One product, one panel, one record.
Ortho Molecular Products Ortho Spore IG (SKU 476090) — label audit
It carries the best disclosure in its batch — a strain designator and a CFU figure for every single organism, with no proprietary blend — and the worst claim: the product sheet says it is designed to "relieve small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO)", a diagnosed medical condition, on the same page as the FDA disclaimer that contradicts it.
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
- Addendum — outside the founding denominators Audited 2026-07-31, outside the frozen founding cohort of 27 and outside every D27 denominator.
- 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 brand's current product-information sheet and the NIH Dietary Supplement Label Database disagree about all three organisms in this product, and the disagreement could not be resolved. DSLD 269887 — flagged on-market, UPC-matched to this SKU — transcribes Bacillus coagulans SNZ1969 at 26 mg, Bacillus clausii B106 at 13 mg with no CFU, and Bacillus subtilis HS43 at 6.5 mg with no CFU. The brand's current sheet (LT-PDN-050-E, panel V1) prints MTCC5856, CSI08 and DE111 with a CFU figure for each. The ImmunoLin and IgG figures are identical on both. This page publishes the current sheet's values because that is what the brand publishes today, and no reformulation claim is made or implied, because none can be proved. The consequence to read carefully: the strain designators above, and every RCT count attached to them, are the current sheet's designators, not a verified statement of what is in a bottle bought today. The one finding that survives either reading is the blend-level citation failure — the only trial cited for this product's three-strain blend tested SNZ 1969, SNZ 1971 and SNZ 1972, so on the current sheet zero of three are present and on the 2022 label one of three is. Separately, no brand price exists to verify — see the price note.
The Label Verifiability Score for this product
82.9 out of 100
Rank 29 of the 154 products in this audit the rubric can score. This rank is shared with 6 other products — 7 products sit on 82.9 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 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 | 3 of 3 organism slots carry a printed strain designator. | 3 / 3 = 1.0000 | 0.2400 |
| Per-organism amount printed | 0.20 | 3 of 3 organism slots have an amount of its own; the rest are inside a blend total. | 3 / 3 = 1.0000 | 0.2000 |
| 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 | 3 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. | 3 / 3 = 1.0000 | 0.2000 |
| Certification confirmed at the issuer’s own register | 0.14 | No certifier register has been queried for this product. Not checked is not the same as holds nothing. | Not answered | — excluded from the divisor, not counted as nought |
0.713333 — the last column added up — divided by 0.86, the weight this record could answer, is 0.8295. Multiplied by 100 and rounded to one decimal, that is the 82.9 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 | 2 Billion CFU B. coagulans + 1 Billion CFU B. clausii + 1 Billion CFU B. subtilis — 4 billion total per 3-capsule serving |
| What that count is measured against | No basis stated |
| Strain designators | All organisms coded |
| Organism slots transcribed here | 3 — the full panel |
| Marketed as | Unisex |
Per-strain CFU is printed for every organism, but no temporal basis is stated for any of it. The only shelf-life language is the generic "Probiotics are live organisms and must be shelf stable through the expiration date" — a statement about probiotics as a class, not a guarantee about this product. Within one brand's own catalogue: Ortho Biotic Capsules guarantees potency at expiration, and Ortho Biotic 100 and Ortho Spore IG do not.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bacillus coagulans | MTCC5856 (LactoSpore®) | 12 mg — 2 Billion CFU | Human RCT | PubMed E-utilities, exact designator with randomized controlled trial[pt] |
| Bacillus clausii | CSI08 | 3 mg — 1 Billion CFU | Human RCT | PubMed E-utilities, exact designator with randomized controlled trial[pt] |
| Bacillus subtilis | DE111® | 3 mg — 1 Billion CFU | Human RCT | PubMed E-utilities, exact designator with randomized controlled trial[pt] |
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.
- NIH Dietary Supplement Label Database record — DSLD 269887 (opens in a new tab) captured On-market. UPC 6 15033 00475 0, 90 ct. This record transcribes a different Bacillus set — B. coagulans SNZ1969 (26 mg, 2 Billion CFU), B. clausii B106 (13 mg, no CFU), B. subtilis HS43 (6.5 mg, no CFU) — with the same ImmunoLin 1 g and IgG 480 mg figures as the current sheet. Credit where due: the current sheet improves disclosure over this label, adding per-strain CFU for clausii and subtilis where the 2022 label omitted it.
- Dated capture of the brand’s own page — ompi-orthospore-ig-pdn-a2-LT-PDN-050-E-2026-07-31https://www.orthomolecularproducts.com/product/ortho-spore-ig — Address given, not linked: this site does not link out to the products it audits. captured The Supplement Facts panel is not on the product page — the panel tab sits behind a practitioner login. The panel above was transcribed from the brand's own product-information sheet, ompi-orthospore_ig_pdn-a2.pdf, doc code LT-PDN-050-E, panel version V1, linked from the PDP and fetched directly. The PDP returned HTTP 200. Serving Size 3 Capsules, 30 servings. Also on the panel: Serum-Derived Bovine Immunoglobulin Protein Isolate (ImmunoLin®) 1 g, of which Immunoglobulin G (IgG) 480 mg; Calories 5, Total Carbohydrate under 1 g, Protein 1 g, Sodium 5 mg. Other ingredients: hypromellose (vegetable capsules), rice maltodextrin, medium chain triglycerides. This sheet is also the source of the disease claim and the reference list documented in the findings.
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, 3 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.
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 explicit-disease-claim-relieve-sibo
Product sheet and product page, verbatim: "Ortho Spore IG® is a spore-based, broad-spectrum probiotic formula designed to promote a healthy gut microflora, protect mucosal integrity, and relieve small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO)." SIBO is a diagnosed medical condition, so "relieve SIBO" is a claim about treating a disease rather than a structure/function claim about a body process. Supporting copy pushes the same way — "B. clausii ... has showed promising results in individuals with SIBO specifically", "B. clausii has demonstrated significant effectiveness in adults with acute diarrhea", "reduce duration of occasional diarrhea and decreased stool frequency in children". The FDA disclaimer ("not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease") is present at the foot of the same sheet and is directly contradicted by the body copy above it.
The record: Brand PDF ompi-orthospore_ig_pdn-a2.pdf, doc LT-PDN-050-E, body copy and footer, read 2026-07-31 — open ithttps://www.orthomolecularproducts.com/product/ortho-spore-ig — Address given, not linked: this site does not link out to the products it audits.
Finding 2 the-only-blend-level-citation-tested-a-different-blend
Reference 3 is the only citation in the dossier that studies a three-strain Bacillus blend as a blend — this product's actual architecture. It is Soman RJ, Swamy MV, Int J Colorectal Dis 2019;34(11):1971-1978 (PMID 31686199, CTRI/2018/05/014071), a trial of SNZ TriBac, which is B. coagulans SNZ 1969 + B. clausii SNZ 1971 + B. subtilis SNZ 1972, n=60, both authors employed by Sanzyme Biologics, the strain manufacturer, with no independent arm. Zero of those three strains are on the current label. On the 2022 DSLD label, one of three would be.
The record: PMID 31686199 abstract read 2026-07-31; brand PDF LT-PDN-050-E ref 3; DSLD 269887 — open it (opens in a new tab)
Finding 3 none-of-the-b-coagulans-citations-is-for-the-strain-in-the-bottle
The B. coagulans claims cite GBI-30 6086 (ref 5, Nyangale), a "proprietary preparation" (ref 6, Dolin) and Unique IS2 (ref 7, Madempudi). The product contains MTCC 5856 — which has its own published RCTs the brand could have cited instead. The B. clausii claims cite UBBC-07 (ref 9) and an unnamed strain (ref 8), not CSI08.
The record: Brand PDF LT-PDN-050-E reference list, read 2026-07-31
Finding 4 cfu-basis-unstated-despite-excellent-per-strain-disclosure
Every organism has a printed CFU figure and none of them has a temporal basis. The sibling SKU Ortho Biotic Capsules guarantees potency at expiration; this one offers only a generic sentence about probiotics in general.
The record: Brand PDF LT-PDN-050-E versus LT-PDN-107-E, both read 2026-07-31
Finding 5 csi08-sole-human-trial-is-an-industry-authored-pilot-with-largely-null-gi-endpoints
PMID 37026366 is a pilot, n=98, authored entirely by employees of the strain owner. Its cocktail arm reduced loose stools; respiratory, urinary and gastrointestinal symptoms, defecation frequency and other stool consistency were not influenced. The authors themselves call for larger cohorts.
The record: PMID 37026366 abstract read 2026-07-31
Finding 6 ninety-count-bottle-is-a-thirty-day-supply
The serving is three capsules, so a 90-count bottle lasts 30 days. Easy to misread as a 90-day supply at three times the apparent value.
The record: Brand PDF LT-PDN-050-E, Serving Size 3 Capsules, 30 servings per container
Finding 7 serum-derived-bovine-immunoglobulin-not-flagged-as-a-dietary-consideration
The largest ingredient by mass is serum-derived bovine immunoglobulin protein isolate (ImmunoLin®, 1 g, of which 480 mg IgG). That is not vegetarian or vegan and is relevant to beef-allergic and some religious-dietary buyers. The label declares "Dairy free" but does not flag the bovine origin as an allergen or dietary consideration.
The record: Brand PDF LT-PDN-050-E panel V1 and free-from statement, read 2026-07-31
Finding 8 no-third-party-certification-and-the-marks-present-are-ingredient-trademarks
No third-party certification is claimed. VitaSecure, Ortho Molecular's own authentication seal, is the only brand mark; free-from claims ("gluten, yeast, artificial colors and flavors", "Dairy free") are self-declared. ImmunoLin® is a registered trademark of Entera Health and LactoSpore® of Sabinsa — ingredient trademarks, not certifications.
The record: DSLD 269887 label transcription and brand PDF LT-PDN-050-E, 2026-07-31
Finding 9 price-gated-behind-a-practitioner-login
A consumer cannot compare cost per day without going through a third-party reseller.
The record: orthomolecularproducts.com product page, login wall, 2026-07-31
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.
- Third-party certification
- No certifier register has been queried for this product. An empty certification list on this page means not checked — it does not mean the product holds nothing.
- A US retail price, and therefore the cost per day
- Ortho Molecular does not publish a price. The product page requires a practitioner login, so no brand MSRP is retrievable. The only figure found is a third-party reseller price — Oakway Naturals at $57.10 for 90 capsules ("Ortho Molecular Ortho Spore IG - 90 Capsules") — which at the label's three-capsule serving is 30 servings and works out to $1.90 per day on a reseller basis. A reseller price is not a brand MSRP and is not published here as this product's price, and no cost per day is derived from it. Note the serving size when reading any price for this SKU: a 90-count bottle is a 30-day supply, not a 90-day one.
- A men’s-versus-women’s label diff
- The same brand’s women’s SKU has not been compared against this panel.
- A brand MSRP, and therefore an authoritative cost per day
- Ortho Molecular gates price behind a practitioner login. See the price note.
- Which label is currently shipping
- DSLD 269887 (2022, on-market) transcribes a different Bacillus set from the brand's current sheet — B. coagulans SNZ1969 at 26 mg / 2 Billion CFU, B. clausii B106 at 13 mg with no CFU, and B. subtilis HS43 at 6.5 mg with no CFU, against MTCC5856, CSI08 and DE111 on the sheet. The ImmunoLin and IgG figures are identical on both. Which label is on the shelf could not be determined.
- Whether the three trials behind the three designators support this product's claims
- The figures above are record counts plus abstracts. The CSI08 pilot's GI endpoints were largely null and the trial is industry-authored, which is recorded here; nothing beyond the quoted abstracts was appraised.
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.
Two things are true about this product and both should be published.
The first is that its disclosure is the best in its batch and among the best anywhere in this audit. Every organism carries a strain designator and a CFU figure of its own: B. coagulans MTCC5856 at 12 mg and 2 billion, B. clausii CSI08 at 3 mg and 1 billion, B. subtilis DE111® at 3 mg and 1 billion. There is no proprietary blend and nothing is hiding inside an aggregate. That is the standard the rest of this category should be measured against.
The second is the sentence on the front of its own product sheet:
“Ortho Spore IG® is a spore-based, broad-spectrum probiotic formula designed to promote a healthy gut microflora, protect mucosal integrity, and relieve small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO).”
SIBO is a diagnosed medical condition. “Relieve SIBO” is a claim about treating a disease, not a claim about supporting a body process, and the FDA disclaimer that says the product is “not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease” sits at the foot of the same page. A disclaimer does not cure a disease claim. This is a wording observation and nothing more — no assertion is made here about enforcement, legality or safety.
Then there is the substantiation. This is a blend product, and exactly one citation in the dossier studies a three-strain Bacillus blend as a blend: the SNZ TriBac trial, PMID 31686199. SNZ TriBac is B. coagulans SNZ 1969 + B. clausii SNZ 1971 + B. subtilis SNZ 1972. None of those three is on the current label. Both of its authors work for the strain manufacturer. And the per-strain citations miss too: three B. coagulans references and not one of them for MTCC 5856, the strain actually in the capsule — which has its own published RCTs the brand could have cited.
Two practical notes for anyone holding the bottle. The serving is three capsules, so 90 count is a 30-day supply, not 90. And the largest ingredient by mass is serum-derived bovine immunoglobulin — the label says “Dairy free” and never mentions that the product is not vegetarian.