One product, one panel, one record.
up&up (Target) Probiotic Digestive Health Supplement Capsules, 30 Count — label audit
Two products in this batch say "compare to Culturelle" on the front of the box. This is the one that is. Same strain, same designator, same 10 billion CFU, same 200 mg of chicory inulin, same through-expiry guarantee — line for line against Culturelle's own government label record, at $0.49 a day.
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 Torn down 2026-07-31, after the founding cohort of 27 was frozen. It sits outside every D27 denominator the site publishes.
- 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
100.0 out of 100
Rank 1 of the 154 products in this audit the rubric can score. This rank is shared with 18 other products — 19 products sit on 100.0 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 | 1 of 1 organism slot carries a printed strain designator. | 1 / 1 = 1.0000 | 0.2400 |
| Per-organism amount printed | 0.20 | 1 of 1 organism slot has an amount of its own; the rest are inside a blend total. | 1 / 1 = 1.0000 | 0.2000 |
| What the CFU count is measured against | 0.22 | Potency basis "through-expiry": CFU figure printed yes, single basis stated yes, basis reaches expiry yes — 3 of 3. | 3 / 3 = 1.0000 | 0.2200 |
| Printed designators that lead to a human trial | 0.20 | 1 of 1 checked organism slot resolves 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. | 1 / 1 = 1.0000 | 0.2000 |
| 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 |
0.8600 — the last column added up — divided by 0.86, the weight this record could answer, is 1.0000. Multiplied by 100 and rounded to one decimal, that is the 100.0 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 | 10 Billion CFUs** (Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG, its own Supplement Facts line) |
| What that count is measured against | Through expiry |
| Strain designators | All organisms coded |
| Organism slots transcribed here | 1 — the full panel |
| Marketed as | Unisex |
Read cleanly at 2000 px from the carton, verbatim: "**Contains a minimum of 10 billion live bacteria when manufactured, until at least the 'Best Used By' date, providing proper handling and storage directions are followed." A minimum, not a target, and it runs to the date on the box rather than to the factory door. Storage, also verbatim: "Best if stored at 72 °F (22 °C) or below. Refrigeration not required, but may extend product shelf life. For best results, we recommend you store this product in the original blister card package." One structural note that belongs with the quote rather than after it: the `**` marker is on the isolated Supplement Facts graphic and its definition is not — the definition lives on the carton. The panel image is the one e-commerce surfaces, so a shopper looking at it alone sees the marker and never learns what it means. That happened on all three products in this batch.
The panel’s own words on potency, verbatim.
The panel guarantees the count through the expiration or best-by date. This is the only basis that is falsifiable by a reader holding the bottle.
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 rhamnosus (correct name: Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus) | GG | 10 Billion CFUs | Human RCT | "Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG"[tiab] AND randomized controlled trial[pt] → 170; "ATCC 53103"[tiab] → 170; "Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG"[tiab] OR "L. rhamnosus GG"[tiab] OR "ATCC 53103"[tiab] → 1751; "Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus GG"[tiab] → 276; "Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG" AND antibiotic-associated diarrhea AND meta-analysis[pt] → 6; "Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG"[tiab] AND (testosterone OR prostate OR "male fertility") → 4, all preclinical |
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.
- Photograph of the printed panel — target-16792176-supplement-facts-2000pxhttps://www.target.com/p/probiotic-digestive-health-supplement-30ct-up-38-up-8482/-/A-16792176 — Address given, not linked: this site does not link out to the products it audits. captured Read directly at 2000 px from Target's own CDN and transcribed verbatim: "Serving Size: 1 Capsule · Servings Per Container: 30; Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG 10 Billion CFUs**; Inulin (Chicory root extract) 200 mg; †Daily Value not established. OTHER INGREDIENTS: CELLULOSE, MAGNESIUM STEARATE (VEGETABLE SOURCE), SILICONE DIOXIDE, TITANIUM DIOXIDE. SUGGESTED USE: ADULTS, AS A DIETARY SUPPLEMENT, TAKE ONE (1) CAPSULE DAILY. DO NOT CRUSH OR CHEW. THIS PRODUCT DOES NOT CONTAIN ANY DAIRY, SOY OR GLUTEN." Both the isolated panel graphic and the photographed carton were read and they agree. The carton also states: Distributed by Target Corporation, Minneapolis, MN 55403 · Made in Canada · TM & ©2024 Target Brands, Inc.
- Dated capture of the brand’s own page — target-16792176-2026-07-31https://www.target.com/p/probiotic-digestive-health-supplement-30ct-up-38-up-8482/-/A-16792176 — Address given, not linked: this site does not link out to the products it audits. captured HTTP 200 direct fetch, no blocking, full product JSON recovered; the redsky.target.com pricing API returned the live price, UPC and DPCI. TCIN 16792176 · DPCI 245-05-1041 · UPC 628055611035 · $14.69, unit price "$0.49/count", store 3991. Source of the two wellness-badge definitions transcribed verbatim under certifications, the "Compare vs. Culturelle Digestive Health" highlight bullet, and the "Suggested Age: 18 Years and Up" line that is the only age or audience term on the listing.
- NIH Dietary Supplement Label Database record — DSLD 250859 (opens in a new tab) captured The reference product this listing names: Culturelle Digestive Daily Probiotic, 30 ct, UPC 0 49100 40012 9. L. rhamnosus GG on its own line at 10 billion CFU, Inulin (chicory root extract) 200 mg, one capsule daily, potency "guaranteed through date on box when stored as directed", LGG® trademark present. The line-for-line comparison on this page is taken from this record.
- NIH Dietary Supplement Label Database record — DSLD 318004 (opens in a new tab) captured up&up Women's Daily Probiotic 25 billion CFUs, 30 ct, entry 2024-08-22 — the women's counterpart used for the diff. Minimum through "Best Used By" in the same wording as this product; 10 nested organisms transcribed, all species-only, against a label statement claiming 12. That discrepancy is unresolved and neither number is published as settled.
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, 1 organism slot carries 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
$0.49 a day at the dose the label itself instructs.
- Price
- $14.69 USD
- What that buys
- 30 capsules, 1 capsule daily, 30 servings ($14.69 ÷ 30 = $0.4897). Target's own stated unit price is "$0.49/count", which matches.
- Price checked
- — the source we read it fromhttps://www.target.com/p/probiotic-digestive-health-supplement-30ct-up-38-up-8482/-/A-16792176 — 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Target "Prebiotic/Probiotic" wellness badge | Brand-asserted, unverified | 31 July 2026 |
| Target "Gluten Free" wellness badge | Brand-asserted, unverified | 31 July 2026 |
| Any third-party certification | Not checked | 31 July 2026 |
Target "Prebiotic/Probiotic" wellness badge
The badge is displayed, but the register could not be reached to confirm it. We call this unverified, not false.
Not a certification, by Target's own published definition, which is disjunctive — verbatim from the page JSON: "A product that has an on-pack statement that the product contains prebiotic and/or probiotic ingredient(s), or a 3rd party independent certification for probiotic ingredient(s)." The second branch of that "or" is satisfied by the brand printing a sentence on its own box. There is no issuer behind the badge and therefore no register to check.
Target "Gluten Free" wellness badge
The badge is displayed, but the register could not be reached to confirm it. We call this unverified, not false.
Same construction. Target's own definition, verbatim: "A product that has an unqualified independent third-party certification, or carries an on-pack statement relating to the finished product being gluten-free." The up&up carton carries exactly such a statement — "THIS PRODUCT DOES NOT CONTAIN ANY DAIRY, SOY OR GLUTEN" — so this badge is satisfied by the brand's own sentence. Brand-asserted, not certified, with no issuer and no register.
Any third-party certification
We have not queried this register for this product. It does not mean the product holds nothing.
None is claimed. No NSF, USP, Informed Choice or Non-GMO Project mark appears anywhere on the carton or in Target's product data, so there was no issuer register to query. Absence of a claim is not a defect; it is simply absence of evidence about manufacturing controls, and it is more honest than an unverifiable badge.
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.
Compared against up&up Women's Daily Probiotic 25 billion CFUs, 30 ct (DSLD 318004). Diffed .
What the two panels differ by
- The women's SKU carries 25 billion CFU against this one's 10 billion, and 10 transcribed organisms against this one's single organism. DSLD 318004 against the up&up Probiotic Digestive Health panel read at 2000 px, both 2026-07-31
- Every one of the women's 10 transcribed organisms is species-only — L. acidophilus, L. rhamnosus, L. plantarum, B. animalis lactis, B. longum, L. gasseri, L. casei, L. paracasei, L. salivarius, L. brevis — so the designator count runs 0 of 10 on the women's SKU against 1 of 1 here. DSLD 318004 nested organism rows against the current up&up Digestive Health panel, 2026-07-31
- This product declares Inulin (chicory root extract) 200 mg as a Supplement Facts line item; the women's record lists no prebiotic. DSLD 318004 against the current panel, 2026-07-31
- The women's SKU is positioned on "Immune support"; this one carries no gender term and no immune positioning of its own beyond the standard structure/function line. DSLD 318004 label statements against the Target product page for TCIN 16792176, 2026-07-31
What is identical across the pair
- Both guarantee CFU as a minimum through the "Best Used By" date, in the same wording
- Both are 30-count, one capsule daily
- Both are distributed by Target Corporation, Minneapolis MN 55403
Every finding on this page, with the record behind it
Finding 1 target-wellness-badges-read-as-certifications-and-need-not-be
The product page shows two "wellness standard" badges. Target's own definitions of both are disjunctive, and the second branch of each "or" is satisfied by the brand printing a sentence on its own box. The up&up carton carries exactly such a sentence — "THIS PRODUCT DOES NOT CONTAIN ANY DAIRY, SOY OR GLUTEN" — so the "Gluten Free" badge is met by the brand's own claim. There is no issuer and therefore no register to check. This is a retailer finding more than a brand one, and it is the cleanest quotable example in this project of a badge that looks like third-party validation and, by the retailer's own published definition, is not.
The record: Target product-page JSON for TCIN 16792176, badge definitions transcribed verbatim, 2026-07-31 — open ithttps://www.target.com/p/probiotic-digestive-health-supplement-30ct-up-38-up-8482/-/A-16792176 — Address given, not linked: this site does not link out to the products it audits.
Finding 2 the-cfu-footnote-marker-is-separated-from-its-definition
The `**` is on the isolated Supplement Facts graphic; the sentence defining it is on the carton. The panel graphic is the image e-commerce surfaces, so a shopper reading it alone sees the marker and never learns what it means. Minor here, because the definition is recoverable and is a good one — but the same split occurred on all three products in this batch, which makes it a category-wide interface defect rather than a brand one.
The record: Isolated panel graphic and carton photograph, both read at 2000 px from Target's CDN, 2026-07-31
Finding 3 the-lgg-deposit-number-is-not-printed
The label says GG and never says ATCC 53103, and does not carry the Chr. Hansen LGG® trademark that appears on the reference product's label. Sourcing is unverified. The same gap applies to the Equate products in this batch.
The record: Current panel for TCIN 16792176 against DSLD 250859, which records the LGG® trademark on the Culturelle label, both 2026-07-31
Finding 4 titanium-dioxide-in-the-other-ingredients
Other ingredients are cellulose, magnesium stearate (vegetable source), silicone dioxide and titanium dioxide. E171 has been banned as a food additive in the EU since 2022 and remains permitted in US supplements. A factual note about the formulation, not a safety claim.
The record: Panel and carton read at 2000 px from Target's CDN, which agree, 2026-07-31
Finding 5 no-government-label-record
UPC 628055611035 is absent from DSLD, double-queried. The label has never been transcribed into the federal database, so the only independent check available to a reader is the pair of images Target itself publishes. That reduces verifiability for the category as a whole rather than for this product specifically.
The record: DSLD q=628055611035 and the spaced-digit variant, 0 hits both, 2026-07-31; the five up&up probiotic records that do exist are 12091, 19890, 20185, 240347 and 318004
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.
- Target "Prebiotic/Probiotic" wellness badge status
- Not a certification, by Target's own published definition, which is disjunctive — verbatim from the page JSON: "A product that has an on-pack statement that the product contains prebiotic and/or probiotic ingredient(s), or a 3rd party independent certification for probiotic ingredient(s)." The second branch of that "or" is satisfied by the brand printing a sentence on its own box. There is no issuer behind the badge and therefore no register to check.
- Target "Gluten Free" wellness badge status
- Same construction. Target's own definition, verbatim: "A product that has an unqualified independent third-party certification, or carries an on-pack statement relating to the finished product being gluten-free." The up&up carton carries exactly such a statement — "THIS PRODUCT DOES NOT CONTAIN ANY DAIRY, SOY OR GLUTEN" — so this badge is satisfied by the brand's own sentence. Brand-asserted, not certified, with no issuer and no register.
- Any third-party certification status
- None is claimed. No NSF, USP, Informed Choice or Non-GMO Project mark appears anywhere on the carton or in Target's product data, so there was no issuer register to query. Absence of a claim is not a defect; it is simply absence of evidence about manufacturing controls, and it is more honest than an unverifiable badge.
- Whether the "GG" in this capsule is authentic Chr. Hansen LGG
- The deposit number ATCC 53103 is not printed and the LGG® trademark is not used. Culturelle's own label carries the trademark (DSLD 250859) and this one does not. Recorded as unverified for both products in the comparison, not as refuted for either.
- Any government label record for this UPC
- None exists. UPC 628055611035 was double-queried against NIH DSLD in two formats and returned 0 hits both times. DSLD holds five up&up probiotic records — 12091, 19890, 20185, 240347, 318004 — and this is not one of them. DSLD coverage is voluntary, so this is a limit on independent verification rather than a defect, but it means this label has never been transcribed into the federal database.
- Whether the up&up women's SKU contains 10 organisms or 12
- Its own label statement says 12 and DSLD's transcription of the same label lists 10. The women's panel image was not obtained this pass, so neither number is published as settled and no count is asserted on either side of the diff.
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.
This is the rare case where a “compare to” claim survives the diff, and saying so is the point.
Target’s highlight bullets include “Compare vs. Culturelle Digestive Health”. Against Culturelle’s own government label record, DSLD 250859, the two products line up on every disclosed parameter: same strain (L. rhamnosus GG), same designator, same 10 billion CFU, same 200 mg of chicory-root inulin, same one capsule a day, and a CFU guarantee that runs to the date on the box on both. The store brand is $0.49 a day. The site’s credibility depends on reporting this as clearly as it reports the failures.
The panel itself is the disclosure standard this project keeps looking for. One organism. Named with its designator. With its own CFU number on its own line. No proprietary blend, no unallocated cells, nothing to reconstruct. And the potency footnote is the honest form of the claim — “contains a minimum of 10 billion live bacteria when manufactured, until at least the ‘Best Used By’ date” — a floor, not a target, running to expiry rather than to the factory door. LGG is the best-evidenced strain in the category, and this is the dose its trials used.
The defects here belong to the retailer. Target’s product page shows two “wellness standard” badges, and Target’s own published definitions of both are disjunctive. Verbatim: a product qualifies for Prebiotic/Probiotic if it “has an on-pack statement… or a 3rd party independent certification”, and for Gluten Free if it “has an unqualified independent third-party certification, or carries an on-pack statement”. The up&up carton carries exactly such a statement — “THIS PRODUCT DOES NOT CONTAIN ANY DAIRY, SOY OR GLUTEN” — so the badge is satisfied by the brand’s own sentence. There is no issuer and nothing to check with. The product claims no certification at all, which is the honest position; the badges are Target’s.
Two smaller notes. The ** marker sits on the isolated panel graphic and its definition sits on the
carton — and the panel graphic is the image e-commerce surfaces, so the shopper who reads only that sees
an asterisk that leads nowhere. It happened on all three products in this batch. And there is no DSLD
record for this UPC, double-queried: this label has never been transcribed into the federal database,
which is a limit on independent verification rather than a defect of the product.
On the men’s question there is nothing here, and the absence is the finding. No gender term appears on the label or the page. Target sells an up&up women’s probiotic — 25 billion, ten organisms — and no men’s probiotic at all, while selling up&up men’s multivitamins. The inversion is worth sitting with: the women’s SKU has 2.5× the cells and ten times the organisms, and zero strain designators, while the ungendered product a man actually ends up buying has one fully identified strain at a dose that matches its reference product. More strains and a bigger number are not more evidence.