One product, one panel, one record.
Klaire Labs Ther-Biotic Pro IBS Relief, 21 capsules (medical food; UPC 709616310878) — label audit
The headline numbers — constipation down 79%, diarrhoea down 70%, abdominal pain down 67% — come from a prospective non-interventional study with no control arm, no placebo and no blinding. The brand's own archived landing page says "open-label". The Amazon listing drops that word and keeps the percentages.
This page is an audit of a label. It records what this product’s panel discloses, what of that could be checked against a primary record, and what could not. The score below ranks this product on that disclosure and on nothing else.
The record this page rests on
- NIH label record
- No NIH Dietary Supplement Label Database record is on file for this product in this teardown.
- Label read on
- The most recent dated artefact behind this page. Labels change; this is how old our reading of it is.
- Cohort
- Addendum — outside the founding denominators Audited 2026-07-31, after the founding cohort of 27 was frozen. It sits outside every D27 denominator this site publishes.
- How deep this went
- Label audit — the lighter pass What the label says, what basis it gives for its CFU number, whether the strains are coded, whether a government label record exists — checked and published. No full claim inventory was written for this SKU. It is a real result, and it is a shallower one than the teardowns above it, which is why the page says so before you weigh it against them.
- What did not survive verification
- Part of this page was refuted or could not be reproduced The evidence trail on this product survived verification completely and the label provenance did not. Taking the second part first: no brand-published panel and no government record exists for this SKU. The brand's own US store does not list it, both Amazon listings are live but unavailable with no price, two further retailers return 404, and DSLD would not be expected to hold it at all because a medical food is regulated outside DSHEA. The panel published here therefore rests on a single specialist retailer's transcription, matched on UPC 709616310878 — a real match, and one source, with nothing to cross-check it against. Any statement here about what the physical carton prints is bounded to that one surface. Relatedly, the product appears to be gone: every one of six channels checked was dead, backordered or explicitly marked discontinued by the brand, so "sold at $34.99" describes a listing rather than a purchase a reader can currently make. What did survive verification in full, and is quotable: the price and the per-day figures, corroborated to the cent between the live specialist retailer and the brand's own archived pricing page; the complete reference trail behind the 79 / 70 / 67 / 110 percent claims, traced through SFI's own practitioner FAQ PDF to PMID 33556972 and verified on PubMed as a prospective non-interventional study with no control arm; the fact that the "open-label" caveat is present on the brand's page and absent from the Amazon listing; PMID 28082816's title and missed primary endpoint, cited by the brand as support; and the absence of any strain designator on the panel.
The Label Verifiability Score for this product
7.3 out of 100
Rank 152 of the 154 products in this audit the rubric can score. This rank is shared with 1 other product — 2 products sit on 7.3 and are tied. They hold the position jointly; no tiebreaker is applied, because every tiebreaker available here would be a number the rubric deliberately refused to weigh, smuggled back in to make a list look tidier.
The score measures one thing: how much of what you are buying this company tells you, and how much of that survives being checked against a source that is not the company. It does not measure whether the product works — this site holds no efficacy data of its own, and 0 of 294 organism slots in the founding cohort carry a strain with a human randomised trial for any male-specific outcome, so nobody in this category has evidence that would support a ranking by effect.
Computed over the whole rubric: this record answers all five questions below, so nothing is renormalised away and the divisor is the full 1.00. That share travels with every score on this site and is never dropped — a score over part of the rubric’s weight and the same score over all of it are different claims.
| Component | Weight | What was counted, and where | Fraction | Weight × fraction |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strain identity printed on the panel | 0.24 | 0 of 3 organism slots carry a printed strain designator. | 0 / 3 = 0.0000 | 0.0000 |
| Per-organism amount printed | 0.20 | 0 of 3 organism slots have an amount of its own; the rest are inside a blend total. | 0 / 3 = 0.0000 | 0.0000 |
| What the CFU count is measured against | 0.22 | Potency basis "through-expiry-off-label-only": CFU figure printed yes, single basis stated no, basis reaches expiry no — 1 of 3. | 1 / 3 = 0.3333 | 0.073333 |
| Printed designators that lead to a human trial | 0.20 | 0 of 3 checked organism slots resolve to at least one human randomised trial under the designator exactly as printed. This counts whether the identity leads to a trial, never what the trial found. | 0 / 3 = 0.0000 | 0.0000 |
| Certification confirmed at the issuer’s own register | 0.14 | 1 claimed certification queried at the issuer’s register and not listed there. | 0 / 1 = 0.0000 | 0.0000 |
0.073333 — the last column added up — divided by 1.00, the weight this record could answer, is 0.0733. Multiplied by 100 and rounded to one decimal, that is the 7.3 above.
See this product’s row in the full ranking, alongside the other 153 scored products, or read what each of the five components asks and how to check it .
What this label discloses
Everything in this table is what the product itself states — on the printed panel, on the brand’s own page, or in the label record the manufacturer filed. Nothing in it is checked yet; checking is the next section.
| Disclosure | As recorded |
|---|---|
| CFU as printed | Lyophilized Lactic Acid Bacteria — 20 Billion CFU |
| What that count is measured against | Through expiry — off-label only |
| Strain designators | None — species only |
| Organism slots transcribed here | 3 — the full panel |
| Marketed as | Unisex |
The panel gives no basis at all. SFI's practitioner FAQ PDF states, verbatim: "Ther-Biotic Pro™ IBS Relief has been formulated to maintain the label value of 20 billion CFU at room temperature throughout its shelf life." That is effectively an at-expiry commitment, and it lives in a healthcare-professional PDF rather than on the product a consumer buys. Basis as labelled: unstated.
The panel’s own words on potency, verbatim.
The brand page promises a through-expiry count. The printed panel does not. Only the panel is a label claim.
The panel names species only, with no strain designator anywhere. A species name is not a claim: the trials in this field are of strains, and a species can contain thousands.
| Organism as printed | Designator as printed | Quantity as printed | What the designator resolves to | The query we ran |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| L. plantarum (correct name: Lactiplantibacillus plantarum) | — none printed | — not stated separately | No designator printed | — |
| L. acidophilus (correct name: Lactobacillus acidophilus) | — none printed | — not stated separately | No designator printed | — |
| B. lactis (correct name: Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis) | — none printed | — not stated separately | No designator printed | — |
What of that is verifiable
A disclosure is verifiable when a reader can open a record that neither we nor the brand controls and see the same thing. Below is every dated artefact this page rests on. What is absent from this list is not verified, however reasonable it sounds.
- Dated capture of the brand’s own page — cnc-ther-biotic-pro-ibs-relief-panel-2026-07-31https://www.clinicalnutritioncenters.com/ther-biotic-pro-ibs-relief-by-klaire-labs-21-capsules/ — Address given, not linked: this site does not link out to the products it audits. captured The only recoverable surface for this product's panel, matched on UPC 709616310878. Source for the Supplement Facts lines (1 capsule, 21 or 42 servings, Lyophilized Lactic Acid Bacteria 20 Billion CFU, sodium 10 mg, potassium 10 mg) and for the IBS-Defense ingredient statement naming the three organisms and the PHGG and InTactic components. Recorded as a single-source panel: the brand publishes none, and no government record exists because a medical food would not appear in DSLD.
- Internet Archive capture — 20220423182218 (opens in a new tab) captured The brand's own landing page, archived. Source for the pricing corroboration — it states the per-day figures itself, "$34.99 / $1.67 per day" and "$49.99 / $1.19 per day", agreeing to the cent with the live specialist retailer — and for the Subscribe & Save tiers ($44.99, $42.50, $40.00 a month). It is also the artefact behind two findings: the honest "open-label" wording that the retail channel drops, and the "Reduce IBS symptoms by up to 79%" headline.
- Internet Archive capture — 20240616212441 (opens in a new tab) captured SFI's own practitioner FAQ PDF, retrieved through the Internet Archive because the live URL returns HTTP 202 with an empty body to automated requests. The document that made the efficacy trail traceable: it carries the footnote behind the 79 / 70 / 67 / 110 percent figures and the numbered reference list resolving to PMIDs 33556972, 28082816, 22912552 and 29227175, every one verified on PubMed. It is also the only place the at-expiry shelf-life commitment appears.
How many of its strains have a human trial for what it is sold for
Across the frozen founding cohort, 0 of 294 organism slots (0.0%) carry an organism with a human randomised controlled trial for any male-specific outcome. Not for this product — for all 27 of the founding teardowns, taken together. That is the number to hold against any men’s probiotic, including this one.
Two further founding-cohort figures for context: only 43 of 294 organism slots carry a strain with any human RCT at all under the exact code printed on the label, and only 2 of 27 products have a published human trial of the finished formula — the thing actually in the bottle. All three figures divide by the frozen cohort of 27 teardowns and 294 organism slots, never by every teardown on this site.
For this product specifically, 0 organism slots carry a strain with a human RCT under the exact designator printed on the label.
A word on what a designator has to clear before it counts here. The organism must be named with the exact strain code that appears in the trial, the trial must be in humans, and the code must return that trial when a reader searches it. A species name does not qualify: the trials in this field are of strains, and a species contains thousands of them.
What it costs per day
$1.67 a day at the dose the label itself instructs.
- Price
- $34.99 USD
- What that buys
- 21-capsule bottle (21-day supply, 1 capsule daily), UPC 709616310878
- Price checked
- — the source we read it fromhttps://www.clinicalnutritioncenters.com/ther-biotic-pro-ibs-relief-by-klaire-labs-21-capsules/ — Address given, not linked: this site does not link out to the products it audits.
What certification it holds, checked at the issuer’s own register
A badge on a bottle is a claim like any other. Every row below was checked — or not checked — at the certifier’s own public register, never at the badge. Across the frozen founding cohort, 2 of 27 products hold a certification we could confirm at the issuer — a founding-cohort figure, not a count over every teardown on this site.
| Programme | Status at the issuer | Checked |
|---|---|---|
| Bare formulation adjectives (allergen-free, no artificial flavours, sweeteners, colouring or preservatives, non-GMO) | Not checked | 31 July 2026 |
| Low-FODMAP certification | Absent from register | 31 July 2026 |
Bare formulation adjectives (allergen-free, no artificial flavours, sweeteners, colouring or preservatives, non-GMO)
We have not queried this register for this product. It does not mean the product holds nothing.
The FAQ claims the product is "free from common allergens… does not contain any artificial flavors, sweeteners, coloring, preservatives, and is non-GMO." Bare adjectives with no issuer. There is no NSF mark, no USP mark and no Informed Choice.
Low-FODMAP certification
The register was queried and this product is not listed on it.
The FAQ describes the product as "low-FODMAP compliant" and its prebiotic as a "low-FODMAP prebiotic" — a self-assessment, with no certification mark. The omission is visible inside the brand's own catalogue: Klaire's Ther-Biotic Synbiotic does claim a "low FODMAP Certified™" prebiotic. Recorded as absent because the brand demonstrably knows how to make the certified claim and does not make it here.
How it differs from the same brand’s women’s version
Across the fourteen same-brand men’s-versus-women’s label diffs run inside the frozen founding cohort, zero men’s or default formulas contain a probiotic strain, identified by designator, that was selected on male-specific evidence. In eight of the fourteen the sex-specific differentiator is a botanical or a mineral, and in five of the fourteen the women’s SKU is better-specified, cheaper, or both — “better-specified” meaning the panel that discloses more, never the panel with more in it. The rule behind each of those counts, and all fourteen pairs classified against it , are published in full. Diffs run on teardowns added since sit outside this fourteen, and outside the sentence above.
Every finding on this page, with the record behind it
Finding 1 headline-percentages-come-from-an-uncontrolled-non-interventional-study
The 79% / 70% / 67% / 110% figures trace to Krammer H, Storr M, Madisch A, Riffel J, Z Gastroenterol 2021;59(2):125-134 — PMID 33556972 — whose own title describes it as "real-life data of a non-interventional study in Germany". 221 patients, 25 centres, prospective, no control arm, no placebo, no blinding. These are within-group before-and-after changes in a condition with one of the largest documented placebo responses in medicine. The abstract numbers match the brand's figures exactly.
The record: SFI practitioner FAQ PDF footnote and its reference 4; PMID 33556972 title and abstract, verified on PubMed 2026-07-31 — open it (opens in a new tab)
Finding 2 the-open-label-caveat-survives-on-the-brand-site-and-disappears-in-retail
The brand's own archived landing page is honest about the design — "In an open-label prospective clinical study in 221 people with IBS…". The Amazon listing drops "open-label" and reads only "A clinical study on the L. plantarum strain in Ther-Biotic Pro IBS Relief showed on average reduction in constipation by 79%…". The number travels; the caveat does not.
The record: Internet Archive capture 20220423182218 of klaire.com/ibs versus Amazon listing B09F2F69W4, both read 2026-07-31 — open it (opens in a new tab)
Finding 3 a-cited-supporting-trial-reports-probiotic-and-placebo-performing-equally
Reference 3 is Lyra A et al, World J Gastroenterol 2016;22(48):10631-10642 — PMID 28082816 — titled "Irritable bowel syndrome symptom severity improves equally with probiotic and placebo." The primary endpoint (IBS-SSS) was missed; improvement was equivalent across placebo, low dose and high dose, and the only positive was a post-hoc subgroup with baseline abdominal pain VAS above 35. Its authors state they are "present or former employees of the sponsor, DuPont Nutrition and Health". SFI cites this trial in support of the statement that its three strains "have been shown on average to reduce IBS symptoms and/or normalize bowel habits."
The record: SFI practitioner FAQ PDF reference 3; PMID 28082816 title, abstract and COI statement, verified on PubMed 2026-07-31 — open it (opens in a new tab)
Finding 4 zero-strain-designators-on-a-product-sold-on-strain-specific-trials
Three organisms, all species-only, inside the IBS-Defense proprietary blend. No ATCC, DSM, CNCM, NCIMB, 299v, NCFM or HN019 anywhere on the label — on a product whose entire marketing rests on strain-specific trials, and whose own FAQ opens by saying "The health effects of probiotics vary between different species and strains."
The record: Panel transcription from Clinical Nutrition Centers, UPC 709616310878, versus the reference list in SFI's practitioner FAQ PDF, 2026-07-31 — open ithttps://www.clinicalnutritioncenters.com/ther-biotic-pro-ibs-relief-by-klaire-labs-21-capsules/ — Address given, not linked: this site does not link out to the products it audits.
Finding 5 the-dose-is-unverifiable-against-the-trial-it-rests-on
Krammer 2021 dosed LP299v at 10 billion CFU a day. This product's total across three organisms is 20 billion with no per-strain split. The LP299v content could be a token or the whole 20 billion, and the label gives a reader no way to tell.
The record: PMID 33556972 dosing versus the panel's single undivided 20 Billion CFU line, 2026-07-31 — open it (opens in a new tab)
Finding 6 reduce-ibs-symptoms-by-up-to-79-percent
The archived landing-page headline generalises one symptom's uncontrolled change — constipation severity — to "IBS symptoms" as a whole.
The record: Internet Archive capture 20220423182218 of klaire.com/ibs, headline verbatim, 2026-07-31 — open it (opens in a new tab)
Finding 7 medical-food-framing-alongside-no-prescription-required
The product is classed as a medical food for the dietary management of IBS and carries "USE UNDER MEDICAL SUPERVISION", while the same footnote confirms "A prescription is not required for purchase." The framing implies clinical necessity that the purchase path does not require.
The record: SFI practitioner FAQ PDF and archived brand landing page, both verbatim, 2026-07-31 — open it (opens in a new tab)
Finding 8 a-paediatric-testimonial-on-an-adults-only-product
The brand's own archived landing page carries a long testimonial wall including a case involving a 14-year-old, on a product the FAQ restricts to adults 18 and older.
The record: Internet Archive capture 20220423182218 of klaire.com/ibs testimonial section against the FAQ age restriction, 2026-07-31 — open it (opens in a new tab)
What we could not verify
Every gap below is published rather than deleted. Most are derived automatically from the empty fields in this page’s own record, so a gap cannot be hidden by leaving a box blank.
- Bare formulation adjectives (allergen-free, no artificial flavours, sweeteners, colouring or preservatives, non-GMO) status
- The FAQ claims the product is "free from common allergens… does not contain any artificial flavors, sweeteners, coloring, preservatives, and is non-GMO." Bare adjectives with no issuer. There is no NSF mark, no USP mark and no Informed Choice.
- A men’s-versus-women’s label diff
- The same brand’s women’s SKU has not been compared against this panel.
- A label surface published by the brand or by a government record
- Neither exists for this product. Both Amazon listings are live but "Currently unavailable" and carry no price; the brand's own US store does not list the product at all; two other retailers 404. The panel published here comes from a single specialist retailer, Clinical Nutrition Centers, matched on UPC 709616310878. It is a real, UPC-matched transcription and it is one source, with no government record and no brand panel to cross-check it against.
- Any per-strain dose
- Three organisms share one undivided 20 Billion CFU total, so any one of them could be a token presence. This matters specifically because the studied LP299v dose in the trial the brand cites is 10 billion a day.
- A federal label record
- None, and the absence is expected rather than evasive. "Ther-Biotic Pro IBS Relief", "IBS Relief", "Klaire Labs" and "Ther-Biotic" were all queried and 75-plus Klaire and SFI records reviewed; none is this product. A medical food is regulated under the FD&C Act's medical-food provisions rather than under DSHEA, and DSLD is a dietary supplement label database. Recorded as not applicable, not as "no record exists".
- Whether the product is still sold anywhere
- Every channel checked on 2026-07-31 was dead, backordered or explicitly marked discontinued. Amazon B09F2F69W4 (42 ct) and B09F279CRD (21 ct) both read "Currently unavailable. We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock" with no price; the brand's own US store returns nothing for a 44-item Ther-Biotic catalogue sweep or a catalogue search for "IBS Relief"; blueskyvitamin.com and supplementfirst.com both 404; Clinical Nutrition Centers lists the 21 ct as sold out or on extended backorder and the 42 ct as "Discontinued by brand."
How to check every line of this page yourself
Nothing on this page requires trusting us. Every claim above resolves to a record you can open:
- Open the NIH Dietary Supplement Label Database record linked at the top of this page. It is the label the manufacturer filed, not our transcription of it.
- Compare the CFU line and the suggested-use line against the disclosure table above. If they disagree with us, we are wrong and we want to know.
- Take any strain designator from the panel and run the query printed beside it. The query is published precisely so you can get a different answer than we did.
- Divide the price by the number of days the label’s own dose instructions make the container last. That arithmetic is the whole of the cost-per-day row.
- Search the certifier’s own register for this product, not for the brand. A company can participate in a programme without this product being on its list.
The percentages are real. The study design is the finding.
“Constipation by 79%, diarrhea by 70%, and abdominal pain by 67%, and improved mental well-being by 110%” — those figures trace, through SFI’s own practitioner FAQ, to PMID 33556972, Krammer 2021 in Z Gastroenterol. The abstract numbers match exactly. So does the title: “real-life data of a non-interventional study in Germany.”
221 patients, 25 centres, prospective, non-interventional. No control arm. No placebo. No blinding. Those are within-group before-and-after changes, in a condition with one of the largest documented placebo responses in medicine.
Here is the part that separates a disclosure problem from a design problem. The brand’s own archived landing page says “open-label.” It is right there, in Klaire’s own words. The Amazon listing keeps the percentages and drops the word. The number travels into the retail channel; the caveat stays home.
The second citation is stranger. SFI cites PMID 28082816 in support of the claim that its three strains “have been shown on average to reduce IBS symptoms and/or normalize bowel habits.” That paper’s own title is:
“Irritable bowel syndrome symptom severity improves equally with probiotic and placebo.”
Primary endpoint missed. The only positive was a post-hoc subgroup. Its authors declare themselves present or former employees of the sponsor.
And underneath all of it sits a label that names no strains at all. Three organisms — L. plantarum, L. acidophilus, B. lactis — inside a proprietary blend, species-only, sharing one undivided 20 Billion CFU. The reference list implies LP299v, NCFM and HN019. The label does not say so. And Krammer dosed LP299v at 10 billion a day, so the studied dose might be half this bottle’s entire content or almost none of it, and nothing on the product lets a reader find out. This on a product whose own FAQ opens by explaining that “the health effects of probiotics vary between different species and strains.”
Credit where it is due: the shelf-life commitment is a real one — “formulated to maintain the label value of 20 billion CFU at room temperature throughout its shelf life” — and it appears only in a practitioner PDF, not on the product a consumer buys.
Two closing notes. The medical-food framing carries “USE UNDER MEDICAL SUPERVISION” while the same footnote confirms “A prescription is not required for purchase.” And every sales channel checked was dead, backordered or marked discontinued by brand — while the marketing page it all rests on remains archived and indexed.