One product, one panel, one record.
Nature's Bounty Probiotic 10 (Ultra Strength) — label audit
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.
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
- Label read on
- The most recent dated artefact behind this page. Labels change; this is how old our reading of it is.
- Cohort
- D₂₇ founding teardown One of the 27 products taken apart at label level. That cohort is frozen and dated, so the audit’s published percentages cannot silently move.
- How deep this went
- Full forensic teardown Panel transcribed, every strain designator queried, every certification chased to its issuer’s own register, and the literature behind each marketing claim opened and read.
The Label Verifiability Score for this product
55.0 out of 100
Rank 83 of the 154 products in this audit the rubric can score.
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 86% of the rubric by weight — the share of the five questions below this record could answer. The remaining question is unanswered, and unanswered is not nought: it leaves the divisor rather than dragging the score down. That share travels with the number and is never dropped — this score over 86% of the 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 | 10 of 10 organism slots carry a printed strain designator. | 10 / 10 = 1.0000 | 0.2400 |
| Per-organism amount printed | 0.20 | 0 of 10 organism slots have an amount of its own; the rest are inside a blend total. | 0 / 10 = 0.0000 | 0.0000 |
| What the CFU count is measured against | 0.22 | Potency basis "none-stated": 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 | 8 of 10 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. | 8 / 10 = 0.8000 | 0.1600 |
| Certification confirmed at the issuer’s own register | 0.14 | Every certification on this record is brand-asserted with the register unreachable, or not yet queried. An unreachable register is a fact about the verification infrastructure, not about this brand, so it may not move its position. | Not answered | — excluded from the divisor, not counted as nought |
0.473333 — the last column added up — divided by 0.86, the weight this record could answer, is 0.5504. Multiplied by 100 and rounded to one decimal, that is the 55.0 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 | 20 Billion Live Cultures CFU (Proprietary Probiotic Blend, 170 mg) |
| What that count is measured against | No basis stated |
| Strain designators | All organisms coded |
| Organism slots transcribed here | 10 — the full panel |
| Marketed as | Unisex |
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.
The panel’s own words on potency, verbatim.
A CFU number appears with no temporal basis of any kind. A count with no basis is not a quantity; there is no date at which it is claimed to be true.
Every organism on the panel carries a printed strain designator. Whether those designators lead anywhere is a separate question, answered below.
| Organism as printed | Designator as printed | Quantity as printed | What the designator resolves to | The query we ran |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lactobacillus plantarum 299v (correct name: Lactiplantibacillus plantarum) | Lp299v (DSM 9843) | — not stated separately | Human RCT | — |
| Lactobacillus paracasei (correct name: Lacticaseibacillus paracasei) | 8700:2 (DSM 13434) | — not stated separately | Human RCT | — |
| Lactobacillus plantarum (correct name: Lactiplantibacillus plantarum) | HEAL9 (DSM 15312) | — not stated separately | Human RCT | — |
| Lactobacillus acidophilus | La-14 | — not stated separately | Human RCT | — |
| Lactobacillus brevis (correct name: Levilactobacillus brevis) | Lbr-35 | — not stated separately | No records | — |
| Lactobacillus casei (correct name: Lacticaseibacillus casei) | Lc-11 | — not stated separately | Human RCT | — |
| Bifidobacterium lactis (correct name: Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis) | Bl-04 | — not stated separately | Human RCT | — |
| Lactobacillus paracasei (correct name: Lacticaseibacillus paracasei) | Lpc-37 | — not stated separately | Human RCT | — |
| Lactobacillus salivarius (correct name: Ligilactobacillus salivarius) | Ls-33 | — not stated separately | Human RCT | — |
| Lactobacillus bulgaricus (correct name: Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus) | Lb-87 | — not stated separately | No records | — |
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 — naturesbounty-probiotic10-pdp-2026-07-30https://naturesbounty.com/products/probiotic-10-30-capsules — Address given, not linked: this site does not link out to the products it audits. captured The live product page carrying the current one-capsule, 170 mg, 20 billion CFU panel with all ten designators — and no CFU basis anywhere.
- NIH Dietary Supplement Label Database record — DSLD 62743 (opens in a new tab) captured 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.
- NIH Dietary Supplement Label Database record — DSLD 49498 (opens in a new tab) captured 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.
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, 8 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
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 |
|---|---|---|
| None claimed | Not checked | not checked |
None claimed
We have not queried this register for this product. It does not mean the product holds nothing.
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.
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.
This brand sells no women’s counterpart to this product, so there is no diff to run.
Every finding on this page, with the record behind it
Finding 1 cfu-basis-removed-not-upgraded
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.
The record: DSLD 49498 · DSLD 62743 — open it (opens in a new tab)
Finding 2 proprietary-blend-hides-the-best-evidenced-strain
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.
The record: Live Supplement Facts panel, verified 2026-07-30
Finding 3 ultra-strength-redeemed-by-a-strain-count-footnote
"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.
The record: naturesbounty.com product page, verified live 2026-07-30
Finding 4 upper-respiratory-claim-rests-on-a-failed-primary-endpoint
"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).
The record: PMID 33296464 — open it (opens in a new tab)
Finding 5 clinically-studied-strains-is-false-for-two-of-them
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.
The record: DSLD 62743 label statement · PubMed queries re-run 2026-07-30 — open it (opens in a new tab)
Finding 6 laboratory-tested-with-no-laboratory
"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.
The record: naturesbounty.com product page, verified live 2026-07-30
Finding 7 delivers-additional-good-bacteria-is-a-tautology
"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.
The record: DSLD 62743 — open it (opens in a new tab)
Finding 8 deposit-number-conflated-with-strain-name
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.
The record: Live Supplement Facts panel versus DSLD 62743 — open it (opens in a new tab)
Finding 9 allergen-profile-changed-twice
"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.
The record: DSLD 49498 · DSLD 62743 — 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.
- None claimed status
- 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.
- A US retail price, and therefore the cost per day
- 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.
- Any US price
- See the price note. Eight retailer verification attempts failed.
- Whether Lp299v is present at its trialled dose
- 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.
- What laboratory performs the "Laboratory Tested" testing
- None is named, and no certificate is published.
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 counterintuitive fact first: this drugstore product has the strongest strain evidence in its batch, and it is the cheapest and most ordinary of the three.
Lactobacillus plantarum 299v — DSM 9843, Probi AB, trademark acknowledged on the label — has 27 randomised-trial records, including a 214-patient Rome III IBS trial. Nothing in the $45.99 Transparent Labs product or the NOW product carries anything comparable. The panel also names ten genuinely distinct strains (ten designators, eight species, because L. plantarum and L. paracasei each appear twice as different strains), so “10 probiotic strains” is accurate and not inflated — a check most of this cohort fails.
Two things undercut it, and one of them is the sharpest finding on this page.
The basis was removed. The current label and page state no CFU basis anywhere. A full-text scan for manufactur, expir, guarant and potency turns up a corporate satisfaction-guarantee link and the words “Carefully Manufactured by NATURE’S BOUNTY, INC.” But the brand’s own archived government labels — 2015 and 2016 — both say it outright: “20 billion active cultures per serving guaranteed at time of manufacture.” The historically documented answer is the consumer-unfavourable one, and the disclosure has since been deleted rather than upgraded.
The blend hides the good strain. All ten strains share a single undisclosed 20 billion CFU line in 170 mg. So the product with the best strain evidence in its batch cannot demonstrate that the strain carrying that evidence is present at the dose that produced it. For the Probi immune pair the arithmetic is actually reassuring — the trial used 10⁹ CFU/day split evenly, and an even ten-way split of 20 billion would put both strains comfortably above that. “Probably” is as far as a proprietary blend lets anyone go, and that is the whole cost of the blend.
One correction this page carries openly, because it names real people. The teardown said all five authors of the upper-respiratory trial were employees of Probi AB, which owns the strains. It is four of five; the fifth is a university co-author at Lund. The corrected sentence is still strong, and it is the one that ships.