counts seven organism slots and says so rather than inflating the denominator."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 6,
          "organism_as_printed": "Unnamed strain 6",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 7,
          "organism_as_printed": "Unnamed strain 7",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        }
      ],
      "slots_with_human_rct": 0,
      "price": {
        "amount_usd": 44.99,
        "unit": "120-capsule bottle (30 days at four capsules daily)",
        "cost_per_day_usd": 1.5,
        "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
        "source_url": "https://www.onnit.com/products/total-gut-health-120-ct"
      },
      "price_note": null,
      "certifications": [
        {
          "programme": "None claimed",
          "status": "not-checked",
          "register_url": null,
          "checked_on": null,
          "detail": "A token census across the full HTML of both product pages returns zero for third-party, third party, tested, NSF, Informed, Labdoor, cGMP, GMP, Non-GMO and IGEN. Onnit makes no testing or certification claim of any kind on the product page. There is nothing to verify at an issuer because nothing is asserted — honest by omission, and it also means a buyer has zero potency or purity assurance for a product whose potency is never stated. An Amazon listing title for the product includes \"IGEN Non-GMO Tested\", but that claim does not appear on Onnit's own site, was not independently verified, and is not counted."
        }
      ],
      "womens_comparison": {
        "status": "no-womens-sku",
        "womens_product": null,
        "differences": [],
        "shared": [],
        "required_caveat": null,
        "evidence": null,
        "checked_on": null
      },
      "findings": [
        {
          "code": "no-supplement-facts-panel-published-at-all",
          "summary": "Not a proprietary blend — no panel. A proprietary blend at least names its constituents and gives a blend total. Onnit gives neither the constituents nor a total. This is the most serious disclosure failure in its batch.",
          "evidence": "Token census of both Onnit product pages, re-run 2026-07-30; every count reproduced exactly",
          "source_url": "https://www.onnit.com/products/total-gut-health-120-ct",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "no-cfu-count-stated",
          "summary": "Not \"unstated basis\" — no number. \"CFU\" appears zero times in the HTML of both the 60-count and 120-count product pages and zero times in the archived capture. There is no potency guarantee, no \"at time of manufacture\", no \"through expiry\", and no published expiration-date policy.",
          "evidence": "Token census of both Onnit product pages, re-run 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "four-of-seven-strains-not-named-to-species",
          "summary": "Onnit advertises \"7 Strains of Probiotics\" and names three: B. subtilis, B. coagulans, L. rhamnosus. Strains four through seven are not identified at all.",
          "evidence": "onnit.com product pages, verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "sixty-count-bottle-is-a-fifteen-day-supply",
          "summary": "Onnit's own \"How to Use\" on both SKUs reads: \"Adults, take four capsules with your largest meal of the day.\" At four capsules a day the 60-count bottle is fifteen days, not a month. The bottle front says \"60 CAPSULES\"; nothing on the product page flags that this is half a month at the directed dose. The 120-count is also 6% cheaper per day.",
          "evidence": "onnit.com product pages, verified live 2026-07-30; 60 ct $23.99, 120 ct $44.99",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "product-identity-has-churned",
          "summary": "\"Total GUT HEALTH\" previously named a multi-packet system whose components are separately archived in DSLD from 2016 — Onnit Probiotic 66808, Prebiotic 66807, Betaine HCl 66806, DigesTech 64465, Saccharomyces boulardii 66805, most flagged off-market. The current product is a different dosage form with a different formula and no DSLD record. Any review or listicle citing the old packet formula is describing a product that is no longer sold.",
          "evidence": "DSLD records 66805, 66806, 66807, 66808, 64465",
          "source_url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "no-third-party-testing-of-any-kind",
          "summary": "None claimed and none held. Honest by omission, and equally uninformative to a buyer.",
          "evidence": "Token census of both Onnit product pages, re-run 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        }
      ],
      "could_not_verify": [
        {
          "item": "The Supplement Facts panel",
          "why": "There is none. No panel is published on either product page, in the archived capture, or in any DSLD record for the current product. The strain list above is assembled from Onnit's own marketing prose, which names three of seven organisms."
        },
        {
          "item": "The CFU count",
          "why": "Not stated anywhere. \"CFU\" appears zero times in the HTML of both SKUs."
        },
        {
          "item": "Any ingredient quantity",
          "why": "None is published — not for the probiotics, not for Betaine HCl."
        },
        {
          "item": "The IGEN Non-GMO Tested claim on the Amazon listing",
          "why": "Not present on Onnit's own site and not independently verified."
        }
      ],
      "audit_corrections": [
        {
          "finding": "The finding that Onnit publishes no Supplement Facts panel at all.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Re-run independently on both live product pages. Every count matches the teardown exactly: \"Supplement Facts\" 0, \"CFU\" 0, \"Servings Per\" 0, \"Proprietary\" 0, \"Bacillus\" 0, \"third-party\" 0, \"NSF\" 0, \"Labdoor\" 0. Prices confirmed at $23.99 and $44.99, and \"four capsules\" appears once, confirming the serving-size source. The 60-count being a fifteen-day supply is confirmed.",
          "evidence": "prod-b-audit.md §4.17"
        },
        {
          "finding": "FDA warning-letter sweep for Onnit.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Zero records in FDA's warning-letter full-text index. The scope caveat must ship with it: this is one FDA index searched by brand name, it is not a clean bill of regulatory health, and FTC was not searched.",
          "evidence": "prod-b-audit.md §4.30"
        }
      ],
      "label_evidence": [
        {
          "type": "brand-page-capture",
          "id": "onnit-total-gut-health-120ct-2026-07-30",
          "url": "https://www.onnit.com/products/total-gut-health-120-ct",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "The live product page, read in full and re-read during the audit. It is the only label artefact that exists for this product: there is no Supplement Facts panel, no DSLD record for the current formula, and no label image. The absence is the evidence."
        },
        {
          "type": "brand-page-capture",
          "id": "onnit-total-gut-health-60ct-2026-07-30",
          "url": "https://www.onnit.com/products/total-gut-health-60-ct",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "The 60-count SKU, confirming the four-capsule serving and the fifteen-day supply."
        }
      ],
      "product_url": "https://www.onnit.com/products/total-gut-health-120-ct",
      "last_verified": "2026-07-30"
    },
    {
      "slug": "pendulum-akkermansia",
      "page_url": "https://bestprobioticformen.com/products/pendulum-akkermansia/",
      "brand": "Pendulum",
      "product": "Pendulum Akkermansia",
      "cohort": "D27-founding",
      "teardown_complete": true,
      "panel_transcribed": true,
      "marketed_as": "unisex",
      "lead_finding": "The most-distributed sentence about this product — its meta description, its og:description and its Twitter card — says it is \"clinically shown to fortify the gut lining, reduce gut permeability, and support gut health\". The brand's own accordion footnotes those same outcomes as \"*Based on preclinical studies.\" Preclinical is by definition not clinical.",
      "cfu": {
        "claim_as_printed": "100 million AFU",
        "basis": "none-stated",
        "basis_verbatim": "The panel prints \"100 million AFU\" with no at-manufacture or through-expiry qualifier. \"Store at room temperature\" is the only stability-adjacent statement on the label."
      },
      "strain_designators": "all-organisms-coded",
      "organism_slots": [
        {
          "slot_index": 1,
          "organism_as_printed": "Akkermansia muciniphila",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "WB-STR-0001",
          "quantity_as_printed": "100 million AFU",
          "resolution": "no-records",
          "query_run": "\"WB-STR-0001\"",
          "note": "A private code with zero literature footprint and no public accession. The species has 52 randomised-trial records, but none can be mapped to this designator. And \"Akkermansia muciniphila\" AND \"gut permeability\" AND randomized controlled trial[pt] returns zero — the specific outcome the product's headline sentence claims."
        }
      ],
      "slots_with_human_rct": 0,
      "price": {
        "amount_usd": 54,
        "unit": "30-capsule bottle (30 servings, 1 capsule per serving), membership price",
        "cost_per_day_usd": 1.8,
        "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
        "source_url": "https://pendulumlife.com/products/pendulum-akkermansia-probiotic-gut-health"
      },
      "price_note": null,
      "certifications": [
        {
          "programme": "None claimed",
          "status": "not-checked",
          "register_url": null,
          "checked_on": null,
          "detail": "No third-party testing or certification claim of any kind appears for this SKU."
        }
      ],
      "womens_comparison": {
        "status": "no-womens-sku",
        "womens_product": null,
        "differences": [],
        "shared": [],
        "required_caveat": "Pendulum sells 66 products and zero of them are gendered in either direction. A regex scan across every product title in the catalogue for men, women, male, female, prostate and testosterone returns nothing. There is no women's version to diff against.",
        "evidence": null,
        "checked_on": null
      },
      "findings": [
        {
          "code": "clinically-shown-attached-to-preclinical-outcomes",
          "summary": "\"The only live Akkermansia probiotic clinically shown to fortify the gut lining, reduce gut permeability, and support gut health.\" That sentence is the product's meta description, its og:description and its Twitter card — the sentence that propagates to every search result and every social share. The same three outcomes are footnoted elsewhere on the same page as \"*Based on preclinical studies.\" Preclinical is by definition not clinical. And \"clinically shown\" is an establishment claim: it asserts a level of proof, and preclinical data do not substantiate it.",
          "evidence": "pendulumlife.com product page meta description and Details accordion, both verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": "https://pendulumlife.com/products/pendulum-akkermansia-probiotic-gut-health",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "strain-designator-with-zero-literature",
          "summary": "\"WB-STR-0001\" returns zero PubMed records and corresponds to no public accession. The species has 52 randomised-trial records; none of them can be attributed to the strain as sold.",
          "evidence": "PubMed query returning 0, re-run 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "cfu-basis-unstated-and-cfu-withheld",
          "summary": "No at-manufacture or through-expiry qualifier appears anywhere, while the brand's own blog argues that through-expiry labelling is what matters. Pendulum also states that it measures CFU for this product and elects not to publish the number.",
          "evidence": "Brand label image and pendulumlife.com, verified 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "one-time-purchase-penalty",
          "summary": "The membership price is $54.00 and the one-time price is $75.00 for the identical bottle — a 38.9% premium for declining a recurring order. The membership listing sets its compare-at price to the one-time price so that the subscription reads as a discount, and the one-time purchase is a separate Shopify product with its own SKU.",
          "evidence": "Shopify JSON for AMUC-01-MEM-02 and AMUC-01-OTP-02, verified 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "glp-1-weight-tile-with-its-own-retraction",
          "summary": "A carousel tile quotes the brand's CEO: \"Akkermansia naturally increases GLP-1 production*, which helps maintain a healthy weight.\" The asterisk in the same frame reads \"*Based on preclinical studies. This product is not intended for weight loss.\" A weight claim and its own retraction in one image.",
          "evidence": "Brand carousel image, verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "no-government-label-record",
          "summary": "No DSLD record and no readable UPC, so the label is unverifiable against any independent database.",
          "evidence": "DSLD brand query returning 0, re-run 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "no-third-party-testing-claimed",
          "summary": "None claimed for this SKU, so none to verify.",
          "evidence": "pendulumlife.com product page, verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        }
      ],
      "could_not_verify": [
        {
          "item": "The label itself against any independent source",
          "why": "Pendulum has no NIH Dietary Supplement Label Database record — a DSLD brand query returns zero. (A query for the organism returns seven records, from Codeage, Solaray, SuperSmart, The Akkermansia Company and Plexus, and none of them is Pendulum.) The panel exists only as a brand-hosted JPEG, and the product's UPC could not be read, so there is nothing to cross-check."
        },
        {
          "item": "What the 100 million AFU figure is measured against",
          "why": "No basis is stated. Note that Pendulum does publish a shelf life for its other SKU, so the brand is capable of stating something and did not, for this one."
        },
        {
          "item": "Whether Pendulum measures CFU for this product",
          "why": "The brand states that it measures CFU and elects not to publish the figure."
        }
      ],
      "audit_corrections": [
        {
          "finding": "The teardown wrote that Pendulum's and Just Thrive's catalogues contain zero gendered terms \"in either catalogue, in titles or descriptions\".",
          "what_the_audit_did": "The table claim — gendered term in the title — is correct for both brands and is reconfirmed. Only the prose sentence overreaches: a re-run against Just Thrive's catalogue with the same term set finds one description hit, in a urinary-tract product whose copy addresses both sexes. Narrowed to titles. The substantive conclusion, that neither brand sells a gendered probiotic SKU, is unaffected.",
          "evidence": "prod-d-audit.md §1.3"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The Pendulum label-database absence and the case report cited in the batch introduction.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Both verified. A DSLD query for the brand returns zero; a query for the organism returns seven records from five other brands, exactly as described. The case report is exact — a 52-year-old male, A1c 7.2% falling to 5.9%, with four of five authors employees of the company. Its intervention was verbatim \"a targeted 5-strain probiotic as well as other supplements\", so the confounding is real and the n=1 framing is right.",
          "evidence": "prod-d-audit.md §9"
        }
      ],
      "label_evidence": [
        {
          "type": "photo-of-panel",
          "id": "Akkermansia_Carousel_06_668x668_2x-min",
          "url": "https://pendulumlife.com/cdn/shop/files/Akkermansia_Carousel_06_668x668_2x-min.jpg",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "The brand's own Supplement Facts image, read directly and fully legible at native 1336x1336. There is no government label record for this product, so this image is the only source. Note the panel discloses more than the website does: the strain designator WB-STR-0001 is on the label and missing from the website's ingredient accordion."
        },
        {
          "type": "brand-page-capture",
          "id": "pendulum-akkermansia-pdp-2026-07-30",
          "url": "https://pendulumlife.com/products/pendulum-akkermansia-probiotic-gut-health",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "Live page and Shopify JSON: SKU AMUC-01-MEM-02 at $54.00 with a compare-at price of $75.00, the meta description, and the preclinical footnotes."
        }
      ],
      "product_url": "https://pendulumlife.com/products/pendulum-akkermansia-probiotic-gut-health",
      "last_verified": "2026-07-30"
    },
    {
      "slug": "pendulum-glucose-control",
      "page_url": "https://bestprobioticformen.com/products/pendulum-glucose-control/",
      "brand": "Pendulum",
      "product": "Pendulum Glucose Control",
      "cohort": "D27-founding",
      "teardown_complete": true,
      "panel_transcribed": true,
      "marketed_as": "unisex",
      "lead_finding": "Every efficacy number Pendulum advertises was generated at three times the dose printed on the bottle. The trial instructed \"three capsules two times a day\"; the retail label says \"Take 2 capsules daily\". Replicating the trial regimen costs $297 to $417 a month.",
      "cfu": {
        "claim_as_printed": "2 billion AFU per dose",
        "basis": "none-stated",
        "basis_verbatim": "No basis is printed. The FAQ says: \"Glucose Control is good for up to 2 years from the manufacturing date when refrigerated and sealed. We are transitioning to putting 'best by' dates on our Glucose Control bottles.\" A two-year shelf life is not a potency guarantee, and the transition admission means some bottles in market carry no date at all."
      },
      "strain_designators": "some-organisms-coded",
      "organism_slots": [
        {
          "slot_index": 1,
          "organism_as_printed": "Clostridium butyricum",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "WB-STR-0006",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-records",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "Inside a stated proprietary blend. No per-strain AFU is disclosed for any of the five organisms."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 2,
          "organism_as_printed": "Clostridium beijerinckii",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "WB-STR-0005",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-records",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 3,
          "organism_as_printed": "Anaerobutyricum hallii",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "WB-STR-0008",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-records",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 4,
          "organism_as_printed": "Akkermansia muciniphila",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "WB-STR-0001",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-records",
          "query_run": "\"WB-STR-0001\"",
          "note": "Zero PubMed records."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 5,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium infantis",
          "organism_corrected": "Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis",
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "The one organism with no designator on either the label or the website — four of five designated, not five of five."
        }
      ],
      "slots_with_human_rct": 0,
      "price": {
        "amount_usd": 99,
        "unit": "60-capsule bottle (30 servings, 2 capsules per serving), membership price",
        "cost_per_day_usd": 3.3,
        "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
        "source_url": "https://pendulumlife.com/products/pendulum-glucose-control-probiotic-blood-sugar"
      },
      "price_note": null,
      "certifications": [
        {
          "programme": "Non-GMO Project Verified",
          "status": "brand-asserted-unverified",
          "register_url": "https://www.nongmoproject.org/find-non-gmo/",
          "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
          "detail": "The butterfly mark is printed on the label. The certifier returned HTTP 403, so the listing could not be confirmed at the issuer."
        }
      ],
      "womens_comparison": {
        "status": "no-womens-sku",
        "womens_product": null,
        "differences": [],
        "shared": [],
        "required_caveat": "Pendulum sells 66 products and none is gendered. The pivotal trial was 57.7%, 66.7% and 56.5% female across its three arms — majority women — and the formula contains no male-specific ingredient.",
        "evidence": null,
        "checked_on": null
      },
      "findings": [
        {
          "code": "trial-dose-is-three-times-the-label-dose",
          "summary": "From the trial's methods, verbatim: \"All study participants were instructed to swallow three capsules two times a day within 30 min of morning and evening meals\", and \"Each subject received 12 identical product bottles containing 45 size 0 capsules (1 week supply+3 extra capsules)\". Forty-five capsules as a week's supply is about six a day, which the three-twice-daily instruction confirms. The retail label says \"Take 2 capsules daily\". Every efficacy number Pendulum advertises was generated at three times the dose on the bottle, and nothing on the product page or the label discloses it. Replicating the trial regimen means three bottles a month: $297 at the membership price, $417 one-time — $9.90 to $13.90 a day.",
          "evidence": "PMC7368581 · NCT03893422",
          "source_url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32675291/",
          "required_caveat": "The per-capsule cell count used in the trial could not be retrieved, so this is recorded as an unreconciled discrepancy rather than as a proven threefold shortfall in delivered cells."
        },
        {
          "code": "a1c-headline-was-not-statistically-significant",
          "summary": "\"Reduces A1C by 0.6*\" appears in the Details accordion. In the paper, A1c is a secondary outcome and the figure is −0.6 against placebo at p=0.0540 — which does not meet the study's own 5% threshold. The paper also reports the within-group A1c reduction as 0.2.",
          "evidence": "PMC7368581",
          "source_url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32675291/",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "thirty-two-point-five-percent-is-a-within-group-figure",
          "summary": "\"Reduces post-meal glucose spikes by 32.5%*\". The paper's sentence: \"Incremental glucose AUC 0-180 min was also lower in WBF-011 group (−28.56 mg/dL/180 min; p=0.0066); corresponding to a median within-group decrease of 32.5% for WBF-011 and a median within-group increase of 26.4% for placebo.\" Stripping \"within-group\" converts an uncontrolled before-and-after number into what reads as a treatment effect.",
          "evidence": "PMC7368581",
          "source_url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32675291/",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "one-trial-reported-twice-plus-a-case-report",
          "summary": "The pivotal trial randomised 76 across three arms; the retail formula's arm was n=23 intent-to-treat and n=21 per protocol. Its primary endpoint landed at p=0.0500, exactly at the threshold. All 17 authors are company employees and, per the conflict statement, employees and stock or stock-option shareholders. The authors' own words are \"proof-of-concept study\" and \"the limited sample size and intersubject variability justifies future studies designed to confirm and expand on these observations\". The companion metabolomics paper is a secondary analysis of the same subjects, not a second trial.",
          "evidence": "PMC7368581 · PMID 34996347",
          "source_url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32675291/",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "proprietary-blend",
          "summary": "Two billion AFU across five organisms with no per-strain amounts. The word \"proprietary\" is on the label and not in the website copy.",
          "evidence": "Brand label image, read directly 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "named-disease-claim-under-a-medical-food-posture",
          "summary": "Unlike every other product in this research, Glucose Control does not present as a structure/function supplement. It carries a Nutrition Facts panel rather than a Supplement Facts panel, instructs \"Use only under physician supervision as part of a diabetes management plan\", names type 2 diabetes on the label and throughout the copy, and uses the phrase \"nutritional management\", which is the statutory language for a medical food. That is a coherent regulatory posture and not improper on its face. Two consequences the marketing does not surface: the FDA structure/function disclaimer that appears on every other product here does not apply, so a consumer accustomed to reading \"not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease\" gets no such signal — and the product is being sold at $99 to $139 a month to people with a diagnosed disease, on one n=23 proof-of-concept arm, at one third of the dose that generated its numbers.",
          "evidence": "Brand label image and pendulumlife.com, verified 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": "For a general men's-probiotic comparison the operative point is narrower and safer: this is not a general-wellness probiotic and should not be listed as one. Any list ranking it alongside a $20 daily probiotic is category-confusing its readers."
        },
        {
          "code": "afu-basis-unstated-and-some-bottles-undated",
          "summary": "A two-year shelf life is published with no statement of what the 2 billion AFU refers to at any point in that window, and the brand's own FAQ says it is still transitioning to printing best-by dates — meaning some bottles in market carry no date at all. There is also a practical trap: a 60-capsule bottle is a 30-day supply, but the open-bottle limit is two months, and a buyer following the trial regimen opens three bottles a month.",
          "evidence": "pendulumlife.com FAQ, verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "one-time-purchase-penalty",
          "summary": "$139.00 one-time against $99.00 on membership — a 40.4% premium for declining a recurring order.",
          "evidence": "Shopify JSON for PGC-01-MEM-01 and PGC-01-OTP-01, verified 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "bifidobacterium-infantis-undesignated",
          "summary": "Four of the five organisms carry a WB-STR- code. B. infantis carries none, on either the label or the website.",
          "evidence": "Brand label image, read directly 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        }
      ],
      "could_not_verify": [
        {
          "item": "Whether two retail capsules deliver the trial's daily cell load",
          "why": "The per-capsule cell count used in the trial could not be retrieved, so it cannot be stated that six trial capsules equal six billion AFU. It is possible Pendulum reformulated to a more concentrated capsule so that two retail capsules match the trial's daily load. Pendulum does not say so anywhere that could be found, and the label's \"2 billion AFU per dose\" against a six-capsule trial regimen is at minimum unreconciled. Recorded as unreconciled by the brand rather than asserted as a threefold shortfall in delivered cells."
        },
        {
          "item": "Any per-strain AFU amount",
          "why": "None. The label calls it a proprietary blend — a word that appears on the label and not in the website copy. A reader knows the total is 2 billion AFU across five organisms and cannot know whether that is 400 million each or 1.99 billion of one and a sprinkle of four others. That matters more than usual here, because the trial tested a specific formulation and nothing on the label lets a buyer confirm the retail product matches its strain ratios."
        },
        {
          "item": "The Non-GMO Project listing",
          "why": "The certifier returned HTTP 403."
        },
        {
          "item": "Any government label record",
          "why": "Pendulum has none; a DSLD brand query returns zero."
        },
        {
          "item": "Whether a given bottle carries a date at all",
          "why": "The brand states it is still transitioning to printing best-by dates."
        }
      ],
      "audit_corrections": [
        {
          "finding": "The three-times-dose finding — the load-bearing claim on this page.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Confirmed verbatim against the trial's full text. Both methods sentences are exact, as are the A1c figure and its p-value of 0.0540, the within-group A1c reduction of 0.2, the entire incremental-AUC sentence including both within-group percentages, the primary endpoint's p=0.0500, the arm sizes, the all-employee authorship, the authors' own \"proof-of-concept\" language and the female proportions by arm. The five-strain formulation is an exact match to the retail panel.",
          "evidence": "prod-d-audit.md §6.1"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown said baseline A1c was 8.8 to 8.9%.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "The intent-to-treat baselines are 8.9, 8.5 and 8.8 across the three arms; the stated range covers placebo and the retail-formula arm but excludes the third. Tightened to: 8.8% in the retail-formula arm, 8.9% placebo.",
          "evidence": "prod-d-audit.md §6.1"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The trial registration and the sponsor.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "NCT03893422 resolves to Pendulum Therapeutics, n=76, and its title names \"Two Medical Foods in Type 2…\" — which independently supports the medical-food reading of this product's regulatory posture.",
          "evidence": "prod-d-audit.md §3"
        }
      ],
      "label_evidence": [
        {
          "type": "photo-of-panel",
          "id": "GlucoseControl_Carousel_04_668x668_2x-min",
          "url": "https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0175/3104/3894/files/GlucoseControl_Carousel_04_668x668_2x-min_eedaf504-0a9a-4ef2-ab72-97238158115a.jpg",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "The brand's own label image, read directly. Note the panel type: this product carries a Nutrition Facts panel, not a Supplement Facts panel — it is labelled as a food. There is no government label record for it."
        },
        {
          "type": "brand-page-capture",
          "id": "pendulum-glucose-control-pdp-2026-07-30",
          "url": "https://pendulumlife.com/products/pendulum-glucose-control-probiotic-blood-sugar",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "Live page and Shopify JSON: SKU PGC-01-MEM-01 at $99.00, PGC-01-OTP-01 at $139.00, the three-month option at $267.00, the A1c and 32.5% claims, and the shelf-life FAQ."
        }
      ],
      "product_url": "https://pendulumlife.com/products/pendulum-glucose-control-probiotic-blood-sugar",
      "last_verified": "2026-07-30"
    },
    {
      "slug": "physicians-choice-mens-probiotic",
      "page_url": "https://bestprobioticformen.com/products/physicians-choice-mens-probiotic/",
      "brand": "Physician's Choice",
      "product": "Physician's Choice Men's Probiotic — 70 Billion CFU, 8 Strains",
      "cohort": "D27-founding",
      "teardown_complete": true,
      "panel_transcribed": true,
      "marketed_as": "marketed-to-men",
      "lead_finding": "One capsule delivers 200 mcg of selenium — 364% of the Daily Value, and exactly the daily dose used in SELECT, the 35,533-man prostate-cancer prevention trial that found no benefit and whose case-cohort follow-up found a 91% increase in high-grade prostate cancer among selenium-replete men. Nothing on the product page mentions any of it.",
      "cfu": {
        "claim_as_printed": "70 Billion CFUs (stated as \"Total Probiotic Activity\")",
        "basis": "none-stated",
        "basis_verbatim": "Total Probiotic Activity 70 Billion CFUs — printed with no temporal qualifier of any kind, neither \"at manufacture\" nor \"at expiry\"."
      },
      "strain_designators": "none",
      "organism_slots": [
        {
          "slot_index": 1,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactiplantibacillus plantarum",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 2,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactococcus lactis",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 3,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus acidophilus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 4,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bacillus coagulans",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "PubMed returns at least five separately named, separately studied B. coagulans strains in IBS randomised trials alone — GBI-30 6086 (PMID 20140275), MTCC 5856 (26922379), Unique IS2 (31434935; paediatric 29695183), LBSC/DSM 17654 (33545934) and BCP92 (39093754) — plus one unnamed strain inside a Colinox device trial (24867512). The label says only \"Bacillus coagulans\". You cannot know which, or whether it is any of them."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 5,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lacticaseibacillus paracasei",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 6,
          "organism_as_printed": "Limosilactobacillus reuteri",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 7,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium lactis",
          "organism_corrected": "Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis",
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "The regularity and transit evidence in this species belongs to a named strain, HN019 (PMID 21663486: whole-gut transit 49±30 to 21±32 h at high dose, p<0.001). The product claims \"promotes regularity\" and contains \"Bifidobacterium lactis\" — but does not name HN019. The claim borrows HN019's evidence without committing to HN019."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 8,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium longum",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        }
      ],
      "slots_with_human_rct": 0,
      "price": {
        "amount_usd": 33.3,
        "unit": "30-capsule bottle (30 servings, 1 capsule per serving)",
        "cost_per_day_usd": 1.11,
        "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
        "source_url": "https://physicianschoice.com/products/physicians-choice-probiotics-for-men-70-billion-cfu-8-strains"
      },
      "price_note": null,
      "certifications": [
        {
          "programme": "NSF cGMP (facility)",
          "status": "brand-asserted-unverified",
          "register_url": "https://www.nsf.org/",
          "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
          "detail": "Read the brand's own wording carefully. The quality page lists certifications its manufacturing partners \"may include\", NSF cGMP among them. It does not assert that the facility making this product holds it. nsf.org returns 403 to automated requests, so nothing could be checked at the issuer. And the scope matters even if it is held: NSF cGMP certifies a facility's manufacturing process, not a product's contents. It is not NSF Certified for Sport and not a contents certification."
        },
        {
          "programme": "GFSI / FSSC 22000",
          "status": "brand-asserted-unverified",
          "register_url": null,
          "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
          "detail": "Claimed on the brand's quality page. Not checked at the issuer."
        },
        {
          "programme": "Non-GMO Project Verified",
          "status": "brand-asserted-unverified",
          "register_url": null,
          "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
          "detail": "Stated by the brand for \"select products\". Whether this SKU is among them is not stated, and the certifier's register was unreachable."
        },
        {
          "programme": "Eurofins / Light Labs testing",
          "status": "brand-asserted-unverified",
          "register_url": null,
          "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
          "detail": "Naming its labs is genuinely more disclosure than either Garden of Life SKU offers, and it should be credited. But the page's wording is \"We work with independent laboratories, including Eurofins and Light Labs\" — it does not state that this SKU was tested by them, and no certificate of analysis is published."
        }
      ],
      "womens_comparison": {
        "status": "diffed",
        "womens_product": "Physician's Choice Women's Probiotic",
        "differences": [
          {
            "statement": "Men's adds selenium 200 mcg (364% DV) and Hawthorne Berry 25 mg. Women's adds D-Mannose 60 mg and Pro Cran d'Or cranberry 50 mg.",
            "evidence": "Brand carousel panel image versus DSLD 323205"
          },
          {
            "statement": "Men's 70 billion CFU across 8 organisms in 202 mg; women's 50 billion across 6 in 133 mg.",
            "evidence": "Brand carousel panel image versus DSLD 323205"
          },
          {
            "statement": "Men's prebiotic blend 50 mg; women's 100 mg.",
            "evidence": "Brand carousel panel image versus DSLD 323205"
          }
        ],
        "shared": [
          "Neither label states a CFU basis, which confirms this is brand-wide practice rather than a one-SKU omission.",
          "Neither panel carries a strain designator for any organism."
        ],
        "required_caveat": "This brand did at least attempt real differentiation — unlike Garden of Life's Dr. Formulated line, the two SKUs are not the same fill re-proportioned, and the women's adds (D-mannose plus cranberry) have an obvious mechanistically coherent target. The men's adds are the ones that do not survive scrutiny. Note also that the men's panel has no DSLD record: the women's side of this diff is a government record and the men's side is a brand image.",
        "evidence": "Brand carousel panel image (men's) versus DSLD 323205 (women's)",
        "checked_on": "2026-07-30"
      },
      "findings": [
        {
          "code": "selenium-200mcg-in-a-mens-product",
          "summary": "One capsule delivers 200 mcg of selenium, 364% of the Daily Value and about 3.6 times the 55 mcg RDA, daily and indefinitely, in a product whose entire marketing premise is that it is for men. That is exactly the dose used in SELECT — 35,533 men, four arms, double-blind, median follow-up 5.46 years — which found prostate-cancer HR 1.04 (99% CI 0.87–1.24) and concluded that selenium \"did not prevent prostate cancer in this population of relatively healthy men\". Its case-cohort follow-up found a 91% increase in high-grade prostate cancer (P = .007) among men with higher baseline selenium status, and concluded: \"Men should avoid selenium or vitamin E supplementation at doses that exceed recommended dietary intakes.\" The tolerable upper intake level is 400 mcg/day, so one capsule uses half of it before food. Nothing on the product page discloses any of this; the selenium is framed purely as antioxidant and colon support.",
          "evidence": "PMID 19066370 · PMID 24563519 · NCT00006392",
          "source_url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24563519/",
          "required_caveat": "The 91% figure comes from a case-cohort subgroup analysis within SELECT, not from a pre-specified primary endpoint, so it is hypothesis-generating rather than definitive. This product is not claimed to cause cancer. The safe framing is the trialists' own recommendation, quoted above."
        },
        {
          "code": "cfu-basis-unstated",
          "summary": "\"Total Probiotic Activity 70 Billion CFUs\" is printed with no temporal qualifier at all. The brand's dedicated quality page describes probiotic enumeration testing against \"established CFU count specifications\" but states no shelf-life basis and no at-expiry guarantee. In a set where nine of 27 products guarantee potency through expiry, a 70 billion headline anchored to nothing is doing comparative work it has not earned.",
          "evidence": "Brand carousel panel image · physicianschoice.com/pages/quality-standards-and-testing",
          "source_url": "https://physicianschoice.com/pages/quality-standards-and-testing",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "hawthorn-at-one-thirty-sixth-of-trial-dose",
          "summary": "25 mg of unstandardised \"Hawthorne Berry\". Hawthorn's cardiovascular evidence is built on standardised extracts at 900 and 1800 mg/day (PMID 12040357, n=209, NYHA III, with the effect appearing at 1800 mg). This is 1/36 to 1/72 of the studied dose, of a different preparation.",
          "evidence": "PMID 12040357",
          "source_url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12040357/",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "de-facto-proprietary-blend",
          "summary": "Technically a \"Probiotic Blend 202 mg\" with eight organisms named — but one aggregate 70 billion CFU figure and no per-organism allocation delivers exactly the opacity of a proprietary blend. The 70 billion could be 69 billion of the cheapest organism.",
          "evidence": "Brand carousel panel image",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "developed-with-doctors-none-named",
          "summary": "\"Developed with Doctors◊\" with no doctor named, no credentials and no disclosure of employment or payment. The on-page expert panel for a men's product is Dr. Jennifer Roelands MD (board-certified OB/GYN), Angela Pifer (functional-medicine nutritionist) and Dr. Mona Fahoum ND — no urologist, no gastroenterologist, no men's-health specialist.",
          "evidence": "physicianschoice.com product page, verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": "https://physicianschoice.com/products/physicians-choice-probiotics-for-men-70-billion-cfu-8-strains",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "brand-expert-conflates-strain-and-species",
          "summary": "The brand's own expert copy, on the page selling a species-only product, reads: \"look for one that contains a diverse array of well-researched probiotic strains, such as Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium species.\" It also asserts an uncited universal threshold: \"The potency, or colony-forming units (CFUs), should be at least 10 billion CFUs per serving.\"\"",
          "evidence": "physicianschoice.com product page, verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "spam-review-in-a-six-review-average",
          "summary": "The product carries 6 reviews at a 5.0 average. The most recent 5-star entry, still live and still counted in that average as of 30 July 2026, is an advert for a herbal herpes/HSV cure with a gmail contact address.",
          "evidence": "physicianschoice.com product page JSON-LD (reviewCount 6, ratingValue 5.0), verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": "This is a moderation failure that makes a six-review sample unusable as a quality signal. It is not evidence of review manipulation by the brand."
        },
        {
          "code": "panel-exists-only-as-an-image",
          "summary": "The strings \"202 mg\", \"70 Billion CFUs\" and the label's own typo \"esablished\" all return zero matches in the page source. The Supplement Facts panel exists only inside a product-carousel JPEG — unreadable to a screen reader, a price-comparison tool or an interaction checker.",
          "evidence": "physicianschoice.com page source, verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "typo-on-the-brands-own-panel",
          "summary": "The Supplement Facts image reads \"Daily Value (DV) not esablished\". The typo is on the brand's own artwork.",
          "evidence": "Brand carousel panel image",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        }
      ],
      "could_not_verify": [
        {
          "item": "Any government label record for the men's SKU",
          "why": "There is none. Physician's Choice files a DSLD record for the women's probiotic (323205) and not for the men's. Every men's panel number on this page rests on the brand's own carousel JPEG, which was downloaded and read directly, and independently re-read during the audit. There is no government-transcribed corroboration."
        },
        {
          "item": "Whether NSF cGMP applies to the facility making this SKU",
          "why": "The brand's own wording is conditional (\"may include\"), and nsf.org refuses automated queries."
        },
        {
          "item": "The conclusions of the Cochrane selenium review (PMID 29376219)",
          "why": "The record's identity was verified; its results section was not read. No directional conclusion is attributed to it anywhere on this site."
        }
      ],
      "audit_corrections": [
        {
          "finding": "The teardown reported the brand's quality page as asserting \"NSF cGMP Certified\" facility and Eurofins/Light Labs testing for this product.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Softened. The page's actual framing is conditional — certifications its manufacturing partners \"may include\", and labs it \"works with, including\" — and neither is asserted for this SKU. The page now says so.",
          "evidence": "prod-a-audit.md §3.5"
        },
        {
          "finding": "No government label record exists for the men's SKU, so every panel figure rests on a brand image.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "The audit re-downloaded and re-read the brand's own carousel JPEG and confirmed the transcription line by line — selenium 200 mcg / 364% DV, blend 202 mg, \"Total Probiotic Activity 70 Billion CFUs\" with no temporal qualifier, prebiotic 50 mg, Hawthorne Berry 25 mg, and the \"esablished\" typo. It remains a single-source panel and the page says so.",
          "evidence": "prod-a-audit.md §5.1, §7.1"
        }
      ],
      "label_evidence": [
        {
          "type": "photo-of-panel",
          "id": "MEN-30CT-CAROUSEL_6_3.2.0",
          "url": "https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/2677/6462/files/MEN-30CT-CAROUSEL_6_3.2.0.jpg",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-28",
          "note": "The brand's own Supplement Facts carousel image, downloaded and transcribed directly, then independently re-read during the audit pass. The panel is not present as text anywhere in the page HTML."
        },
        {
          "type": "brand-page-capture",
          "id": "physicianschoice-mens-pdp-2026-07-30",
          "url": "https://physicianschoice.com/products/physicians-choice-probiotics-for-men-70-billion-cfu-8-strains",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "Live page, HTTP 200. Price, SKU MEN-30CT-AMZ, claims and review block."
        },
        {
          "type": "dsld",
          "id": "323205",
          "url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/323205",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "Women's comparator, entered 2024-12-21, on-market. There is no men's record."
        }
      ],
      "product_url": "https://physicianschoice.com/products/physicians-choice-probiotics-for-men-70-billion-cfu-8-strains",
      "last_verified": "2026-07-30"
    },
    {
      "slug": "renew-life-ultimate-flora-mens-complete-90-billion",
      "page_url": "https://bestprobioticformen.com/products/renew-life-ultimate-flora-mens-complete-90-billion/",
      "brand": "Renew Life",
      "product": "Renew Life Ultimate Flora Men's Complete Probiotic 90 Billion (RN1550161)",
      "cohort": "D27-founding",
      "teardown_complete": true,
      "panel_transcribed": true,
      "marketed_as": "marketed-to-men",
      "lead_finding": "The product page runs a strain-to-benefit table crediting twelve branded strain designators. Only one of them — L. rhamnosus GG — is on the Supplement Facts panel. Eleven are not in the bottle, and the panel's own codes collide with three of them by a single character.",
      "cfu": {
        "claim_as_printed": "90 Billion CFU (49 billion Bifidobacterium, 41 billion Lactobacillus / Lactococcus / Streptococcus)",
        "basis": "through-expiry",
        "basis_verbatim": "¹At Expiration Date under recommended storage conditions. Store in a cool, dry place. Refrigeration not required. Provides postbiotic benefits from inanimate organisms."
      },
      "strain_designators": "all-organisms-coded",
      "organism_slots": [
        {
          "slot_index": 1,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium lactis",
          "organism_corrected": "Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis",
          "designator_as_printed": "UF-12",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "untraceable-house-code",
          "query_run": "\"UF-12\"",
          "note": "\"UF-12\" AND Bifidobacterium returns 0 records."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 2,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium lactis",
          "organism_corrected": "Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis",
          "designator_as_printed": "UF-IM04",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "untraceable-house-code",
          "query_run": "\"UF-IM04\"",
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 3,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium lactis",
          "organism_corrected": "Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis",
          "designator_as_printed": "UF-DG19",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "untraceable-house-code",
          "query_run": "\"UF-DG19\"",
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 4,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium lactis",
          "organism_corrected": "Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis",
          "designator_as_printed": "UF-07",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "untraceable-house-code",
          "query_run": "\"UF-07\"",
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 5,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium lactis",
          "organism_corrected": "Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis",
          "designator_as_printed": "UF-50",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "untraceable-house-code",
          "query_run": "\"UF-50\"",
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 6,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium lactis",
          "organism_corrected": "Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis",
          "designator_as_printed": "UF-26",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "untraceable-house-code",
          "query_run": "\"UF-26\"",
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 7,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium bifidum",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "UF-910",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "untraceable-house-code",
          "query_run": "\"UF-910\"",
          "note": "Exact-phrase PubMed query \"UF-910\" returns 0 records."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 8,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium breve",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "UF-3",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "untraceable-house-code",
          "query_run": "\"UF-3\"",
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 9,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium infantis",
          "organism_corrected": "Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis",
          "designator_as_printed": "UF-019",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "untraceable-house-code",
          "query_run": "\"UF-019\"",
          "note": "\"UF-019\" returns 0 records — a code the original teardown never queried, run during the audit."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 10,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium longum",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "UF-536",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "untraceable-house-code",
          "query_run": "\"UF-536\"",
          "note": "Exact-phrase PubMed query \"UF-536\" returns 0 records."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 11,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus plantarum",
          "organism_corrected": "Lactiplantibacillus plantarum",
          "designator_as_printed": "UF-217",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "untraceable-house-code",
          "query_run": "\"UF-217\"",
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 12,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus plantarum",
          "organism_corrected": "Lactiplantibacillus plantarum",
          "designator_as_printed": "UF-987",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "untraceable-house-code",
          "query_run": "\"UF-987\"",
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 13,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus plantarum",
          "organism_corrected": "Lactiplantibacillus plantarum",
          "designator_as_printed": "UF-115",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "untraceable-house-code",
          "query_run": "\"UF-115\"",
          "note": "One character from Lp-115®, a real strain the product page credits with a benefit and the panel does not contain."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 14,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus acidophilus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "UF-01",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "untraceable-house-code",
          "query_run": "\"UF-01\"",
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 15,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus acidophilus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "UF-5",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "untraceable-house-code",
          "query_run": "\"UF-5\"",
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 16,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactococcus lactis",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "UF-23",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "untraceable-house-code",
          "query_run": "\"UF-23\"",
          "note": "One character from Li-23™, a real strain the product page credits with a benefit and the panel does not contain."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 17,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus rhamnosus",
          "organism_corrected": "Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus",
          "designator_as_printed": "GG",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "human-rct",
          "query_run": "\"Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG\" AND randomized",
          "note": "= ATCC 53103, genuinely the most-studied probiotic strain in existence. The one traceable designator on this panel. Its share of the 41 billion Lactobacillus / Lactococcus / Streptococcus subtotal is not disclosed, so the one strain with real evidence is present at an unknown dose."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 18,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus rhamnosus",
          "organism_corrected": "Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus",
          "designator_as_printed": "UF-11",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "untraceable-house-code",
          "query_run": "\"UF-11\"",
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 19,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus fermentum",
          "organism_corrected": "Limosilactobacillus fermentum",
          "designator_as_printed": "UF-120",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "untraceable-house-code",
          "query_run": "\"UF-120\"",
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 20,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus fermentum",
          "organism_corrected": "Limosilactobacillus fermentum",
          "designator_as_printed": "UF-226",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "untraceable-house-code",
          "query_run": "\"UF-226\"",
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 21,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus casei",
          "organism_corrected": "Lacticaseibacillus casei",
          "designator_as_printed": "UF-431",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "untraceable-house-code",
          "query_run": "\"UF-431\"",
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 22,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus casei",
          "organism_corrected": "Lacticaseibacillus casei",
          "designator_as_printed": "UF-121",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "untraceable-house-code",
          "query_run": "\"UF-121\"",
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 23,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus gasseri",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "UF-2055",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "untraceable-house-code",
          "query_run": "\"UF-2055\"",
          "note": "Exact-phrase PubMed query \"UF-2055\" returns 0 records."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 24,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus reuteri",
          "organism_corrected": "Limosilactobacillus reuteri",
          "designator_as_printed": "UF-14",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "untraceable-house-code",
          "query_run": "\"UF-14\"",
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 25,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus paracasei",
          "organism_corrected": "Lacticaseibacillus paracasei",
          "designator_as_printed": "UF-19",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "untraceable-house-code",
          "query_run": "\"UF-19\"",
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 26,
          "organism_as_printed": "Streptococcus thermophilus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "UF-336",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "untraceable-house-code",
          "query_run": "\"UF-336\"",
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 27,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus salivarius",
          "organism_corrected": "Ligilactobacillus salivarius",
          "designator_as_printed": "UF-862",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "untraceable-house-code",
          "query_run": "\"UF-862\"",
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 28,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus brevis",
          "organism_corrected": "Levilactobacillus brevis",
          "designator_as_printed": "UF-35",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "untraceable-house-code",
          "query_run": "\"UF-35\"",
          "note": "One character from LBr-35™, a real Danisco/IFF strain the product page credits with a benefit and the panel does not contain."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 29,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus helveticus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "UF-142",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "untraceable-house-code",
          "query_run": "\"UF-142\"",
          "note": "\"UF-142\" returns 0 records — queried during the audit, not in the original pass."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 30,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus bulgaricus",
          "organism_corrected": "Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus",
          "designator_as_printed": "UF-165",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "untraceable-house-code",
          "query_run": "\"UF-165\"",
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 31,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus bulgaricus",
          "organism_corrected": "Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus",
          "designator_as_printed": "UF-563",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "untraceable-house-code",
          "query_run": "\"UF-563\"",
          "note": null
        }
      ],
      "slots_with_human_rct": 1,
      "price": {
        "amount_usd": 45.82,
        "unit": "30-capsule bottle (30 servings, 1 delayed-release capsule per serving)",
        "cost_per_day_usd": 1.53,
        "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
        "source_url": "https://www.renewlife.com/products/ultimate-flora-mens-complete-probiotic-90-billion-30-delayed-release-vegan-caps-rn1550161"
      },
      "price_note": null,
      "certifications": [
        {
          "programme": "Non-GMO Project Verified",
          "status": "register-unreachable",
          "register_url": "https://www.nongmoproject.org/find-non-gmo/",
          "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
          "detail": "Claimed by the brand. The certifier's product search returned HTTP 403 to automated requests. Note the scope even if current: it certifies GMO status. It says nothing about CFU count, identity or purity."
        }
      ],
      "womens_comparison": {
        "status": "diffed",
        "womens_product": "Ultimate Flora Women's Complete Probiotic 90 Billion (RN1550146)",
        "differences": [
          {
            "statement": "Present only in the women's product: L. crispatus UF-88, L. jensenii UF-522, L. reuteri UF-pH4, L. rhamnosus UF-V1 — exactly four.",
            "evidence": "Brand panel image RN1550161 versus RN1550146"
          },
          {
            "statement": "Present only in the men's product: B. infantis UF-019, Lactococcus lactis UF-23, L. helveticus UF-142, L. plantarum UF-115, L. rhamnosus UF-11, L. fermentum UF-226, L. casei UF-121, L. bulgaricus UF-563 — exactly eight, of which five are simply second or third strains of a species already in the blend.",
            "evidence": "Brand panel image RN1550161 versus RN1550146"
          },
          {
            "statement": "Men's 31 strains in 170 mg, 49 B / 41 B split; women's 27 strains in 200 mg, 46 B / 44 B.",
            "evidence": "Brand panel image RN1550161 versus RN1550146"
          }
        ],
        "shared": [
          "Twenty-three strains are on both panels.",
          "90 billion CFU at expiration date in both. Same $45.82. Same 30-count."
        ],
        "required_caveat": "This comparison cuts against the men's product. L. crispatus and L. jensenii are dominant species of the healthy human vaginal microbiome and L. reuteri has a urogenital rationale, so the women's formula has a design decision you can articulate. The men's product contains no organism with any male-anatomy-specific rationale. It is not differentiated for men; it is differentiated from the women's product.",
        "evidence": "Brand panel image RN1550161 versus brand panel image RN1550146, both read directly",
        "checked_on": "2026-07-30"
      },
      "findings": [
        {
          "code": "ghost-strains-in-the-benefit-table",
          "summary": "The product page's Ingredients tab runs a strain-to-benefit table naming twelve branded designators: GG, Bi-26, HN019, La-14, Bi-07, BI-04, NCFM®, Lpc-37®, LBr-35™, Lc-11®, Li-23™ and Lp-115®. Only GG is on the Supplement Facts panel. Eleven are not in the bottle. Taken strictly: of the eight designators credited with a health benefit — colonisation, immune, digestive regularity, respiratory — seven are absent, and a further four credited only with \"formula diversity\" are also absent. These are real, well-characterised Danisco/DuPont/IFF-lineage strains with genuine literature, which is what makes the mismatch damaging rather than merely untidy: the page borrows the evidence base of a strain roster the product does not contain.",
          "evidence": "Brand panel image RN1550161 versus the product page's own Ingredients tab, both verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": "https://www.renewlife.com/products/ultimate-flora-mens-complete-probiotic-90-billion-30-delayed-release-vegan-caps-rn1550161",
          "required_caveat": "This is a documented page-copy versus panel mismatch. The most probable explanation is copy that was never updated after a reformulation from branded strains to UF- strains. It is reported as a mismatch with consequences, not as proven intent to deceive."
        },
        {
          "code": "near-miss-numeral-collisions",
          "summary": "The mismatch is hard to catch because the numerals collide while the strains differ: UF-35 against LBr-35, UF-23 against Li-23, UF-115 against Lp-115.",
          "evidence": "Brand panel image RN1550161",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "thirty-of-thirty-one-designators-untraceable",
          "summary": "Every UF- code returns zero published records. Exact-phrase queries for \"UF-2055\", \"UF-536\", \"UF-910\" and \"UF-12\" AND Bifidobacterium all return 0, and three further codes tested during the audit — \"UF-019\", \"UF-88\", \"UF-142\" — also return 0. They map to no ATCC, DSM, CNCM or NCIMB deposit PubMed indexes.",
          "evidence": "PubMed exact-phrase queries re-run 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "strain-count-stated-as-both-12-and-31",
          "summary": "The same page states \"12 probiotic strains (see strains breakdown below)\" in the Ingredients tab and \"90 Billion CFU¹ from 31 probiotic strains\" in the description and schema markup, with an image alt-text saying \"31 strains\". The panel has 31.",
          "evidence": "renewlife.com product page, verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "misleading-ten-to-fifteen-million-comparator",
          "summary": "Verbatim: \"Our 90 billion CFU¹ formula delivers far more than the 10 to 15 million CFU you'll commonly find in other probiotics.\" The mainstream competitive set is dosed in billions. Framed against that comparator the product appears six to nine thousand times stronger than the alternatives.",
          "evidence": "renewlife.com product page, verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "three-product-names-in-one-listing",
          "summary": "The page title says \"Ultimate Flora Men's Complete Probiotic 90 Billion\", the body copy calls it \"Men's Once Daily\", and the panel calls the blend \"Ultimate Flora™ Men's Once Daily 90 Billion Blend\" — while the brand's live catalogue separately sells Men's Care 50 Billion (RN1530124) and Men's Once Daily 65 Billion (RN27502). Anyone citing this product must cite the SKU code, not the name.",
          "evidence": "renewlife.com /products.json, 72 products, verified 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "strain-count-inflated-by-duplicate-species",
          "summary": "Multiple strains of B. lactis, L. plantarum, L. acidophilus, L. casei, L. fermentum, L. bulgaricus and L. rhamnosus are each counted individually toward the 31. Listing \"B. longum UF-536\" and \"B. infantis UF-019\" as two entries is taxonomically listing the same species twice — legitimate at strain level, inflationary at the headline level.",
          "evidence": "Brand panel image RN1550161",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "mens-faq-with-nothing-men-specific-in-it",
          "summary": "The FAQ answer to \"WHAT DO PROBIOTICS DO FOR MEN?\" is generic microbiome copy under a men's heading, containing nothing men-specific.",
          "evidence": "renewlife.com product page, verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        }
      ],
      "could_not_verify": [
        {
          "item": "What any UF- code actually is",
          "why": "Thirty of the 31 designators return zero PubMed records. They are not ATCC, DSM, CNCM or NCIMB accessions and the supplier behind them is unidentified. The defensible claim is that the public cannot verify them — not that they are worthless. A UF- code could be a well-characterised organism under a supplier alias."
        },
        {
          "item": "Any current government label record for this SKU",
          "why": "DSLD holds only a 2014 off-market \"Ultimate Flora Men's Complete\" (record 39477). The 31-strain panel published here rests on the brand's own label image, read directly and independently re-read during the audit."
        },
        {
          "item": "The dose of L. rhamnosus GG",
          "why": "Not disclosed. GG's share of the 41 billion Lactobacillus / Lactococcus / Streptococcus subtotal is unknown. If it is one twenty-first of that pool it is about 2 billion CFU; if it is a token inclusion it could be far less."
        },
        {
          "item": "Whether the Non-GMO Project verification is current",
          "why": "The certifier's product search returned HTTP 403."
        }
      ],
      "audit_corrections": [
        {
          "finding": "The teardown's headline finding was stated as \"10 of the 11 branded strains credited with clinical benefits are not in this product\".",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Miscounted, inside the file's most serious accusation. The page's own benefit table names twelve distinct designators, of which eleven are absent. The audit re-fetched the live table and confirmed the teardown's transcription verbatim, line for line — only the summary sentence was wrong. This page publishes the strict form (eight health-benefit designators, seven absent) with the broad form beside it, because a brand's lawyer will count the table.",
          "evidence": "prod-a-audit.md §4.1"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown's headline said \"Renew Life's 31 strain designators are untraceable\".",
          "what_the_audit_did": "It is 30 of 31. GG is fully traceable. Corrected here and in the strain list.",
          "evidence": "prod-a-audit.md §4.8"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown said four of the eight men's-only entries are second or third strains of a species already in the blend.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "It is five of eight. Corrected against the panel image: B. infantis UF-019 and Lactococcus lactis UF-23 introduce species not otherwise present; L. helveticus UF-142 does too; the remaining five duplicate species already in the blend.",
          "evidence": "prod-a-audit.md §4.5"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The universe file listed this product as \"Ultimate Flora Men's Care Probiotic 90 Billion\".",
          "what_the_audit_did": "No such product exists. The brand's live catalogue carries three separate men's SKUs and the universe file had spliced the name of one onto the strength and URL of another. The correct entry is Ultimate Flora Men's Complete Probiotic 90 Billion, SKU RN1550161 — and this site cites the SKU code, not the name, wherever the product is referenced.",
          "evidence": "prod-a-audit.md §2.1"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown asserted, as a first-class absence finding, that there is no randomised human evidence that any probiotic does anything for the prostate.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Refuted as stated, and it contradicted the project's own sibling file on the same date. Randomised probiotic trials with prostate endpoints do exist — chronic bacterial prostatitis (PMID 39858898), PSA progression in active surveillance (PMID 41152052), urinary bacterial load (PMID 33346320). The version that survives is narrower and is what this site publishes: there is no randomised controlled trial of a probiotic for benign prostatic hyperplasia in humans, and none of the existing prostate trials tests any organism in these products.",
          "evidence": "prod-a-audit.md §4.4"
        }
      ],
      "label_evidence": [
        {
          "type": "photo-of-panel",
          "id": "RN1550161_REV_20C_20THUMBNAILS_SFB",
          "url": "https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/RN1550161_REV_20C_20THUMBNAILS_SFB_4e3a3c4f-1c5d-4fb8-9809-897316bd63b4.jpg",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-28",
          "note": "The brand's own Supplement Facts image, read directly and independently re-read during the audit: 31 designators with every UF- code confirmed, blend 170 mg, 49 B / 41 B / 90 B, prebiotic 160 mg, footnote verbatim. Strain arithmetic checks — 10 Bifido plus 21 others is 31."
        },
        {
          "type": "photo-of-panel",
          "id": "RN1550146_20C_20Thumbnails_SFB",
          "url": "https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/RN1550146_20C_20Thumbnails_SFB_01bf2578-40a6-4acc-9a5d-a92ece7cad06.jpg",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-28",
          "note": "Women's comparator panel, read independently."
        },
        {
          "type": "brand-page-capture",
          "id": "renewlife-rn1550161-pdp-2026-07-30",
          "url": "https://www.renewlife.com/products/ultimate-flora-mens-complete-probiotic-90-billion-30-delayed-release-vegan-caps-rn1550161",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "Live page carrying the benefit table, both strain counts, the \"10 to 15 million CFU\" comparator and the price."
        }
      ],
      "product_url": "https://www.renewlife.com/products/ultimate-flora-mens-complete-probiotic-90-billion-30-delayed-release-vegan-caps-rn1550161",
      "last_verified": "2026-07-30"
    },
    {
      "slug": "ritual-synbiotic-plus",
      "page_url": "https://bestprobioticformen.com/products/ritual-synbiotic-plus/",
      "brand": "Ritual",
      "product": "Ritual Synbiotic+",
      "cohort": "D27-founding",
      "teardown_complete": true,
      "panel_transcribed": true,
      "marketed_as": "unisex",
      "lead_finding": "\"Tributyrin has been clinically studied at the dose of 300mg, the same amount included in Synbiotic+.\" No published human clinical trial of tributyrin, or of CoreBiome, at 300 mg could be located. The only CoreBiome publication is in vitro; the only human tributyrin trial record in PubMed is an unreported protocol paper at 4 g/day.",
      "cfu": {
        "claim_as_printed": "11B CFUs (Probiotic Blend, 40 mg)",
        "basis": "through-expiry",
        "basis_verbatim": "At Expiration Date under recommended storage conditions"
      },
      "strain_designators": "all-organisms-coded",
      "organism_slots": [
        {
          "slot_index": 1,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus rhamnosus",
          "organism_corrected": "Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus",
          "designator_as_printed": "LGG",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "human-rct",
          "query_run": "\"Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG\" AND randomized controlled trial[pt]",
          "note": "170 randomised-trial records. A genuine, unambiguous strain identifier — the trademark resolves one-to-one to a deposited strain — but the deposit number itself (ATCC 53103) appears nowhere on the label or the product page, on a product whose brand promise is traceability."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 2,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium animalis ssp. lactis",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "BB-12",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "human-rct",
          "query_run": "\"BB-12\" AND randomized controlled trial[pt]",
          "note": "95 randomised-trial records on the trademark, 5 on the full binomial. Deposit number DSM 15954, also absent from the label. LGG and BB-12 have been co-administered in 20 randomised trials, which is more than most multi-strain products can say."
        }
      ],
      "slots_with_human_rct": 2,
      "price": {
        "amount_usd": 54,
        "unit": "30-capsule bottle (30 servings, 1 capsule per serving), monthly subscription price",
        "cost_per_day_usd": 1.8,
        "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
        "source_url": "https://ritual.com/products/synbiotic-plus-for-gut-health"
      },
      "price_note": null,
      "certifications": [
        {
          "programme": "Non-GMO Project Verified",
          "status": "brand-asserted-unverified",
          "register_url": "https://www.nongmoproject.org/find-non-gmo/",
          "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
          "detail": "Downgraded on audit. The teardown recorded this as verified with Synbiotic+ explicitly listed among nine Ritual products, but the retained artefact behind that finding is the Non-GMO Project's own \"Page not found\" 404. Re-checked live: the Product Finder returns HTTP 200 but renders its list client-side, with zero occurrences of \"Ritual\", \"Synbiotic\" or any product string in the HTML and no reachable JSON route. The issuer's register could not be reached by any route, and every available corroboration is brand-side. Ritual's own journal says ten of its products are Non-GMO Project Verified, against the teardown's nine."
        },
        {
          "programme": "Certified B Corporation",
          "status": "register-unreachable",
          "register_url": "https://www.bcorporation.net/",
          "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
          "detail": "Partially confirmed. B Lab's directory returns HTTP 403 and the retained artefact is a Cloudflare challenge page. That Ritual is a Certified B Corporation certified in 2022 is corroborated from multiple independent sources; the month, the standards version and the industry classification recorded in the teardown are unverifiable. It is also a company-level certification and says nothing about this product's contents."
        },
        {
          "programme": "Clean Label Project Purity Award",
          "status": "absent-from-register",
          "register_url": "https://cleanlabelproject.org/brand/ritual/",
          "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
          "detail": "Checked at the certifier's own live listing, which was reachable. Clean Label Project names 15 Ritual products and the string \"synbiotic\" does not appear anywhere in the page HTML. The certificate itself defers to that listing: certificate numbers DSP0005-2023G-13, PNV0022-2023G-131 and PPW0012-2023G-132, entity \"Natals Inc dba Ritual\", effective 2023-09-07, issued 2025-10-27, covering Dietary Supplements V1, Prenatal Vitamins V11 and Protein Powder V12, and stating \"Certified Products: See Certified Product Listings\". This is not called false: it could be a lag in the public listing, a scope difference, or a badge applied at brand level rather than SKU level. But the badge sits under a heading reading \"Your product has been independently certified\", and a reader who clicks through to verify will not find it."
        },
        {
          "programme": "Third-party tested for microbes and heavy metals",
          "status": "brand-asserted-unverified",
          "register_url": null,
          "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
          "detail": "Per-lot testing for total aerobic count, yeast and mould, Salmonella, E. coli and S. aureus is claimed without a named laboratory."
        }
      ],
      "womens_comparison": {
        "status": "no-womens-sku",
        "womens_product": null,
        "differences": [],
        "shared": [],
        "required_caveat": "One Synbiotic+ SKU, one variant, marketed to everyone. Ritual sells Essential for Men 18+ and Essential for Men 50+ multivitamins, so the brand is perfectly capable of gendering a product and did not gender this one. Its scientific advisory board as listed on the page includes an OB/GYN and no urologist or men's-health specialist, and the brand's centre of gravity is prenatal and women's health.",
        "evidence": null,
        "checked_on": null
      },
      "findings": [
        {
          "code": "tributyrin-dose-claim-with-no-locatable-trial",
          "summary": "\"Tributyrin has been clinically studied at the dose of 300mg, the same amount included in Synbiotic+.\" Four separate searches found no published human clinical trial of tributyrin, or of CoreBiome, at 300 mg. The single CoreBiome publication is an in vitro study; the only human tributyrin trial record is an unreported protocol paper at 4 g/day. Everything else in the tributyrin literature with an outcome is livestock — dairy calves and weanling pigs.",
          "evidence": "PMID 41473189 and PMID 41248397; four PubMed queries re-run 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41473189/",
          "required_caveat": "The claim may rest on unpublished sponsor data, which is legal and common. It is recorded as unverified, not as false."
        },
        {
          "code": "clean-label-project-badge-absent-from-the-certifiers-listing",
          "summary": "The badge appears on the Synbiotic+ product page under a heading reading \"Your product has been independently certified for quality and purity.\" Clean Label Project's own brand listing names 15 Ritual products and Synbiotic+ is not among them; the string \"synbiotic\" does not appear anywhere in the page HTML. The certificate defers to that listing.",
          "evidence": "cleanlabelproject.org/brand/ritual/, checked live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": "https://cleanlabelproject.org/brand/ritual/",
          "required_caveat": "Not called false. It could be a lag in the public listing, a scope difference, or a brand-level badge applied to a SKU page. But a reader who clicks through to verify will not find it."
        },
        {
          "code": "proprietary-probiotic-blend-with-no-split",
          "summary": "11 billion CFU for LGG and BB-12 combined, unsplit. At that total, at most one of the two can be at its typical single-strain trial dose. Which one is unknowable from the label.",
          "evidence": "Live Supplement Facts panel and DSLD 299239",
          "source_url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/299239",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "no-deposit-numbers-on-a-traceability-brand",
          "summary": "LGG's deposit is ATCC 53103 and BB-12's is DSM 15954. Neither appears on the label or the product page — on a brand whose entire promise is \"Made Traceable\" and which publishes supplier city and country for each ingredient.",
          "evidence": "Live Supplement Facts panel and DSLD 299239",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "preforpro-effect-claim-used-a-different-companion-strain",
          "summary": "The 15 mg dose claim is exactly correct — that is the capsule used in the PHAGE trial, and Ritual gets full credit for it. The effect claim is where it slips: the only trial showing PreforPro doing anything to beneficial bacteria is PHAGE-2, which paired it with Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis BL04 — not with LGG and not with BB-12 — and reported within-group rather than placebo-controlled improvements. The one trial that did test PreforPro alone against placebo was powered for safety and reported symptom improvement in the placebo arm too.",
          "evidence": "PMID 30157383 and PMID 32824480",
          "source_url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32824480/",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "product-level-evidence-is-in-vitro-only",
          "summary": "There is no human randomised trial of the finished Synbiotic+ formulation. The product-level evidence is a colon-model and SHIME study run by a Belgian contract lab. Ritual labels this \"in vitro\" prominently and repeatedly in the section header and the explainer, which is more honest than most of this category manages — but the page headline \"3-in-1 clinically-studied prebiotics, probiotics and postbiotic\" reads as if the product is clinically studied.",
          "evidence": "ritual.com product page, verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "mg-amounts-on-a-probiotic-panel-carry-almost-no-information",
          "summary": "The 2023 government record says the Probiotic Blend is 120 mg with an 11 billion CFU note. The current label says 40 mg with the same 11 billion. A threefold reduction in mass at a constant organism count — consistent with a benign switch to a more concentrated raw material, and a demonstration that anyone comparing probiotics by \"mg of probiotic blend\" is comparing filler.",
          "evidence": "DSLD 299239 versus the live label",
          "source_url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/299239",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "buy-once-penalty",
          "summary": "$61.36 plus $10.99 shipping is $72.35 for a single bottle, against $54.00 on subscription and $43.20 on the sale price at time of check — a 34% to 67% surcharge for declining a recurring order, with free shipping restored only for subscribers.",
          "evidence": "ritual.com checkout options, verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        }
      ],
      "could_not_verify": [
        {
          "item": "Any human clinical trial of tributyrin or CoreBiome at 300 mg",
          "why": "Not locatable. The randomised-trial query for tributyrin returns three records and none is a tributyrin supplementation trial. The CoreBiome query returns one record and it is in vitro — a gut-model study with cell co-cultures and no human subjects. The only human tributyrin randomised-trial record in PubMed is a study protocol for a pilot feasibility trial at 4 g/day in major depressive disorder: 13.3 times Ritual's dose, a different population, a different outcome, and results not yet published. The claim may rest on unpublished sponsor data, which is legal and common; it is simply not verifiable by a reader. Note also that Ritual's own product study and CoreBiome's ingredient study were produced by the same contract lab."
        },
        {
          "item": "The current 40 mg probiotic blend mass",
          "why": "The government record says 120 mg, with the same 11 billion CFU note. The 40 mg figure was read from the live page DOM and is not independently reproducible. Published as: the 2023 government record says 120 mg; the current label reads 40 mg, read from the live DOM on 2026-07-30."
        },
        {
          "item": "Whether Synbiotic+ holds a Clean Label Project Purity Award",
          "why": "It is absent from Clean Label Project's own certified-product listing for the brand."
        },
        {
          "item": "Whether the Non-GMO Project verification covers this product",
          "why": "The issuer's register could not be reached by any route."
        },
        {
          "item": "The effective date of the blend-mass reformulation",
          "why": "No dated Ritual label image could be retrieved."
        },
        {
          "item": "The LGG and BB-12 split within the 11 billion CFU",
          "why": "Not disclosed. LGG monotherapy trials are typically dosed around 10^10 CFU/day and BB-12 trials at 10^9 to 10^10. At 11 billion combined, at most one of the two can sit at its typical single-strain trial dose, and only on a heavily lopsided split. Which one, if either, is not determinable from the label."
        }
      ],
      "audit_corrections": [
        {
          "finding": "The teardown graded Ritual's Non-GMO Project Verified claim as verified, with Synbiotic+ explicitly listed among nine Ritual products.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Misgraded. The retained artefact is the Non-GMO Project's own \"Page not found\" 404, and the issuer's register could not be reached by any route on re-check. Downgraded to brand-asserted, unverified, and the nine-product co-listing is dropped. Note the asymmetry the audit named: the sibling teardown in the same wave handled this same certifier correctly, recording it as brand-asserted because the site returned 403. The stricter rule is applied here.",
          "evidence": "prod-d-audit.md §2"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown graded Ritual's B Corp certification as verified with a specific month, standards version and industry classification.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Partially confirmed. B Lab's directory returns 403 and the retained artefact is a Cloudflare challenge. Certification in 2022 is corroborated independently; the month, the standards version and the industry classification are unverifiable and are not published.",
          "evidence": "prod-d-audit.md §2"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown presented \"the complete PreforPro literature\" as the four records returned by a single query, and listed the PHAGE safety study among them.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "The count is right and the membership is not. The query returns a different fourth paper, and the PHAGE study is not in the result set. It is a real and relevant trial, correctly described, but it was not produced by the stated query. Reframed as the PreforPro trial literature assembled from the query plus the PHAGE trial.",
          "evidence": "prod-d-audit.md §1.2"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown reported the current probiotic blend mass as 40 mg.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Browser-only. The government record's 120 mg is verified verbatim including the potency note; the live products.json carries no panel. Published with the provenance attached rather than as a flat fact.",
          "evidence": "prod-d-audit.md §7"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The Clean Label Project finding and the tributyrin finding.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Both verified independently and both hold. Clean Label Project's brand listing was reachable, names exactly 15 Ritual products, and all 15 match the teardown verbatim; the certificate's numbers, entity, scopes, dates and signatory are all exact. On tributyrin, all four queries reproduce, the three randomised-trial hits are confirmed as not being tributyrin supplementation trials, the CoreBiome hit is confirmed in vitro, and the protocol paper's 4 g/day dose gives the 13.3-fold ratio exactly. The teardown's hedging on both is correct and is preserved.",
          "evidence": "prod-d-audit.md §2, §9"
        }
      ],
      "label_evidence": [
        {
          "type": "dsld",
          "id": "299239",
          "url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/299239",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "Entered 2023-08-23, on-market, and carrying no UPC. Records the Probiotic Blend at 120 mg with the note \"11 billion CFU at expiration date under recommended storage conditions\" — verified verbatim."
        },
        {
          "type": "brand-page-capture",
          "id": "ritual-synbiotic-pdp-2026-07-30",
          "url": "https://ritual.com/products/synbiotic-plus-for-gut-health",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "Live page read in-browser: the current panel with the 40 mg blend mass, the PreforPro and tributyrin dose claims, the in vitro study section and the certification badges. Shopify record product id 7482572669022, variant 42144416890974, SKU SYNBMT0MUS, barcode 850031975248 — the barcode independently confirmed twice."
        }
      ],
      "product_url": "https://ritual.com/products/synbiotic-plus-for-gut-health",
      "last_verified": "2026-07-30"
    },
    {
      "slug": "seed-ds-01-daily-synbiotic",
      "page_url": "https://bestprobioticformen.com/products/seed-ds-01-daily-synbiotic/",
      "brand": "Seed",
      "product": "Seed DS-01 Daily Synbiotic",
      "cohort": "D27-founding",
      "teardown_complete": true,
      "panel_transcribed": true,
      "marketed_as": "unisex",
      "lead_finding": "All 24 strain designators printed on this label were queried in quotes. Twenty-three return nothing at all, and the twenty-fourth returns one record that is a review, not a trial. As sold and as labelled, 0 of 24 strains can be mapped to any published human trial — and Seed is simultaneously the only product in this cohort with randomised placebo-controlled human trials of the finished formula at the sold dose.",
      "cfu": {
        "claim_as_printed": "53.6 Billion AFU (Active Fluorescent Units), across four blends",
        "basis": "through-expiry-off-label-only",
        "basis_verbatim": "Absent from the panel. From the help centre: \"It's safe to take if expired—however, we only guarantee potency and efficacy up until the expiration date.\"\""
      },
      "strain_designators": "all-organisms-coded",
      "organism_slots": [
        {
          "slot_index": 1,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium breve",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "SD-BR3-IT",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-records",
          "query_run": "\"SD-BR3-IT\"",
          "note": "Digestive Health Probiotic Blend. Decoded inference: B. breve BR03 (Probiotical) — 10 randomised-trial records. The decoding is an inference and is labelled as one — Seed publishes no mapping."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 2,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium longum",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "SD-BB536-JP",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-records",
          "query_run": "\"SD-BB536-JP\"",
          "note": "Digestive Health Probiotic Blend. Decoded inference: B. longum BB536 (Morinaga) — 39 randomised-trial records. The decoding is an inference and is labelled as one — Seed publishes no mapping."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 3,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "HRVD113-US",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-records",
          "query_run": "\"HRVD113-US\"",
          "note": "Digestive Health Probiotic Blend. Decoded inference: A Seed Harvard-collaboration isolate — no literature at all. The decoding is an inference and is labelled as one — Seed publishes no mapping."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 4,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactiplantibacillus plantarum",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "SD-LP1-IT",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-records",
          "query_run": "\"SD-LP1-IT\"",
          "note": "Digestive Health Probiotic Blend. Decoded inference: L. plantarum LP01 — 11 randomised-trial records. The decoding is an inference and is labelled as one — Seed publishes no mapping."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 5,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "SD-LR6-IT",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-records",
          "query_run": "\"SD-LR6-IT\"",
          "note": "Digestive Health Probiotic Blend. Decoded inference: L. rhamnosus LR06 — 6 randomised-trial records. The decoding is an inference and is labelled as one — Seed publishes no mapping."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 6,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium lactis",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "HRVD524-US",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-records",
          "query_run": "\"HRVD524-US\"",
          "note": "Digestive Health Probiotic Blend. Decoded inference: Harvard-collaboration isolate — no literature. The decoding is an inference and is labelled as one — Seed publishes no mapping."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 7,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium infantis",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "SD-M63-JP",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-records",
          "query_run": "\"SD-M63-JP\"",
          "note": "Digestive Health Probiotic Blend. Decoded inference: B. infantis M-63 (Morinaga) — 6 randomised-trial records. The decoding is an inference and is labelled as one — Seed publishes no mapping."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 8,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium lactis",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "SD-BS5-IT",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-records",
          "query_run": "\"SD-BS5-IT\"",
          "note": "Digestive Health Probiotic Blend. Decoded inference: Ambiguous decoding — BS01 gives 5 randomised-trial records, BS05 gives 0. The decoding is an inference and is labelled as one — Seed publishes no mapping."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 9,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lacticaseibacillus casei",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "HRVD300-US",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-records",
          "query_run": "\"HRVD300-US\"",
          "note": "Digestive Health Probiotic Blend. Decoded inference: Harvard-collaboration isolate — no literature. The decoding is an inference and is labelled as one — Seed publishes no mapping."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 10,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium breve",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "HRVD521-US",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-records",
          "query_run": "\"HRVD521-US\"",
          "note": "Digestive Health Probiotic Blend. Decoded inference: Harvard-collaboration isolate — no literature. The decoding is an inference and is labelled as one — Seed publishes no mapping."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 11,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium lactis",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "SD-150-BE",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-records",
          "query_run": "\"SD-150-BE\"",
          "note": "Digestive Health Probiotic Blend. Decoded inference: Not decodable. The decoding is an inference and is labelled as one — Seed publishes no mapping."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 12,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium longum",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "HRVD90b-US",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-records",
          "query_run": "\"HRVD90b-US\"",
          "note": "Digestive Health Probiotic Blend. Decoded inference: Harvard-collaboration isolate — no literature. The decoding is an inference and is labelled as one — Seed publishes no mapping."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 13,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "SD-GG-BE",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-records",
          "query_run": "\"SD-GG-BE\"",
          "note": "Digestive Health Probiotic Blend. Decoded inference: L. rhamnosus GG — 170 randomised-trial records. The decoding is an inference and is labelled as one — Seed publishes no mapping."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 14,
          "organism_as_printed": "Limosilactobacillus reuteri",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "RD830-FR",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-records",
          "query_run": "\"RD830-FR\"",
          "note": "Digestive Health Probiotic Blend. Decoded inference: L. reuteri RD830 — 0 records. The decoding is an inference and is labelled as one — Seed publishes no mapping."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 15,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus crispatus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "SD-LCR01-IT",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-records",
          "query_run": "\"SD-LCR01-IT\"",
          "note": "Digestive Health Probiotic Blend. Decoded inference: L. crispatus LCR01 — 0 records. The decoding is an inference and is labelled as one — Seed publishes no mapping."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 16,
          "organism_as_printed": "Limosilactobacillus fermentum",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "SD-LF8-IT",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-records",
          "query_run": "\"SD-LF8-IT\"",
          "note": "Digestive Health Probiotic Blend. Decoded inference: L. fermentum LF08 — 0 records. The decoding is an inference and is labelled as one — Seed publishes no mapping."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 17,
          "organism_as_printed": "Ligilactobacillus salivarius",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "SD-LS1-IT",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-records",
          "query_run": "\"SD-LS1-IT\"",
          "note": "Dermatological Health Probiotic Blend. Decoded inference: L. salivarius LS01 — 4 randomised-trial records. The decoding is an inference and is labelled as one — Seed publishes no mapping."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 18,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium longum",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "SD-CECT7347-SP",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-records",
          "query_run": "\"SD-CECT7347-SP\"",
          "note": "Dermatological Health Probiotic Blend. Decoded inference: CECT 7347 — 4 randomised-trial records. The decoding is an inference and is labelled as one — Seed publishes no mapping."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 19,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lacticaseibacillus casei",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "SD-CECT9104-SP",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-records",
          "query_run": "\"SD-CECT9104-SP\"",
          "note": "Dermatological Health Probiotic Blend. Decoded inference: CECT 9104 — 1 randomised-trial record. The decoding is an inference and is labelled as one — Seed publishes no mapping."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 20,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium lactis",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "SD-CECT8145-SP",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-records",
          "query_run": "\"SD-CECT8145-SP\"",
          "note": "Dermatological Health Probiotic Blend. Decoded inference: CECT 8145 — 4 randomised-trial records. The decoding is an inference and is labelled as one — Seed publishes no mapping."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 21,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactiplantibacillus plantarum",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "SD-LPLDL-UK",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-records",
          "query_run": "\"SD-LPLDL-UK\"",
          "note": "Cardiovascular Health Probiotic Blend. Decoded inference: L. plantarum ECGC 13110402 (Lp-LDL, OptiBiotix) — 2 randomised-trial records. Its cholesterol trial used 4 x 10^9 CFU/day of that strain alone; Seed's entire Cardiovascular blend is 4.21 billion AFU shared with a second organism, so on any split this strain sits below the dose at which the effect was shown.. The decoding is an inference and is labelled as one — Seed publishes no mapping."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 22,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium lactis",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "SD-MB2409-IT",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-records",
          "query_run": "\"SD-MB2409-IT\"",
          "note": "Cardiovascular Health Probiotic Blend. Decoded inference: B. lactis MB2409 — 0 records. The decoding is an inference and is labelled as one — Seed publishes no mapping."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 23,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium lactis",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "SD-BA5-IT",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-records",
          "query_run": "\"SD-BA5-IT\"",
          "note": "Micronutrient Synthesis Probiotic Blend. Decoded inference: BA05 — 2 records, 0 randomised trials. Seed footnotes this as \"Identical strain, formerly known as Bifidobacterium adolescentis SD-BA5-IT\".. The decoding is an inference and is labelled as one — Seed publishes no mapping."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 24,
          "organism_as_printed": "Limosilactobacillus reuteri",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "SD-LRE2-IT",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "non-human-records-only",
          "query_run": "\"SD-LRE2-IT\"",
          "note": "Micronutrient Synthesis Probiotic Blend. Decoded inference: L. reuteri LRE02 — 4 records, 0 randomised trials. The only one of the 24 label designators that returns anything at all in PubMed as printed: one record, and it is a review, not a trial.. The decoding is an inference and is labelled as one — Seed publishes no mapping."
        }
      ],
      "slots_with_human_rct": 0,
      "price": {
        "amount_usd": 49.99,
        "unit": "60-capsule bottle (30-day supply, 2 capsules daily), monthly subscription only",
        "cost_per_day_usd": 1.67,
        "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
        "source_url": "https://seed.com/daily-synbiotic"
      },
      "price_note": null,
      "certifications": [
        {
          "programme": "Full-formula screening for allergens, contaminants and pesticides",
          "status": "brand-asserted-unverified",
          "register_url": null,
          "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
          "detail": "Seed claims gluten, dairy, nut, soy, shellfish, sesame and glyphosate/AMPA testing, states that DS-01 is screened \"as a full formula\" rather than as raw materials, and says it is tested for all 14 EFSA allergen classes. That full-formulation screening claim is genuinely distinctive — most brands test raw materials. But no certifier, laboratory or certification programme is named anywhere. There is no NSF mark, no USP verification, no Clean Label Project award, no Informed Choice registration and no Non-GMO Project butterfly."
        },
        {
          "programme": "Non-GMO Project Verified",
          "status": "not-checked",
          "register_url": null,
          "checked_on": null,
          "detail": "Not claimed, and Seed explains why in its help centre: the product contains no genetically modified organisms and is therefore non-GMO, but the brand declines the certification on the grounds that the label \"doesn't contribute to blanket fears and misunderstandings\". That is a defensible, principled position and should be reported as such rather than as a gap. The practical consequence is the same either way: there is no external database in which any Seed testing claim can be checked."
        }
      ],
      "womens_comparison": {
        "status": "no-womens-sku",
        "womens_product": null,
        "differences": [],
        "shared": [],
        "required_caveat": "Seed does sell a female-specific product — VS-01, a vaginal synbiotic — so the brand builds sex-specific SKUs when it wants one. It has not built a male one. DS-01 is for \"adults ages 18+\".",
        "evidence": null,
        "checked_on": null
      },
      "findings": [
        {
          "code": "zero-of-twenty-four-designators-return-a-record",
          "summary": "Every designator as printed on the label was queried in quotes with the phrase-not-found check on. Twenty-three return nothing at all; SD-LRE2-IT returns one record, and it is a review. This is not because the underlying organisms are unstudied — it is because Seed prints a house code. On a good-faith decoding of the middle token, roughly 11 of 24 have at least one human randomised trial under a supplier designator, and five of those (BB536, GG, BR03, M-63, LP01) have substantial programmes. Six decode to zero, and the five Harvard-collaboration isolates have no literature at all. Both sentences should travel together: as labelled, 0 of 24; on a good-faith decoding, roughly 11 of 24.",
          "evidence": "24 PubMed phrase queries re-run independently 2026-07-30, all reproducing",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "four-proprietary-blends-no-per-strain-amounts",
          "summary": "Every strain is named, which is far better than a one-line \"13-strain proprietary blend\" — but no strain has an individual AFU amount. The concrete cost is workable in one case: the Cardiovascular blend is 4.21 billion AFU shared between two organisms, and the cholesterol trial behind Seed's cardiovascular positioning used 4 x 10^9 CFU/day of one of them alone. Even if that strain took the entire blend it would only just reach the trial dose, and it cannot, because a second organism is in there. On any plausible split it is below the dose at which the effect was demonstrated — and the blend makes that impossible to confirm or refute from the label.",
          "evidence": "PMID 29228000 · NCT03263104",
          "source_url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29228000/",
          "required_caveat": "To Seed's credit, the product page makes no cholesterol claim. The blend is called \"Cardiovascular Health Probiotic Blend\" and nothing more. The name is the claim."
        },
        {
          "code": "no-supplement-facts-panel-on-the-product-page",
          "summary": "No \"Supplement Facts\" heading, no serving size line, no servings per container, no %DV column, no definition of the panel's own footnote symbol, no Other Ingredients list and no prebiotic line item. The 400 mg prebiotic — MAPP, punicalagins from Indian pomegranate — does not appear on the product page at all; its identity comes from the help centre and its dose from Seed's own published trials.",
          "evidence": "Live DOM string searches from a browser session, 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": "These string searches come from an unretained browser session and cannot be reproduced by a reader."
        },
        {
          "code": "blend-names-make-claims-the-trials-do-not-support",
          "summary": "\"Dermatological Health\" and \"Cardiovascular Health\" name outcomes that appear as endpoints in none of Seed's three product trials. The footnote symbol attached to each blend name is never defined on the page.",
          "evidence": "Seed product page, browser session 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "afu-versus-cfu-is-never-explained",
          "summary": "AFU counts viable-but-non-culturable cells by flow cytometry, which plate culture misses, so an AFU number is generally larger than a CFU number for the same material and the two are not directly comparable. Seed does not explain this on the product page — while running a competitor comparison table. Any listicle ranking Seed against CFU-labelled products \"by CFU\" is comparing incompatible units.",
          "evidence": "Seed product page, browser session 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "potency-basis-lives-in-a-support-article",
          "summary": "The at-expiry basis is the good answer, and it appears in a help-centre FAQ rather than on the panel. Two of the three products in this batch put it on the label. For the brand that markets hardest on scientific transparency, this is the wrong way round.",
          "evidence": "help.seed.com article on DS-01, read 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "no-government-label-record",
          "summary": "Seed has no NIH Dietary Supplement Label Database record — zero results for the product name, the brand, and \"Daily Synbiotic\". Combined with Cloudflare blocking every automated route to seed.com including the sitemap, this is the least externally verifiable product in its batch, notwithstanding being the best clinically evidenced.",
          "evidence": "DSLD queries returning 0, re-run 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "subscription-only-by-design",
          "summary": "DS-01 cannot be bought as a one-off from Seed. The Shopify record carries exactly one selling plan, a monthly subscription; the only purchase button reads \"Start Now\"; and Seed's own FAQ answers \"Do I have to sign up for a subscription?\" with \"Yes.\" Disclosed plainly, with pause and cancel anytime and a 30-day guarantee, and the rationale Seed gives — that probiotics are transient and benefit requires daily continuity — is scientifically sound. Reported as a hard commercial constraint a buyer should know before clicking, not as a dark pattern.",
          "evidence": "Seed product page JSON-LD and Shopify payload, browser session 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "unsourced-competitor-characterisation",
          "summary": "The comparison table describes \"Other Probiotics\" as \"10 or less strains\", among other characterisations, with no source. The other batches of this research contain multiple 12- to 34-strain products, so that is not accurate as a category statement.",
          "evidence": "Seed product page, browser session 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        }
      ],
      "could_not_verify": [
        {
          "item": "Everything on this page that comes from Seed's own product page",
          "why": "seed.com hard-blocks all automated access behind a Cloudflare managed challenge, including its sitemap, so the panel, the 24-strain list as printed, the blend allocations, the AFU totals, the ViaCap copy, the help-centre quotations and the negative string searches all come from a browser session that was not retained and cannot be reproduced by any reader — including by this project. Independently corroborated from third-party sources: the $49.99 monthly price, the 24 strains, the 53.6 billion AFU total, 60 capsules as a 30-day supply, and the subscription-only model. Separately, the audit re-queried all 24 designators independently and reproduced the central finding exactly: 23 return zero and only SD-LRE2-IT returns one non-trial record."
        },
        {
          "item": "Which underlying strain each house code corresponds to",
          "why": "Seed publishes no mapping. The decodings recorded against each organism above are good-faith inferences from the middle token of each code and are labelled as inferences, not as identity claims. Seed does not print DSM, ATCC or CECT accession numbers, except where CECT happens to be embedded in three of the house codes."
        },
        {
          "item": "Any government label record",
          "why": "Seed has none — DSLD returns zero records for the product or the brand."
        },
        {
          "item": "The 400 mg prebiotic dose from any label surface",
          "why": "MAPP, the pomegranate-derived punicalagin prebiotic, does not appear on the product page at all. Its identity comes from Seed's help centre and its 400 mg dose comes from Seed's own published trials."
        },
        {
          "item": "Any support for the ViaCap delivery claims",
          "why": "\"ViaCap\" returns zero PubMed records."
        }
      ],
      "audit_corrections": [
        {
          "finding": "The entire Seed product section rests on a browser session that was not retained.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "The retained captures contain zero occurrences of DS-01, VS-01, 53.6, 49.99, \"Supplement Facts\", MAPP, punicalagin, or any SD- or HRVD- designator. Consequently the four-blend panel and its mg/AFU splits, the 24-strain list as printed by Seed, the negative string searches, the help-centre quotations, the subscription JSON-LD, the ViaCap copy and the catalogue count are all unreproducible by any reader, including this project. Independently corroborated from third-party sources: $49.99 a month, 24 strains, 53.6 billion AFU, 60 capsules as a 30-day supply, and the subscription model. Everything else on this page is marked accordingly.",
          "evidence": "prod-d-audit.md §7"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The central 0-of-24 finding.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Reproduces exactly. All 24 designators were re-queried independently with the phrase-not-found check on: 23 return 0 and only SD-LRE2-IT returns 1, a review rather than a trial. The demonstration of why phrase-not-found matters also reproduces exactly — four decoded strain names return apparent counts in the thousands that are all flagged PHRASE_NOT_FOUND with a true count of zero. Both published forms hold: 0 of 24 as labelled, and roughly 11 of 24 on a good-faith decoding.",
          "evidence": "prod-d-audit.md §9"
        },
        {
          "finding": "Four counts in the decoded-strain table did not reproduce.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "LP01 is 11 not 7; LR06 is 6 not 2; ECGC 13110402 is 2 not 1, the second being a 2026 combined probiotic-and-plant-sterol trial published before the pass date and missed; LRE02 is 4 records not 3, still with 0 randomised trials. All four corrected above. The teardown's count of \"seven decode to zero\" is six on a recount. The headline \"roughly 11 of 24\" reproduces exactly.",
          "evidence": "prod-d-audit.md §1.6, §1.7"
        },
        {
          "finding": "Seed's three product trials and the sex split.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "All verified in full and publishable as written. Every PMID, DOI, journal and PMCID is exact; both registry numbers resolve to the correct sponsors; and every figure in the n=350 efficacy trial is exact. The sex split is exact too — 56 of 174 and 57 of 176, 32.2% and 32.4%, p=1.00, giving 113 men across both arms. And the honest negative holds: sex appears only as a baseline-balance variable and in Table 1, the declared subgroup analyses are by baseline constipation and baseline anxiety, and there is no reported male-specific result.",
          "evidence": "prod-d-audit.md §3, §9"
        }
      ],
      "label_evidence": [
        {
          "type": "brand-page-capture",
          "id": "seed-ds01-browser-session-2026-07-30",
          "url": "https://seed.com/daily-synbiotic",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "Read in-browser after a Cloudflare managed challenge; every automated route to seed.com, including the sitemap, returns HTTP 403. The session was not retained, so the panel and the 24-strain list as printed cannot be reproduced by a reader. The 24 designators themselves were independently re-queried during the audit, which reproduces the central finding."
        },
        {
          "type": "brand-page-capture",
          "id": "help-seed-ds01-295557",
          "url": "https://help.seed.com/en-US/articles/ds-01-daily-synbiotic-295557",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "Seed's help centre, source for the at-expiry potency statement, the MAPP prebiotic identity and the dose rationale. Also from an unretained browser session."
        }
      ],
      "product_url": "https://seed.com/daily-synbiotic",
      "last_verified": "2026-07-30"
    },
    {
      "slug": "sports-research-daily-probiotics",
      "page_url": "https://bestprobioticformen.com/products/sports-research-daily-probiotics/",
      "brand": "Sports Research",
      "product": "Sports Research Daily Probiotics 60 Billion CFU",
      "cohort": "D27-founding",
      "teardown_complete": true,
      "panel_transcribed": true,
      "marketed_as": "unisex",
      "lead_finding": "The label footnote reads \"60 billion CFU at time of manufacture through best by date… Best stored refrigerated.\" The product page reads \"With no refrigeration required, this Probiotic blend of 60 Billion CFU is guaranteed through the expiration date, not the manufacturing date like most probiotic brands on the market.\" The refrigeration contradiction is flatly binary, and the CFU claim is used as a competitive attack on other brands.",
      "cfu": {
        "claim_as_printed": "60 Billion CFU (Daily Probiotic Blend, 285 mg)",
        "basis": "contradictory",
        "basis_verbatim": "Label: \"▲ 60 billion CFU at time of manufacture through best by date when stored properly. Best stored refrigerated.\" Website: \"With no refrigeration required, this Probiotic blend of 60 Billion CFU is guaranteed through the expiration date, not the manufacturing date like most probiotic brands on the market.\"\""
      },
      "strain_designators": "some-organisms-coded",
      "organism_slots": [
        {
          "slot_index": 1,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus plantarum",
          "organism_corrected": "Lactiplantibacillus plantarum",
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 2,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 3,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 4,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus acidophilus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 5,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus fermentum",
          "organism_corrected": "Limosilactobacillus fermentum",
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 6,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG",
          "organism_corrected": "Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus",
          "designator_as_printed": "GG",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "human-rct",
          "query_run": "\"Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG\" AND randomized controlled trial[pt]",
          "note": "The only designator on this panel. 170 randomised-trial records. Because the per-strain split is not disclosed, GG could be any fraction of the 60 billion, including a rounding error — so even the one traceable strain cannot be tied to a trial dose."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 7,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus casei",
          "organism_corrected": "Lacticaseibacillus casei",
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 8,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus paracasei",
          "organism_corrected": "Lacticaseibacillus paracasei",
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 9,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium bifidum",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 10,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium breve",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 11,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium longum subsp. infantis",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 12,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium longum subsp. longum",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        }
      ],
      "slots_with_human_rct": 1,
      "price": {
        "amount_usd": 24.95,
        "unit": "30-capsule bottle (30 servings, 1 delayed-release capsule per serving)",
        "cost_per_day_usd": 0.83,
        "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
        "source_url": "https://www.sportsresearch.com/products/daily-probiotics"
      },
      "price_note": null,
      "certifications": [
        {
          "programme": "Non-GMO Project Verified",
          "status": "confirmed-at-issuer",
          "register_url": "https://api.nongmoproject.org/api/v2/",
          "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
          "detail": "Verified at the issuer's own open API: brand id 9714 with 91 verified products, including product 2-25768-3023, \"Daily Probiotics Delayed Release 60 Billion CFU\", with verification type NonGMO and status Verified. One discrepancy worth carrying: the NIH label record for this SKU transcribes the same-generation seal as \"IGEN Non-GMO Tested\", while the label render shows the Non-GMO Project butterfly. And on the brand's own website the claim is rendered in a bullet list as \"Non-GMO Tested\" — a materially weaker, uncertified self-claim. The certification is real; the brand's own copy downgrades it."
        },
        {
          "programme": "Certified Vegan (vegan.org)",
          "status": "brand-asserted-unverified",
          "register_url": "https://vegan.org/certified-products",
          "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
          "detail": "The register page returns HTTP 200 but is a faceted search that returns 403 to automated queries, so the listing could not be checked. Brand-asserted."
        },
        {
          "programme": "\"Third Party Tested\"",
          "status": "brand-asserted-unverified",
          "register_url": null,
          "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
          "detail": "Printed as a checkbox on the label and as \"Third Party Tested Certified\" on the page. No certifier is named anywhere — no lab, no programme, no certificate number — so there is nothing that can be checked. An unattributed third-party-tested claim is unfalsifiable by construction."
        },
        {
          "programme": "cGMP Compliant",
          "status": "not-checked",
          "register_url": null,
          "checked_on": null,
          "detail": "Self-attestation of a baseline regulatory requirement under 21 CFR Part 111, not a certification."
        }
      ],
      "womens_comparison": {
        "status": "diffed",
        "womens_product": "Sports Research Women's Probiotics",
        "differences": [
          {
            "statement": "The women's blend is 298 mg / 65 billion CFU across 16 organisms; this one is 285 mg / 60 billion across 12.",
            "evidence": "Brand label renders FG355A versus FG373"
          },
          {
            "statement": "The women's panel carries two designators — L. rhamnosus GG and L. plantarum WCFS 1® — and this one carries one.",
            "evidence": "Brand label renders FG355A versus FG373"
          },
          {
            "statement": "The women's product adds Cranberry Powder (fruit) (37:1) 60 mg. This one has no botanical add-on. Its Fiber Inulin Blend does contain organic apple fibre pomace, which the women's does not.",
            "evidence": "Brand label renders FG355A versus FG373"
          },
          {
            "statement": "Organisms unique to the women's SKU: L. gasseri, L. jensenii, L. reuteri, L. salivarius and L. plantarum WCFS1 — the vaginal-microbiome set.",
            "evidence": "Brand label renders FG355A versus FG373"
          }
        ],
        "shared": [
          "Identical price at $24.95, identical 30 capsules at one a day, identical $0.83 a day.",
          "Both manufactured in Canada. Both 60 mg Fiber Inulin Blends."
        ],
        "required_caveat": "Sports Research sells three probiotics — this one, a Women's, and Tribiotic — and maintains /collections/men and /collections/women landing pages, so the brand is entirely comfortable gendering its catalogue. It chose not to build a men's probiotic; this is the ungendered default. At an identical price the women's version delivers more CFU, four more organisms, one more designated strain, more probiotic mass and a cranberry extract. It is dominated on every axis the brand markets on — though not strictly dominated, since this SKU's fibre blend contains apple fibre pomace that the women's does not.",
        "evidence": "Brand label renders for FG355A and FG373, both read directly at 1600x1600",
        "checked_on": "2026-07-30"
      },
      "findings": [
        {
          "code": "label-and-website-contradict-on-refrigeration",
          "summary": "The label's ▲ footnote ends \"Best stored refrigerated.\" The product page leads with \"With no refrigeration required\". This is flatly binary, and it matters more than it looks: storage is precisely the variable that determines whether a through-expiry CFU claim survives contact with a customer's kitchen cupboard.",
          "evidence": "Brand label render FG355A versus sportsresearch.com product page, both verified 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": "https://www.sportsresearch.com/products/daily-probiotics",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "label-and-website-contradict-on-cfu-basis",
          "summary": "The label leads with \"at time of manufacture\" — \"60 billion CFU at time of manufacture through best by date when stored properly\" — which is genuinely ambiguous and can be read either way. The website is not ambiguous at all: \"guaranteed through the expiration date, not the manufacturing date like most probiotic brands on the market\". That is a comparative superiority claim against competitors, built on a basis the brand's own label states differently. Both quotations should be shown side by side rather than one being picked.",
          "evidence": "Brand label render FG355A versus sportsresearch.com product page, both verified 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "eleven-of-twelve-organisms-species-only",
          "summary": "Only L. rhamnosus GG carries a designator. The other eleven are species or subspecies only, so none can be matched to a published trial — and because the blend has no per-strain split, even GG cannot be tied to a trial dose.",
          "evidence": "Brand label render FG355A, read directly at 1600x1600",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "third-party-tested-with-no-certifier",
          "summary": "Printed on the label as a checkbox and on the page as \"Third Party Tested Certified\", with no lab, no programme and no certificate number anywhere. Unfalsifiable by construction.",
          "evidence": "Brand label render FG355A and product page, both verified 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "certification-downgraded-between-label-and-site",
          "summary": "The label displays the Non-GMO Project Verified butterfly — a formal certification, and one this site confirmed at the issuer. A website bullet list renders the same claim as \"Non-GMO Tested\", a materially weaker uncertified self-claim. The two are not interchangeable, and the downgrade runs in the wrong direction.",
          "evidence": "Brand label render FG355A versus sportsresearch.com bullet list, both verified 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "sixty-billion-as-a-headline-number",
          "summary": "Quantity is not efficacy. Sixty billion CFU of mostly undesignated organisms is not demonstrably better than fifteen billion of two well-characterised ones — the field's own consensus body says a greater number of colony-forming units does not always equate with enhanced effects.",
          "evidence": "ISAPP consumer infographic \"Probiotics: Dispelling Myths\", quoted verbatim",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": "The ISAPP source is a consumer-facing infographic and is graded as expert consensus, not as pooled evidence."
        },
        {
          "code": "misspelling-on-the-panel",
          "summary": "\"Mallus pumila\" should be Malus pumila (apple).",
          "evidence": "Brand label render FG355A, read directly at 1600x1600",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "not-a-mens-product",
          "summary": "This is the brand's ungendered default. Sports Research does build gendered products — it runs /collections/men and /collections/women — and it chose not to build a men's probiotic. At the identical $24.95 the women's SKU delivers more CFU, more organisms, one more designated strain and a botanical add-on.",
          "evidence": "sportsresearch.com sitemap, 543 entries with exactly three probiotic products, fetched 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        }
      ],
      "could_not_verify": [
        {
          "item": "The Certified Vegan listing",
          "why": "vegan.org's product search returns 403 to automated queries."
        },
        {
          "item": "Who does the \"Third Party Tested\" testing",
          "why": "No certifier, laboratory or programme is named anywhere on the label or the page."
        },
        {
          "item": "The per-strain CFU split",
          "why": "Not disclosed. Twelve organisms share one 285 mg / 60 billion line, so the single designated strain cannot be tied to any trial dose."
        }
      ],
      "audit_corrections": [
        {
          "finding": "The teardown reported, as a publishable category finding, that this product has no record in the NIH Dietary Supplement Label Database — citing the UPC 0 23249 09009 0 as returning zero hits.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "False. DSLD 326252 exists: brand Sports Research, full name Daily Probiotics, entered 2025-03-25, on-market, with exactly that UPC. It is not a marginal record — it contains the full 285 mg / 60 billion CFU blend, all twelve organisms including L. rhamnosus GG, the Fiber Inulin Blend at 60 mg, the ▲ storage footnote verbatim and the Canada manufacturing statement. A superseded record also exists (DSLD 268423, entered 2022-07-21, off-market, same UPC). The government label record is now the primary evidence for this page.",
          "evidence": "prod-c-audit.md §F1"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown recorded the Non-GMO Project Verified claim as unverifiable and treated it as brand-asserted, and red-flagged it.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Refuted, and it verifies. The product finder is not at the path the teardown tried; it is at nongmoproject.org/find-non-gmo/, backed by a fully open JSON API. Queried at the issuer: brand id 9714 with 91 verified products, including \"Daily Probiotics Delayed Release 60 Billion CFU\", status Verified. Correct status is confirmed at the issuer, the red flag is deleted, and the batch-comparison row is corrected. Publishing an implication that a certification mark is unbacked, when the certifier's register backs it, was the highest-risk sentence in the original file.",
          "evidence": "prod-c-audit.md §F3"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown listed a third label-versus-site contradiction: the label says \"Proudly manufactured in Canada\" while the website says all products are made in cGMP compliant facilities in the United States.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "The USA claim does not appear anywhere on this product's page. Raw-HTML string counts return zero for both \"United States\" and \"cGMP compliant facilities\" on /products/daily-probiotics, and three each on /products/womens-probiotics. The contradiction is real at brand level and is not a contradiction on the SKU being reviewed. Dropped from this product's red flags, and the contradiction count reduced from three to two.",
          "evidence": "prod-c-audit.md §C2"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown said the women's SKU \"strictly dominates\" this one at the same price.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Not strictly. Its own table shows this product's Fiber Inulin Blend contains organic apple fibre pomace that the women's does not. Restated as dominated on every axis the brand markets on.",
          "evidence": "prod-c-audit.md §C5"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown gave a reason for the Certified Vegan status being unverifiable — that the search endpoint 301-redirected to an empty body.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "That reason does not reproduce. vegan.org/certified-products returns HTTP 200 and is a faceted search that returns 403 to automated queries. The status — brand-asserted, unverified — is correct; the stated reason was not, and has been replaced.",
          "evidence": "prod-c-audit.md §F3"
        },
        {
          "finding": "A discrepancy worth flagging rather than ignoring.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "DSLD 326252 transcribes the same-generation seal on this label as \"IGEN Non-GMO Tested\", while the label render shows the Non-GMO Project butterfly. Both are recorded above rather than one being suppressed.",
          "evidence": "prod-c-audit.md §C10"
        }
      ],
      "label_evidence": [
        {
          "type": "dsld",
          "id": "326252",
          "url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/326252",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "Brand Sports Research, Daily Probiotics, entered 2025-03-25, on-market, UPC 0 23249 09009 0. Contains the full 285 mg / 60 billion CFU blend, all twelve organisms, the 60 mg Fiber Inulin Blend, the ▲ storage footnote verbatim and the Canada manufacturing statement. The teardown reported this record as non-existent; the audit found it under the exact UPC the teardown said returned nothing."
        },
        {
          "type": "photo-of-panel",
          "id": "sr_web_render_fg355a_daily_probiotics_right",
          "url": "https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/sr_web_render_fg355a_daily_probiotics_right_medium_32987d14-daba-42cf-b53b-07884e9ac4ce.png",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "The brand's own right-panel render at 1600x1600: the twelve organisms in printed order, the Fiber Inulin Blend, other ingredients and the Canada statement."
        },
        {
          "type": "photo-of-panel",
          "id": "sr_web_render_fg355a_daily_probiotics_left",
          "url": "https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/sr_web_render_fg355a_daily_probiotics_left_medium_5bdc84b4-a7b4-44c3-b2f7-13c80ee2a602.png",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "The left panel: suggested use, the QUALITY MATTERS block with the Non-GMO Project butterfly and vegan.org seals, the FDA disclaimer, UPC 0 23249 09009 0, lot L1084-V3-0126, formula code FG355A, and the ▲ footnote."
        }
      ],
      "product_url": "https://www.sportsresearch.com/products/daily-probiotics",
      "last_verified": "2026-07-30"
    },
    {
      "slug": "thorne-floramend-prime-probiotic",
      "page_url": "https://bestprobioticformen.com/products/thorne-floramend-prime-probiotic/",
      "brand": "Thorne",
      "product": "Thorne FloraMend Prime Probiotic",
      "cohort": "D27-founding",
      "teardown_complete": true,
      "panel_transcribed": true,
      "marketed_as": "unisex",
      "lead_finding": "Thorne's weight-management claim quotes a real trial's numbers exactly — \"a nearly 5-percent average reduction in visceral and subcutaneous body fat\" — from a study of Lactobacillus gasseri SBT2055 delivered as 200 g/day of fermented milk. FloraMend contains L. gasseri KS-13. Same species, different strain, roughly four times the daily CFU, different format.",
      "cfu": {
        "claim_as_printed": "5 Billion Live Cells",
        "basis": "through-expiry",
        "basis_verbatim": "†At time of expiration."
      },
      "strain_designators": "all-organisms-coded",
      "organism_slots": [
        {
          "slot_index": 1,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus gasseri",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "KS-13",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "human-rct",
          "query_run": "\"Lactobacillus gasseri KS-13\"",
          "note": "The strict binomial query returns two records, and both are trials of the three-strain FloraMend blend rather than of KS-13 alone (PMID 25909149, PMID 28228426). There is no KS-13 body-composition trial, and \"Lactobacillus gasseri KS-13\" AND (prostate OR testosterone) returns zero."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 2,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium longum",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "MM-2",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "human-rct",
          "query_run": "\"Bifidobacterium longum MM-2\"",
          "note": "Three records, of which two are the FloraMend blend trials. No MM-2 body-composition trial."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 3,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium bifidum",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "G9-1",
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "human-rct",
          "query_run": "\"Bifidobacterium bifidum G9-1\" AND randomized",
          "note": "The best-evidenced of the three, with standalone Japanese trials in addition to the two blend trials. The most recent, PMID 42017290 — a 12-week open-label randomised trial, n=100 with type 2 diabetes, 12 mg BBG9-1/day — found the improvement concentrated in women, not men."
        }
      ],
      "slots_with_human_rct": 3,
      "price": {
        "amount_usd": 56,
        "unit": "30-capsule bottle (30 servings, 1 capsule per serving)",
        "cost_per_day_usd": 1.87,
        "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
        "source_url": "https://www.thorne.com/products/dp/floramend-prime-probiotic"
      },
      "price_note": null,
      "certifications": [
        {
          "programme": "NSF Certified for Sport",
          "status": "absent-from-register",
          "register_url": "https://www.nsfsport.com/certified-products/search-results.php?keyword=Thorne",
          "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
          "detail": "Checked at the certifier's own register and confirmed absent. NSF returns 48 Thorne listings; FloraMend Prime Probiotic is not among them. What is certified at Thorne, on the probiotic and GI side, is FloraSport 20B and EnteroMend. Thorne does not itself claim FloraMend holds it — the product page shows only Thorne's own in-house \"Thorne Verified\" badge plus dietary attributes — but Thorne is a heavily NSF-certified brand with a sibling probiotic that does carry the real certification, which makes brand-level \"Thorne is NSF certified\" statements about this SKU materially misleading. Any third-party-testing claim for FloraMend specifically is brand-asserted only."
        },
        {
          "programme": "\"Thorne Verified\"",
          "status": "not-checked",
          "register_url": null,
          "checked_on": null,
          "detail": "Thorne's own in-house badge, not a third-party certification."
        }
      ],
      "womens_comparison": {
        "status": "diffed",
        "womens_product": "Thorne Women's Daily Probiotic (SKU SF817)",
        "differences": [
          {
            "statement": "FloraMend is $56 for 30 capsules — $1.87 a day. Women's Daily is $39 for 30 capsules — $1.30 a day. The ungendered SKU that gets sold to men costs about 44% more per day.",
            "evidence": "Thorne PDPs and retailer listings, verified 2026-07-30"
          },
          {
            "statement": "FloraMend is 5 billion CFU across three organisms in one flat proprietary blend. Women's Daily is 10 billion CFU across eight organisms in four tiers with amounts: Astarte blend 5 B, Urex blend 2 B, L. plantarum UALp-05 2 B, L. acidophilus UALa-01 1 B.",
            "evidence": "DSLD 298070 versus DSLD 328844"
          },
          {
            "statement": "Women's Daily names its supplier on the label — Chr. Hansen A/S, for the Astarte, Urex, GR-1, RC-14, LBV- and UA- marks. FloraMend names no supplier at all.",
            "evidence": "DSLD 328844"
          }
        ],
        "shared": [
          "Both state potency at time of expiration on the panel.",
          "Both are 30 capsules."
        ],
        "required_caveat": "Thorne sells no men's probiotic. Its actual men's line contains no probiotic at all — the Men's Health Stack is a men's multivitamin plus a testosterone-support product, whose stated rationale is zinc and lycopene for the prostate and shilajit and ashwagandha for testosterone. FloraMend is not a men's product; it is the one left over after the women's product was built, and the women's product is better on every disclosure axis Thorne controls.",
        "evidence": "DSLD 298070 versus DSLD 328844, both panels read independently",
        "checked_on": "2026-07-30"
      },
      "findings": [
        {
          "code": "weight-management-claim-uses-a-different-strain",
          "summary": "Thorne's copy: \"FloraMend Prime Probiotic's proprietary blend boasts the added benefit of proven weight management support. A study on the ingredients in FloraMend showed a nearly 5-percent average reduction in visceral and subcutaneous body fat with correlating positive effects on body weight, waist circumference, and BMI.\" That study is Kadooka 2010, and its abstract matches Thorne's sentence exactly — visceral fat down 4.6%, subcutaneous 3.3%, body weight 1.4%, BMI 1.5%, waist 1.8%. It tested Lactobacillus gasseri SBT2055, delivered as 200 g/day of fermented milk at roughly 2 x 10^10 CFU/day of that one strain. FloraMend contains L. gasseri KS-13, in a capsule, at 5 x 10^9 CFU/day across three strains. Same species, different strain, different format, about four times the daily CFU. The hedge \"a study on the ingredients in FloraMend\" is literally defensible only if \"ingredient\" means the species rather than the strain — which is exactly the substitution the field's consensus exists to forbid — and the neighbouring sentence drops the hedge entirely, saying \"proven\".",
          "evidence": "PMID 20216555",
          "source_url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20216555/",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "per-strain-split-removed-in-2014-and-never-restored",
          "summary": "The 2012 government record published the split: L. gasseri 2,500,000,000 live cells, B. longum 1,250,000,000, B. bifidum 1,250,000,000 — 50/25/25. Every version since 2014 gives one number for three organisms. Thorne disclosed more twelve years ago than it does now.",
          "evidence": "DSLD 16125 versus DSLD 298070",
          "source_url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/16125",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "trial-regimen-differs-from-the-label-regimen",
          "summary": "The 2015 blend trial dosed the probiotic twice daily. The 2017 trial specifies 2 capsules/day at 1.5 billion CFU per capsule — 3 billion CFU/day. FloraMend's suggested use is one capsule daily at 5 billion CFU. \"Clinically studied\" should not be read as \"at the studied regimen\".",
          "evidence": "PMID 25909149 · PMID 28228426",
          "source_url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28228426/",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "neurotransmitter-and-mood-narrative-with-no-endpoint",
          "summary": "\"balanced gut flora for healthy neurotransmitter production – important for a positive mood and healthy outlook.\" Neither FloraMend trial measured a neurotransmitter or a mood endpoint.",
          "evidence": "PureFormulas listing for Thorne FloraMend, verified 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": "https://www.pureformulas.com/product/floramend-prime-probiotic-by-thorne/1000018667",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "hormone-support-tag-with-no-supporting-content",
          "summary": "FloraMend carries the benefit-tag set \"Gut Health, Hormone Support, Metabolism, Probiotics\". There is no hormonal endpoint in either trial and no supporting content on the page.",
          "evidence": "Retailer product URL slug independently reproducing the tag set, verified 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "expiry-footnote-dropped-from-the-machine-readable-table",
          "summary": "Thorne's on-page structured ingredient table renders the blend as a bare CFU number with no expiry footnote. The footnote survives only in the prose block and on the physical label. Anyone scraping the page — which is what price-comparison tools and AI shopping assistants do — gets an unqualified CFU number.",
          "evidence": "Reported by the teardown from a live browser session; the retained capture does not reproduce it, so it is recorded as unverified",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "nsf-halo-transfer",
          "summary": "Thorne leans hard on NSF Certified for Sport brand-wide and affiliate listicles routinely transfer that halo to FloraMend. Checked at NSF's own register: FloraMend is not certified. FloraSport 20B and EnteroMend are.",
          "evidence": "nsfsport.com certified-products search, 48 Thorne listings, checked 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": "https://www.nsfsport.com/certified-products/search-results.php?keyword=Thorne",
          "required_caveat": "Thorne does not itself claim FloraMend is NSF certified. This is a predictable and exploited inference rather than a brand claim."
        },
        {
          "code": "most-expensive-per-day-for-the-fewest-organisms",
          "summary": "$1.87 a day for three organisms and 5 billion CFU — the highest cost per day and the lowest organism count and CFU in its batch, and about 44% more per day than the same brand's women's probiotic, which has eight organisms and twice the CFU.",
          "evidence": "Thorne PDPs and retailer listings, verified 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        }
      ],
      "could_not_verify": [
        {
          "item": "Thorne's own machine-readable ingredient table and several on-page strings",
          "why": "The retained captures of thorne.com do not contain the \"5000000000cfus\" table rendering, the \"up to the date of expiration\" prose quotation, the \"Hormone Support\" benefit tag, the \"Weight Management Stack\" membership or the $56 price. Two partial rescues: the $56 price is confirmed at three independent retailers, and a retailer URL slug independently corroborates the exact benefit-tag set \"Gut Health, Hormone Support, Metabolism, Probiotics\". The Hormone Support finding is therefore cited to the retailer slug rather than to a bare string match, because \"Hormone Support\" also appears in that retailer's site-wide navigation and is a plausible false-positive origin."
        },
        {
          "item": "Per-strain CFU amounts",
          "why": "Not published since 2014. The 2012 record shows the split was 2.5 billion / 1.25 billion / 1.25 billion; every version since gives one number for three organisms, so a consumer today cannot know whether that ratio still holds."
        },
        {
          "item": "Whether FloraMend's claim quotes apply to Thorne's own current copy",
          "why": "The claim quotations on this page are sourced to PureFormulas, an authorised Thorne retailer that reproduces the panel and the copy, because the thorne.com captures could not be reproduced. Note that Thorne's own site softens one of them — \"individuals suffering from a seasonal allergy\" on the retailer becomes \"during seasonal changes\" on thorne.com."
        }
      ],
      "audit_corrections": [
        {
          "finding": "The teardown gave per-strain PubMed counts of 1 for MM-2 and 3 for KS-13, and said the complete KS-13 literature is three papers.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "MM-2 returns 3, not 1 — it adds a 2015 influenza-defence paper. KS-13 returns 2 on the strict binomial, not 3; the third paper the teardown counted matches only the bare token \"KS-13\", which returns 31 mostly unrelated records. That was a quiet denominator switch. Corrected to the strict designator query. The substantive claim — there is no KS-13 body-composition trial — survives either way.",
          "evidence": "prod-d-audit.md §1.5"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown said both FloraMend blend trials dosed twice daily.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "True of the 2015 trial only. The 2017 trial's abstract states 2 capsules/day at 1.5 billion CFU per capsule — a quantity per day, with the schedule not stated. Corrected. The arithmetic the finding actually rests on (3 billion CFU/day in the trial against 5 billion on the label) is exact and survives.",
          "evidence": "prod-d-audit.md §1.8"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown said the panel text is reproduced identically at three authorised retailers.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "One of the three differs materially. ProfessionalSupplementCenter carries a different capsule description in Other Ingredients — a delayed-release hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, pectin and water capsule against PureFormulas' hypromellose capsule — and a different footnote symbol. Downgraded: the PureFormulas transcription matches the panel, Vitacost matches on the blend and footnote, and ProfessionalSupplementCenter differs on Other Ingredients.",
          "evidence": "prod-d-audit.md §1.4"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown reported roughly 43 Thorne listings on NSF's register.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "The live count is 48. Corrected — the number appears in the published method paragraph.",
          "evidence": "prod-d-audit.md §1.9"
        },
        {
          "finding": "Several claims rest on a browser session that was not retained.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "The thorne.com captures do not contain the \"5000000000cfus\" table rendering, the \"up to the date of expiration\" quotation, the \"Hormone Support\" tag, the \"Weight Management Stack\" membership or the $56 price. The price is independently confirmed at three retailers and the benefit-tag set is independently corroborated by a retailer URL slug; the rest is marked unverified above, and the claim quotations are attributed to PureFormulas rather than to thorne.com.",
          "evidence": "prod-d-audit.md §7, §9"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The weight-management finding and the two blend trials.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Verified in full. Kadooka 2010's abstract figures are exact and the strain is different. Both blend trials' numbers are exact, including the 2017 trial's MRQLQ result, its null on IgE and Treg%, and its registry number. The NSF absence is confirmed live on the certifier's own register.",
          "evidence": "prod-d-audit.md §2, §9"
        }
      ],
      "label_evidence": [
        {
          "type": "dsld",
          "id": "298070",
          "url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/298070",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "Entered 2023-10-24, on-market. The current record, whose blend note reads verbatim \"5 billion live cells at time of expiration\"."
        },
        {
          "type": "dsld",
          "id": "16125",
          "url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/16125",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "The 2012 record — the last version to publish the per-strain split, 2.5 billion / 1.25 billion / 1.25 billion."
        },
        {
          "type": "dsld",
          "id": "328844",
          "url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/328844",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "Thorne Women's Daily Probiotic, entered 2025-04-24, on-market. Four tiers with amounts, eight strains, 10 billion CFU at expiration, Chr. Hansen named."
        },
        {
          "type": "brand-page-capture",
          "id": "pureformulas-floramend-2026-07-30",
          "url": "https://www.pureformulas.com/product/floramend-prime-probiotic-by-thorne/1000018667",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "Authorised Thorne retailer reproducing the panel and the claim copy. Used as the source for the claim quotations because the thorne.com browser session was not retained."
        }
      ],
      "product_url": "https://www.thorne.com/products/dp/floramend-prime-probiotic",
      "last_verified": "2026-07-30"
    },
    {
      "slug": "transparent-labs-probiotic",
      "page_url": "https://bestprobioticformen.com/products/transparent-labs-probiotic/",
      "brand": "Transparent Labs",
      "product": "Transparent Labs Probiotic Advanced Gut Health Formula",
      "cohort": "D27-founding",
      "teardown_complete": true,
      "panel_transcribed": true,
      "marketed_as": "unisex",
      "lead_finding": "The panel's footnote reads: \"At time of manufacture. Guaranteed to maintain an effective potency until date of expiration.\" The 100 billion is an at-manufacture number, and \"an effective potency\" is defined nowhere on the label or the page — it is not a number, so the sentence stays literally true whether what survives is 100 billion or one billion.",
      "cfu": {
        "claim_as_printed": "100 billion CFU (per-strain split disclosed)",
        "basis": "at-manufacture",
        "basis_verbatim": "At time of manufacture. Guaranteed to maintain an effective potency until date of expiration."
      },
      "strain_designators": "all-organisms-coded",
      "organism_slots": [
        {
          "slot_index": 1,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus acidophilus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "LA-14",
          "quantity_as_printed": "25 B",
          "resolution": "human-rct",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "Underwritten by PMID 18422632, which dosed 2 x 10^10 CFU (20 billion) of a single strain in a separate arm. LA-14 here is 25 billion, above that."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 2,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus rhamnosus",
          "organism_corrected": "Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus",
          "designator_as_printed": "LR-32",
          "quantity_as_printed": "15 B",
          "resolution": "human-rct",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "PMID 28346730, n=60 denture wearers, oral Candida reduction over 8 weeks."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 3,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus casei",
          "organism_corrected": "Lacticaseibacillus casei",
          "designator_as_printed": "LC-11",
          "quantity_as_printed": "10 B",
          "resolution": "human-rct",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "Appears in human trials only inside mixtures — PMID 31250099 (32 overweight women) and PMID 34111674 (rheumatoid arthritis). Not attributable to this strain alone."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 4,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus plantarum",
          "organism_corrected": "Lactiplantibacillus plantarum",
          "designator_as_printed": "LLP-115",
          "quantity_as_printed": "10 B",
          "resolution": "human-rct",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "Almost certainly the strain marketed elsewhere as Lp-115 — it appears in that form on the NOW label and in the IFF/Danisco literature — so \"LLP-115\" is recorded as a probable label typo rather than a distinct strain, and whether it is a deliberate alternate designation is unverified. Its only human trial is a nine-strain synbiotic in colicky infants (PMID 33765904); the other records are a mouse colitis model and an in-vitro study by IFF authors."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 5,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus paracasei",
          "organism_corrected": "Lacticaseibacillus paracasei",
          "designator_as_printed": "LPC-37",
          "quantity_as_printed": "10 B",
          "resolution": "human-rct",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "PMIDs 36235651, 35634695 and 38842655 — elderly with omega-3, peri-implant mucositis, and women with hypertension."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 6,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium lactis",
          "organism_corrected": "Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis",
          "designator_as_printed": "BL-04",
          "quantity_as_printed": "10 B",
          "resolution": "human-rct",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "PMID 18422632, separate arm — but that trial dosed 20 billion CFU of the single strain and this product supplies 10 billion, half the trialled dose."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 7,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus salivarius",
          "organism_corrected": "Ligilactobacillus salivarius",
          "designator_as_printed": "LS-33",
          "quantity_as_printed": "5 B",
          "resolution": "human-rct",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "PMID 23510724, n=50 obese adolescents. The paper's own words: \"Previously reported clinical studies showed no effect of Ls-33 consumption on the metabolic syndrome.\" Microbiota shifts only — a randomised trial, null on the clinical outcome."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 8,
          "organism_as_printed": "Streptococcus thermophilus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "ST-21",
          "quantity_as_printed": "5 B",
          "resolution": "non-human-records-only",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "No human randomised trial. The strict species-level query \"Streptococcus thermophilus St-21\" returns two records: PMID 30574800, a case report, and PMID 33083738, a mouse Clostridioides difficile study."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 9,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium bifidum",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "BB-02",
          "quantity_as_printed": "5 B",
          "resolution": "human-rct",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "Marginal. PMID 15614689 is n=18 elderly, BB-02 with BL-01 and inulin, with microbiological endpoints only and no clinical outcome. A randomised trial, but trivially small and not attributable to this strain alone."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 10,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium breve",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": "BB-03",
          "quantity_as_printed": "5 B",
          "resolution": "no-records",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "Zero human randomised trials. The single title/abstract hit, PMID 17610892, is about UV-B tolerance in Beauveria bassiana entomopathogenic fungi — \"Bb 03\" is a fungal isolate code. A naive strain search would have counted this as evidence."
        }
      ],
      "slots_with_human_rct": 8,
      "price": {
        "amount_usd": 45.99,
        "unit": "60-capsule bottle (30 servings, 2 capsules per serving)",
        "cost_per_day_usd": 1.53,
        "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
        "source_url": "https://www.transparentlabs.com/products/probiotics-for-gut-health"
      },
      "price_note": null,
      "certifications": [
        {
          "programme": "Informed Choice",
          "status": "register-unreachable",
          "register_url": "https://choice.wetestyoutrust.com/",
          "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
          "detail": "A badge is displayed on the page, rendered with empty alt text, no certification number, no date and no link to the registry. Verification at the certifier's own database failed: both the product-specific path and the brand index returned HTTP 403 behind a Cloudflare interstitial. A search-engine snippet suggested a certifier-hosted page exists with a 2023-11-08 date for a \"Digestive Aid/Probiotic/Prebiotic\" product, but the certifier's page could not be read directly, so the product name, the date and the current status are all unconfirmed. Do not read this as \"Informed Choice certified\"."
        },
        {
          "programme": "Published third-party test results",
          "status": "brand-asserted-unverified",
          "register_url": null,
          "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
          "detail": "The page says \"we provide full access to our third-party test results\". The linked page is a search interface, not a results list, and no certificate of analysis for this product was retrievable. No testing laboratory is named on either page. Critically, the named test types are purity, ingredient verification and gluten — nothing that tests CFU potency, which is the only number a probiotic buyer is paying for."
        },
        {
          "programme": "NSF / USP",
          "status": "not-checked",
          "register_url": null,
          "checked_on": null,
          "detail": "Neither is claimed. Twenty-seven apparent \"nsf\" matches in the page HTML were all the CSS keyword \"transform\"."
        }
      ],
      "womens_comparison": {
        "status": "no-womens-sku",
        "womens_product": null,
        "differences": [],
        "shared": [],
        "required_caveat": null,
        "evidence": null,
        "checked_on": null
      },
      "findings": [
        {
          "code": "effective-potency-is-not-a-number",
          "summary": "The through-expiry half of the footnote guarantees \"an effective potency\" — a term defined nowhere on the label or the product page. It could be 100 billion, or 10 billion, or one billion, and the sentence would remain literally true in each case. Compare NOW's construction on the same question: \"formulated to deliver a potency of 25 billion CFU through the Best By date\" — a number bound to a date. That is falsifiable. This is not.",
          "evidence": "Brand Supplement Facts PNG, read directly 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": "https://www.transparentlabs.com/cdn/shop/files/Gut_Health_SFP.png",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "scientifically-validated-applied-to-strains-with-no-trials",
          "summary": "The page claims \"100 billion CFUs from 10 scientifically-validated probiotic strains\". ST-21 and BB-03 have zero human randomised trials between them, and a third (BB-02) has one n=18 microbiological study with no clinical outcome. Those three supply 15 billion of the 100 billion.",
          "evidence": "PubMed queries re-run 2026-07-30; the strict ST-21 species query returns 2 non-human records and the BB-03 query returns a fungal isolate paper",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "machine-unreadable-label",
          "summary": "The Supplement Facts panel is delivered as a flat 1200x1200 raster image with no HTML table, no structured data and no text alternative. Automated retrieval of the page returns marketing prose and not a single strain name. A blind or low-vision consumer using a screen reader cannot access the ingredient list at all, and the badge images on the same page also carry empty alt text. Combined with the DSLD absence, the panel is archived nowhere outside the brand's own CDN. From a brand named Transparent Labs.",
          "evidence": "https://www.transparentlabs.com/cdn/shop/files/Gut_Health_SFP.png",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "no-third-party-cfu-potency-testing",
          "summary": "The named test types are purity, ingredient identity and gluten. Nothing found tests the live count — which is the only number that distinguishes a probiotic from a capsule of dead biomass.",
          "evidence": "transparentlabs.com/pages/third-party-tests, verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "per-strain-doses-not-matched-to-trialled-doses",
          "summary": "Even in this unusually well-disclosed product, the amounts are not systematically matched to the doses that produced the evidence. The trial underwriting LA-14 and BL-04 dosed 20 billion CFU of a single strain; BL-04 here is 10 billion, half of it. LS-33 is 5 billion against a trial that was null on its clinical outcome anyway. The 100-billion headline is achieved by stacking ten strains, three of which contribute 15 billion backed by essentially nothing.",
          "evidence": "PMID 18422632 · PMID 23510724",
          "source_url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18422632/",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "informed-choice-badge-with-no-certificate-number",
          "summary": "The badge is rendered with empty alt text, no certification number, no date and no link to the registry, and the certifier's database is Cloudflare-protected.",
          "evidence": "transparentlabs.com product page, verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "price",
          "summary": "$1.53 a day for a formula sharing nine of its ten strains with a mass-retail product at a fraction of the price. The delta buys four times the CFU count, which the field's own consensus body says is not itself a benefit: \"A greater number of colony forming units (CFU) does not always equate with enhanced effects.\"\"",
          "evidence": "ISAPP consumer infographic \"Probiotics: Dispelling Myths\", quoted verbatim",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": "The ISAPP source is a consumer-facing infographic, not a systematic review or meta-analysis, and should be graded as expert consensus rather than as pooled evidence."
        }
      ],
      "could_not_verify": [
        {
          "item": "The Informed Choice listing",
          "why": "The certifier's database is Cloudflare-protected and returned 403 to every route attempted."
        },
        {
          "item": "Any certificate of analysis for this product",
          "why": "The brand's third-party-tests page is a search interface; no COA for this SKU was retrievable."
        },
        {
          "item": "Whether \"LLP-115\" is a deliberate alternate designation or a label typo for Lp-115",
          "why": "Unverified. Recorded as a probable typo."
        },
        {
          "item": "The Supplement Facts panel against any independent source",
          "why": "There is no NIH DSLD record for any Transparent Labs probiotic — the only Transparent Labs record in DSLD is a creatine and vitamin D powder. The brand's own PNG is the sole source of truth, and if the formula changes there is no public record of what it used to be."
        }
      ],
      "audit_corrections": [
        {
          "finding": "The teardown reported the ST-21 query \"St-21\"[tiab] AND randomized controlled trial[pt] as returning COUNT: 0.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "It returns 20 — all false positives, because ST-21 is the acupoint Liangmen and the hits are acupuncture trials in a Chinese journal, plus one suspension-training study. The conclusion is right and the reported zero was not: the file reported a clean zero for a query that returns noise, the very trap it warns about elsewhere. Corrected here to the strict species-level query, \"Streptococcus thermophilus St-21\", which returns 2 records — a case report and a mouse study — and no human RCT.",
          "evidence": "prod-b-audit.md §C3"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown illustrated designator noise with unfiltered counts of 163 for \"St-21\" and 69 for \"Lr-32\".",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Neither reproduces: 285 and 37 on re-run, missing in opposite directions, which rules out index drift. Both figures are deleted and are not published anywhere on this site. The lesson they served is independently demonstrated by the resolved false positives above, which do reproduce.",
          "evidence": "prod-b-audit.md §F3"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown reported the subscription discount as \"$41.39 ($6 off, ≈10%)\".",
          "what_the_audit_did": "$45.99 − $41.39 = $4.60. The percentage is right; the dollar figure was not. Corrected.",
          "evidence": "prod-b-audit.md §C12"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown graded an ISAPP consumer infographic as a systematic review or meta-analysis.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Its quotations verify verbatim exact, but it is a consumer-facing infographic. Re-graded as expert consensus, with the caveat attached wherever it is quoted, so the grade is not laundered.",
          "evidence": "prod-b-audit.md §C15"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The strain list, the per-strain CFU splits and the \"effective potency\" footnote all rest on a single PNG on the brand's CDN.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Confirmed as the sole source: the DSLD absence for Transparent Labs probiotics is verified, and no independent copy of this panel exists anywhere.",
          "evidence": "prod-b-audit.md §3"
        }
      ],
      "label_evidence": [
        {
          "type": "photo-of-panel",
          "id": "Gut_Health_SFP",
          "url": "https://www.transparentlabs.com/cdn/shop/files/Gut_Health_SFP.png",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "The brand's own 1200x1200 Supplement Facts PNG, downloaded and read visually. There is no HTML table, no structured data and no text alternative, and no DSLD record exists for this product, so this image is the only source for every number on this page."
        },
        {
          "type": "brand-page-capture",
          "id": "transparentlabs-probiotic-pdp-2026-07-30",
          "url": "https://www.transparentlabs.com/products/probiotics-for-gut-health",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "Live page and products.json: $45.99, available true, 70 products in the catalogue, no gendered probiotic in either direction."
        }
      ],
      "product_url": "https://www.transparentlabs.com/products/probiotics-for-gut-health",
      "last_verified": "2026-07-30"
    },
    {
      "slug": "vitamin-bounty-pro-daily-probiotic",
      "page_url": "https://bestprobioticformen.com/products/vitamin-bounty-pro-daily-probiotic/",
      "brand": "Vitamin Bounty",
      "product": "Vitamin Bounty Pro-Daily Probiotic",
      "cohort": "D27-founding",
      "teardown_complete": true,
      "panel_transcribed": true,
      "marketed_as": "unisex",
      "lead_finding": "The bottle says take one capsule daily. The brand's own product page says take two. That single contradiction halves the days supply and doubles the real cost per day, from $0.97 to $1.93 — on the lowest CFU count in its batch, guaranteed only at manufacture.",
      "cfu": {
        "claim_as_printed": "5 Billion CFU",
        "basis": "at-manufacture",
        "basis_verbatim": "** Potency at time of manufacture"
      },
      "strain_designators": "none",
      "organism_slots": [
        {
          "slot_index": 1,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus acidophilus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 2,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium lactis",
          "organism_corrected": "Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis",
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 3,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus brevis",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 4,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus casei",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 5,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus plantarum",
          "organism_corrected": "Lactiplantibacillus plantarum",
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 6,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus rhamnosus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 7,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus salivarius",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 8,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus paracasei",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 9,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactobacillus bulgaricus",
          "organism_corrected": "Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus",
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 10,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium bifidum",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 11,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium brevis",
          "organism_corrected": "Bifidobacterium breve",
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "Not a valid taxon. The correct name is Bifidobacterium breve. This is not stale nomenclature — it is a misspelling of an extant species name, and Lactobacillus brevis (a real and different organism) is listed separately three lines above, so it is not a duplicate entry but a copy-paste contamination between the two lines."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 12,
          "organism_as_printed": "Bifidobacterium longum",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 13,
          "organism_as_printed": "Saccharomyces boulardii",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "A yeast, counted inside a header that reads \"13 Strains of Probiotic Bacteria\". A legitimate probiotic organism with a real literature — and a fungus."
        }
      ],
      "slots_with_human_rct": 0,
      "price": {
        "amount_usd": 28.99,
        "unit": "30-capsule bottle (30 servings at the label's one-capsule dose)",
        "cost_per_day_usd": 0.97,
        "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
        "source_url": "https://vitaminbounty.com/products/pro-daily-probiotic"
      },
      "price_note": null,
      "certifications": [
        {
          "programme": "None claimed",
          "status": "not-checked",
          "register_url": null,
          "checked_on": null,
          "detail": "The product page contains zero occurrences of \"third party\", \"3rd party\", \"lab\", \"tested\", \"potency\", \"GMP\", \"FDA\" or \"clinical\", verified by scripted string search over the rendered page text, and the label carries no certifier mark of any kind. Nothing to verify, because nothing is claimed. That is at least internally consistent — and it means there is no external check on a product whose CFU is guaranteed only at manufacture."
        }
      ],
      "womens_comparison": {
        "status": "diffed",
        "womens_product": "Vitamin Bounty Women's Pro-Daily Probiotic",
        "differences": [
          {
            "statement": "The women's product is $22.99 against Pro-Daily's $28.99 — six dollars less — at $0.77 a day against $0.97.",
            "evidence": "Vitamin Bounty products.json, 29 products, fetched 2026-07-30"
          },
          {
            "statement": "The women's product is 60 capsules at two a day and 10 billion CFU; Pro-Daily is 30 capsules at one a day and 5 billion. Both are 30 servings.",
            "evidence": "Vitamin Bounty products.json versus the Pro-Daily label render"
          },
          {
            "statement": "The women's product adds a Proprietary Women's Health Formula of 500 mg — ashwagandha root, cranberry fruit, black cohosh root — and Prebiotic FOS 50 mg. Pro-Daily's botanical add-on is a 40 mg Greens Blend and there is no prebiotic.",
            "evidence": "DSLD 263178 versus the Pro-Daily label render"
          }
        ],
        "shared": [
          "Both are proprietary blends with zero strain designators.",
          "Both are Vitamin Bounty's own SKUs, sold from the same catalogue."
        ],
        "required_caveat": "There is no men's probiotic in Vitamin Bounty's 29-product catalogue. Pro-Daily is the ungendered default that third-party listicles steer men toward, and Amazon listings for the line are titled \"Probiotics for Men & Women\". The women's version delivers twice the CFU, twice the capsules, a 500 mg botanical blend against a 40 mg one, and a prebiotic — for six dollars less. The differentiation is real and entirely female-directed; there is no male analogue because the brand never built one.",
        "evidence": "Brand bottle render (Pro-Daily) versus DSLD 263178 and the brand's Shopify catalogue",
        "checked_on": "2026-07-30"
      },
      "findings": [
        {
          "code": "label-and-website-give-different-doses",
          "summary": "The label's serving size is one delayed-release capsule and the back panel reads \"SUGGESTED USE: Take one (1) capsule daily\". The product page, under \"How To Use\", reads: \"Take 2 capsules daily between meals or on an empty stomach with water.\" The same brand publishes two different doses for the same 30-count bottle. At the label dose it is a 30-day supply at $0.97 a day; at the website dose it is a 15-day supply at $1.93.",
          "evidence": "Brand bottle render versus vitaminbounty.com product page, both verified 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": "https://vitaminbounty.com/products/pro-daily-probiotic",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "two-taxonomic-errors-on-the-printed-panel",
          "summary": "\"Bifidobacterium brevis\" is not a valid taxon — the species is Bifidobacterium breve — and Lactobacillus brevis is listed separately three lines above, so this reads as copy-paste contamination rather than a duplicate entry. And the header says \"13 Strains of Probiotic Bacteria\" while the list includes Saccharomyces boulardii, which is a yeast. A third, minor: \"Hordeum vulgaris\" should be Hordeum vulgare.",
          "evidence": "Brand bottle render, read directly at native 1000x1000",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "shown-to-support-with-nothing-shown",
          "summary": "\"Shown to support immune and digestive health.\" \"Shown to\" asserts demonstrated evidence. No study, citation or strain designator is offered anywhere on the site, and with zero of thirteen organisms designated, no such showing is possible.",
          "evidence": "vitaminbounty.com product page, verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "immune-system-boost-with-no-immune-ingredient",
          "summary": "\"Immune system boost.\" The product contains no immune-specific ingredient. The brand's own 10-billion sibling SKU adds zinc and vitamin C, which carry authorised immune claims; this one does not.",
          "evidence": "Brand bottle render and vitaminbounty.com product page, verified 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "fix-these-digestive-problems",
          "summary": "\"Are you sick of feeling bloated after every meal, or worse: suffering from continuous, annoying GI problems?\" followed by \"Pro Daily probiotics help you fix these digestive problems\". \"Fix\" is a treatment verb, and it is paired with \"continuous… GI problems\" — the closest thing in its batch to an implied treatment claim on a men's-marketed SKU.",
          "evidence": "vitaminbounty.com product page, verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "lowest-cfu-at-the-highest-price",
          "summary": "5 billion CFU for $28.99 — $0.193 per billion CFU per day, roughly fourteen times the Sports Research figure in the same batch — and it is the only one of the three anchored at manufacture.",
          "evidence": "Brand bottle render and Shopify catalogue, verified 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": "Cost per billion CFU is a raw-quantity metric, not an efficacy metric. More CFU is not established to be better; the field's own consensus body says so. It is used here only because the CFU count is what this product's marketing sells."
        },
        {
          "code": "advance-notice-cancellation-window",
          "summary": "A site-wide \"SUBSCRIBE & SAVE 20%\" banner, with cancellation requiring action \"at least 3 days in advance before renewal to avoid future charges\". Not a hard trap — a 120-day money-back guarantee is offered — but the advance-notice window is a real friction term disclosed only in body copy.",
          "evidence": "vitaminbounty.com product page, verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "shipping-thresholds-contradict-on-one-page",
          "summary": "The header banner says \"FREE US SHIPPING ABOVE $50\"; the footer on the same page says \"Free US Shipping For Orders $60+\".",
          "evidence": "vitaminbounty.com product page, verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "no-dsld-record",
          "summary": "The UPC returns zero hits in the NIH Dietary Supplement Label Database, so there is no government-transcribed copy of this panel and the brand's own bottle render is the only source.",
          "evidence": "DSLD UPC query, re-run 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/",
          "required_caveat": null
        }
      ],
      "could_not_verify": [
        {
          "item": "The CFU basis of the women's comparator",
          "why": "The women's label carries a ** marker whose footnote text was not retrievable, and DSLD 263178 does not reproduce it. Genuinely unverified."
        },
        {
          "item": "Any government label record for Pro-Daily",
          "why": "There is none — the UPC returns zero hits in DSLD, so the panel published here rests solely on the brand's own 1000x1000 bottle render, which was read directly and independently re-read during the audit. Brand-filtered DSLD returns only two Vitamin Bounty probiotic records (Women's Pro-Daily 263178 and Pro-100 266647), neither of which is this product."
        },
        {
          "item": "Per-strain CFU across the thirteen organisms",
          "why": "Not disclosed. A 5 billion blend of 13 organisms could be 4.9 billion of the cheapest one."
        }
      ],
      "audit_corrections": [
        {
          "finding": "The teardown recorded, as a category finding, that none of the three products in its batch has a record in the NIH Dietary Supplement Label Database.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "It is two of three, not three of three. Sports Research does have a record — DSLD 326252, under the exact UPC the teardown reported as returning zero hits. Vitamin Bounty's Pro-Daily and Nature Made's Probiotics Extra Strength genuinely have none, which is confirmed by brand-filtered queries returning two and eight probiotic records respectively, none of them the audited SKU. The corrected statement is published here and on the Sports Research page.",
          "evidence": "prod-c-audit.md §F1"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown said the only DSLD record retrievable for any brand in its batch was 263178.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "At minimum thirteen further records are retrievable across the three brands. Corrected.",
          "evidence": "prod-c-audit.md §F2"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown asserted that the 2023 Cochrane cranberry review contains no male subgroup at all — used in support of the women's-SKU cranberry finding.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Refuted as stated. The review's subgroup analysis includes elderly institutionalised men and women (3 studies, 1,489 participants, RR 0.93, 95% CI 0.67–1.30), plus adults with neuromuscular bladder dysfunction and people susceptible due to an intervention — none of which is female-only. The version this site publishes is narrower and stronger: the review reports no male-only subgroup, and the only subgroup that includes men showed little or no benefit.",
          "evidence": "prod-c-audit.md §C1"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown reported that the LGG bloating query returned three records and that \"both retrievable trials\" had been read.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "The third hit was retrievable and is a null result — PMID 15472792, LGG alone at 1 to 5 x 10^10 CFU per dose, randomised placebo-controlled crossover with a visual analogue scale covering flatulence and bloating, and \"no difference between LGG and placebo could be detected\". Omitting it understated the file's own case. It is included in the Nature Made page in this cohort, where the LGG claim actually sits.",
          "evidence": "prod-c-audit.md §C3"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The label transcription and the dosing contradiction.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Both verified independently off the brand's own 1000x1000 render and the live page. Every line of the panel is verbatim, both taxonomic errors are real, the at-manufacture footnote is real, and the 1-versus-2 capsule contradiction is confirmed on both surfaces with the days-supply and cost-per-day arithmetic recomputing correctly.",
          "evidence": "prod-c-audit.md §S1, §S2"
        }
      ],
      "label_evidence": [
        {
          "type": "photo-of-panel",
          "id": "Vitamin_Bounty_Pro_Daily_Right",
          "url": "https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0266/7112/0472/products/Vitamin_Bounty_Pro_Daily_Right_f47d4358-b3f7-4ce8-9c3f-b5f1d6bca107.jpg",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "The brand's own bottle render, fully legible at native 1000x1000, read directly and independently re-read during the audit. There is no DSLD record for this product, so this image is the only source for the panel."
        },
        {
          "type": "brand-page-capture",
          "id": "vitaminbounty-prodaily-pdp-2026-07-30",
          "url": "https://vitaminbounty.com/products/pro-daily-probiotic",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "Live page and Shopify catalogue: SKU VB1004, $28.99, published 2019-12-04, the \"Take 2 capsules daily\" instruction, and the zero-match search for third-party testing language."
        },
        {
          "type": "dsld",
          "id": "263178",
          "url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/263178",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "Women's Pro-Daily comparator, entered 2021-11-19, on-market: five organisms, a 500 mg Proprietary Women's Health Formula and 50 mg prebiotic FOS."
        }
      ],
      "product_url": "https://vitaminbounty.com/products/pro-daily-probiotic",
      "last_verified": "2026-07-30"
    },
    {
      "slug": "wholesome-wellness-raw-probiotics",
      "page_url": "https://bestprobioticformen.com/products/wholesome-wellness-raw-probiotics/",
      "brand": "Wholesome Wellness",
      "product": "Wholesome Wellness Raw Probiotics 100 Billion CFU",
      "cohort": "D27-founding",
      "teardown_complete": true,
      "panel_transcribed": true,
      "marketed_as": "unisex",
      "lead_finding": "The page claims \"34 of the most clinically effective probiotic strains that have been shown in studies\" and that \"each probiotic strain has been shown in clinical trials\". Not one of the 34 organisms carries a strain designator, so not one of those attributions can be checked — and eight of the 34 are yeasts.",
      "cfu": {
        "claim_as_printed": "100 billion CFU (Probiotic Complex, 250 mg)",
        "basis": "at-manufacture",
        "basis_verbatim": "100 billion CFU, Formulated with 100 billion CFU at time of manufacture."
      },
      "strain_designators": "none",
      "organism_slots": [
        {
          "slot_index": 1,
          "organism_as_printed": "L. acidophilus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 2,
          "organism_as_printed": "B. bifidum",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 3,
          "organism_as_printed": "B. animalis lactis",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 4,
          "organism_as_printed": "L. paracasei",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 5,
          "organism_as_printed": "B. longum",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 6,
          "organism_as_printed": "L. brevis",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 7,
          "organism_as_printed": "L. bulgaricus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 8,
          "organism_as_printed": "L. casei",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 9,
          "organism_as_printed": "L. fermentum",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 10,
          "organism_as_printed": "L. helveticus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 11,
          "organism_as_printed": "L. kefirano-faciens",
          "organism_corrected": "Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens",
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "The species is Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens; the hyphen is a transcription artefact carried on a live label."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 12,
          "organism_as_printed": "L. kefirgranum",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 13,
          "organism_as_printed": "L. rhamnosus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 14,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactococcus lactis",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 15,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactococcus cremoris",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 16,
          "organism_as_printed": "S. thermophilus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 17,
          "organism_as_printed": "L. kefir",
          "organism_corrected": "Lentilactobacillus kefiri",
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "The valid name is Lentilactobacillus kefiri. The 2020 label printed \"Lactobacillus parakefir\" for the neighbouring organism; the 2024 label corrects that one to parakefiri — a four-year-old typo on a live label, now fixed for one organism and not the other."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 18,
          "organism_as_printed": "L. parakefiri",
          "organism_corrected": "Lentilactobacillus parakefiri",
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 19,
          "organism_as_printed": "L. plantarum",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 20,
          "organism_as_printed": "Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis biovar diacetylactis",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "A biovar of a species already listed two rows above, counted separately."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 21,
          "organism_as_printed": "Leuconostoc lactis",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 22,
          "organism_as_printed": "Leuconostoc mesenteroides",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 23,
          "organism_as_printed": "Leuconostoc cremoris",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "A subspecies of Leuconostoc mesenteroides, counted as a separate strain alongside it and Leuc. dextranicum — three entries, one species."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 24,
          "organism_as_printed": "Leuconostoc dextranicum",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 25,
          "organism_as_printed": "Kluyveromyces marxianus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "The first of eight yeasts on this panel. The product front and every retail listing say \"34 strains\" without qualification; the brand's own copy concedes the composition only in passing, as \"34 symbiotic good bacterial strains, fungus, & live cultures\"."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 26,
          "organism_as_printed": "Brettanomyces anomalus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 27,
          "organism_as_printed": "Debaryomyces hansenii",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 28,
          "organism_as_printed": "Saccharomyces unisporus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": "Transferred to the genus Kazachstania, as have S. turicensis and S. exiguus. No human efficacy trial exists for any of the eight yeasts as sold."
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 29,
          "organism_as_printed": "Saccharomyces turicensis",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 30,
          "organism_as_printed": "Saccharomyces cerevisiae",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 31,
          "organism_as_printed": "Saccharomyces exiguus",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 32,
          "organism_as_printed": "Torulaspora delbrueckii",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 33,
          "organism_as_printed": "B. breve",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        },
        {
          "slot_index": 34,
          "organism_as_printed": "L. salivarius",
          "organism_corrected": null,
          "designator_as_printed": null,
          "quantity_as_printed": null,
          "resolution": "no-designator-printed",
          "query_run": null,
          "note": null
        }
      ],
      "slots_with_human_rct": 0,
      "price": {
        "amount_usd": 24.99,
        "unit": "30-capsule bottle (30 servings, 1 capsule per serving)",
        "cost_per_day_usd": 0.83,
        "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
        "source_url": "https://wholesome-wellness.com/product/raw-probiotics-100-billion-cfu/"
      },
      "price_note": null,
      "certifications": [
        {
          "programme": "\"FDA, NSF, and GMP certified/registered\" facility",
          "status": "brand-asserted-unverified",
          "register_url": null,
          "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
          "detail": "Three problems in one sentence. FDA registers food and dietary supplement facilities under 21 U.S.C. §350d; it does not certify them, and registration is not an endorsement or a quality mark. No certificate number, facility name or registration ID is given, so there is nothing to look up in NSF's public listings. And the same page names a different certifier further down — see below."
        },
        {
          "programme": "\"FDA, UL, and GMP certified registered lab facility\"",
          "status": "brand-asserted-unverified",
          "register_url": null,
          "checked_on": "2026-07-30",
          "detail": "This appears roughly 900 words below the NSF claim, on the same page, for the same facility. NSF appears once and UL appears once, on both the unisex and the women's product pages. A facility could hold both, but a brand that held either would name it consistently. That is not a certification; it is boilerplate."
        },
        {
          "programme": "\"Third party lab tested for purity and potency\"",
          "status": "not-checked",
          "register_url": null,
          "checked_on": null,
          "detail": "Names no lab, publishes no certificate of analysis, and is not tied to a lot number."
        }
      ],
      "womens_comparison": {
        "status": "diffed",
        "womens_product": "Wholesome Wellness Women's Raw Probiotics",
        "differences": [
          {
            "statement": "Set-diffing the two 34-organism lists gives a perfectly symmetric split: 17 organisms on both labels, 17 unique to this one, 17 unique to the women's. Exactly half the formula is different.",
            "evidence": "DSLD 322303 versus DSLD 322301"
          },
          {
            "statement": "This product is a kefir culture — it holds all eight yeasts, all four kefir-named lactobacilli and all the Leuconostoc entries. The women's product is a conventional lactic acid bacteria blend, adding L. crispatus, L. jensenii, L. gasseri, L. johnsonii, L. reuteri, L. sakei, L. curvatus, B. adolescentis, B. longum infantis, B. animalis, Lactococcus lactis cremoris, Pediococcus pentosaceus, P. acidilactici, Saccharomyces boulardii, Bacillus coagulans, Bacillus subtilis and Enterococcus faecalis.",
            "evidence": "DSLD 322303 versus DSLD 322301"
          },
          {
            "statement": "The women's product is 60 capsules taken twice daily and costs $32.38; this one is 30 capsules taken once daily at $24.99. Both claim 100 billion CFU and 250 mg of Probiotic Complex per serving, so the women's delivers half the mass per capsule and requires twice the pills for the same claimed dose — at a 29.6% premium, $1.08 a day against $0.83.",
            "evidence": "Both product pages and DSLD 322303 versus DSLD 322301"
          }
        ],
        "shared": [
          "Both claim 34 strains and 100 billion CFU from a 250 mg Probiotic Complex per serving.",
          "Both share the prebiotic complex, the digestive enzyme complex and the fruit-and-vegetable complex.",
          "Neither discloses a single strain designator."
        ],
        "required_caveat": "One asymmetry the marketing does not mention: the women's formula contains Enterococcus faecalis and this one does not. A 2020 review notes that the European Food Safety Authority concluded in 2007 that enterococci do not meet the standard for Qualified Presumption of Safety, and that no large randomised placebo-controlled trial has demonstrated the safety and efficacy of any enterococcal probiotic. An undesignated E. faecalis in a consumer supplement cannot be screened by the buyer for cytolysin, aggregation substance or transferable vancomycin resistance, because the strain is not identified.",
        "evidence": "DSLD 322303 versus DSLD 322301",
        "checked_on": "2026-07-30"
      },
      "findings": [
        {
          "code": "each-strain-shown-in-clinical-trials-with-zero-designators",
          "summary": "Verbatim from the page: \"Our gastroenterologist doctor formulated probiotic includes 34 of the most clinically effective probiotic strains that have been shown in studies to positively effect your health. Each probiotic strain has been shown in clinical trials to positively help with everything from gut health to skin health.\" Every organism on the panel is species-level only. A label that discloses no strain designator cannot support a claim that each of its strains has been shown in clinical trials. The two statements are not reconcilable.",
          "evidence": "DSLD 322303 · wholesome-wellness.com product page, verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/322303",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "strain-count-inflated-and-eight-are-yeasts",
          "summary": "This is a kefir starter culture, not a conventional probiotic blend: 26 bacteria and 8 fungi. Leuconostoc cremoris and Leuc. dextranicum are subspecies of Leuc. mesenteroides, all three counted separately; Lactococcus lactis biovar diacetylactis is a biovar of a species already listed. Removing the unambiguous duplicates takes 34 down to roughly 30 distinct taxa — and since no designators are given, there is no way to tell whether the remainder are 30 different organisms or fewer.",
          "evidence": "DSLD 322303",
          "source_url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/322303",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "potency-guarantee-got-weaker-over-time",
          "summary": "The 2020 label said: \"Contains a minimum of 100 billion live bacteria when manufactured, and provides an effective level until at least the 'best by' date\", plus \"Potency guaranteed\". Both are gone from the 2024 label, which states only the at-manufacture figure. The current product makes no end-of-life potency claim of any kind. (\"An effective level\" was itself undefined and unfalsifiable — but it was more than what replaced it.)",
          "evidence": "DSLD 240395 versus DSLD 322303",
          "source_url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/240395",
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "two-different-certifiers-named-for-one-facility",
          "summary": "\"Made in USA in an FDA, NSF, and GMP certified/registered manufacturing facility\" appears once on the page; roughly 900 words later, \"Made in the USA in an FDA, UL, and GMP certified registered lab facility\". NSF and UL are unrelated certifiers. And \"FDA certified\" is not a status that exists — FDA registers facilities, it does not certify them.",
          "evidence": "wholesome-wellness.com product page, both strings verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "live-disease-claims-on-a-site-fda-has-written-to",
          "summary": "The probiotic pages currently attribute, by named condition: diarrhoea, allergies, IBS, pouchitis, autoimmune disorders, rosacea, eczema, blood-pressure regulation, gut and urinary-tract infections, tooth decay, gastroenteritis, food poisoning, neurological issues, lactose intolerance and yeast infections. Each is attributed to a species that appears on the label without a designator, so none of the attributions is verifiable even setting the regulatory question aside.",
          "evidence": "wholesome-wellness.com product pages, all claims verified verbatim live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "fda-warning-letter-to-this-website",
          "summary": "FDA issued a warning letter to Wholesome Wellness on 18 February 2021 (MARCS-CMS 612257, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, signed by the Director, Office of Compliance), stating that it had reviewed `www.wholesome-wellness.com` and determined that claims there established the product as a drug under section 201(g)(1)(B) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.",
          "evidence": "FDA MARCS-CMS 612257, 2021-02-18",
          "source_url": "https://www.fda.gov/inspections-compliance-enforcement-and-criminal-investigations/warning-letters/wholesome-wellness-612257-02182021",
          "required_caveat": "Scope matters and must ship with this. The letter targets a different product — \"Natural Anxiety & Depression Relief\", which is no longer in the brand's nine-SKU catalogue — not the probiotic. It is relevant here for two reasons only: FDA's finding was against this exact website, and the letter states verbatim that \"the violations cited in this letter are not intended to be an all-inclusive statement of violations that exist in connection with your marketed products.\" Do not publish this without that framing."
        },
        {
          "code": "medical-grade-and-cfu-keyword-stuffing",
          "summary": "\"Medical Grade, Organic, Non-GMO, Cruelty-Free, Live, Vegan Probiotics\" — \"medical grade\" has no regulatory meaning for a dietary supplement. And: \"way more potent than other 5, 10, 13, 15, 40, 45, 50, 60, 70, 80 Billion CFU probiotic supplements\", which is search-engine copy and also contradicts the field's own consensus that more colony-forming units do not always equate with enhanced effects.",
          "evidence": "wholesome-wellness.com product page, verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "womens-benefit-claimed-on-the-page-sold-to-men",
          "summary": "From this product's own page: \"Lactobacillus fermentum – … it is also one of the few strains particularly beneficial for helping to deal with issues more prevalent in women, like yeast infections and UTIs.\"\"",
          "evidence": "wholesome-wellness.com product page, verified verbatim live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        },
        {
          "code": "gender-premium-on-the-womens-version",
          "summary": "The women's product costs 29.6% more per day for half the probiotic mass per capsule.",
          "evidence": "Both product pages, verified live 2026-07-30",
          "source_url": null,
          "required_caveat": null
        }
      ],
      "could_not_verify": [
        {
          "item": "Which certifier, if any, holds the facility",
          "why": "NSF and UL are both named for the same facility on the same page, with no certificate number, facility name or registration ID for either. No certifier database lookup is possible because no certifier identifier is supplied."
        },
        {
          "item": "Any per-strain CFU or milligram allocation",
          "why": "None. One 250 mg complex covers all 34 organisms."
        },
        {
          "item": "How much of the 100 billion survives to the date on the bottle",
          "why": "Nothing on the label or the website says. The 2020 label at least claimed the product \"provides an effective level until at least the 'best by' date\"; the 2024 label drops that and states only the at-manufacture figure."
        },
        {
          "item": "The scanned label images behind the DSLD records",
          "why": "DSLD's label PDFs return HTTP 403; the structured JSON is open and is what was used."
        }
      ],
      "audit_corrections": [
        {
          "finding": "The teardown said all four Leuconostoc entries are unique to the unisex product.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Three of four. Leuconostoc mesenteroides is on both labels; only Leuc. lactis, Leuc. cremoris and Leuc. dextranicum are unisex-only. The 8 yeasts and 4 kefir-named lactobacilli are exact.",
          "evidence": "prod-c-audit.md §C7"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The teardown presented the EFSA sentence first when quoting the enterococci review, with an ellipsis implying continuity.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "The abstract's order is different. The content is accurate and drawn from the abstract, but the quotation has been restructured here as separate statements rather than a reordered single quote.",
          "evidence": "prod-c-audit.md §C8"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The 17/17/17 organism split, the panel, the label drift and the FDA warning letter.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "All verified independently. The set-diff reproduces exactly and the women's-only list matches organism for organism including Enterococcus faecalis. The 2024 and 2020 label statements are verbatim. The warning letter is exact to the character, including FDA's own wording and the not-all-inclusive sentence, the issuing office, the signature and the recipient address matching the seller address on the probiotic page — and the audit confirms the file's scoping paragraph is the right way to publish it.",
          "evidence": "prod-c-audit.md §S19, §S20, §S23"
        },
        {
          "finding": "The certification self-contradiction and every disease claim in the table.",
          "what_the_audit_did": "Verbatim and live, occurring exactly once each on both product pages. Prices are the brand's own numbers — the page itself prints \"Only $0.83 per day\" and the women's page prints \"Only $1.08 per day\" — and the 29.57% premium recomputes.",
          "evidence": "prod-c-audit.md §S21, §S22, §S24"
        }
      ],
      "label_evidence": [
        {
          "type": "dsld",
          "id": "322303",
          "url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/322303",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "Entered 2024-12-21, on-market. The current label: 34 organisms, Probiotic Complex 250 mg with the at-manufacture note, Organic Prebiotic Complex 150 mg, Digestive Enzyme Complex 200 mg and Fruit and Vegetable Complex 50 mg. Carries no UPC at all."
        },
        {
          "type": "dsld",
          "id": "240395",
          "url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/240395",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "The 2020 label, now off-market, carrying the deleted \"provides an effective level until at least the 'best by' date\" and \"Potency guaranteed\" statements, and the older \"Lactobacillus parakefir\" spelling."
        },
        {
          "type": "dsld",
          "id": "322301",
          "url": "https://dsld.od.nih.gov/label/322301",
          "captured_on": "2026-07-30",
          "note": "Women's Raw Probiotics comparator, used for the 17/17/17 organism set-diff."
        }
      ],
      "product_url": "https://wholesome-wellness.com/product/raw-probiotics-100-billion-cfu/",
      "last_verified": "2026-07-30"
    }
  ]
}