One product, one panel, one record.
up&up (Target) Probiotic Gummies for Digestive Health, Mixed Fruit, 80 Count — label audit
Target publishes three different CFU numbers for this one bottle on the same day — 500 million on the printed panel, 50 million in its own product API, 1 billion in its own merchandising attribute. A twenty-fold spread, all three from Target, and the figure most likely to be scraped into somebody else's comparison table is the one that overstates.
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
91.5 out of 100
Rank 20 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 | 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 "at-manufacture": CFU figure printed yes, single basis stated yes, basis reaches expiry no — 2 of 3. | 2 / 3 = 0.6667 | 0.146667 |
| 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 |
0.786667 — the last column added up — divided by 0.86, the weight this record could answer, is 0.9147. Multiplied by 100 and rounded to one decimal, that is the 91.5 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 | 500 million viable cells† per 2-gummy serving (Bacillus coagulans LMG S-31876) |
| What that count is measured against | At manufacture only |
| Strain designators | All organisms coded |
| Organism slots transcribed here | 1 — the full panel |
| Marketed as | Unisex |
Verbatim: "†This product contains a minimum of 500 million viable cells at the time of manufacture and is formulated to provide the same amount at expiration date when stored under recommended storage conditions (59°-75°F)." Note the hedge, because it is the whole difference: "is formulated to provide" is a statement about intent and overage, not a guarantee of the delivered count. It is weaker than the up&up capsule's "contains a minimum of 10 billion… until at least the Best Used By date" — same brand, same shelf, two different strengths of promise. The footnote was recoverable only from one specific bottle photograph, GUEST_b404d417, where the label lies flat enough to read; in every other image Target publishes it is cut off by the bottle's curvature.
The panel’s own words on potency, verbatim.
The count is stated at time of manufacture only. The panel makes no commitment about what is alive when you swallow it.
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 (correct name: Weizmannia coagulans) | LMG S-31876 | 500 million viable cells | Human RCT | "LMG S-31876" → 4 (39882040, 38375355, 36472473, 36143423); "LMG S31876" → 2 (39882040, 38375355); "Bacillus coagulans" AND "S-31876" → 4; "Weizmannia coagulans" AND "LMG S-31876" → 1 (36143423); "LMG S-31876" AND clinical trial[pt] → 0; "LMG S-31876" AND randomized controlled trial[pt] → 0 |
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-scene7-GUEST_cd18536e-fecd-4779-9417-bab0b7f17143https://target.scene7.com/is/image/Target/GUEST_cd18536e-fecd-4779-9417-bab0b7f17143 — Address given, not linked: this site does not link out to the products it audits. captured Target's own flat-panel render, transcribed verbatim at Serving Size 2 Gummies, Servings Per Bottle 40: "Calories 25; Total Carbohydrate 6 g 2%*; Total Sugars 4 g **; Includes Added Sugars 4 g 8%*; Bacillus coagulans LMG S-31876 500 million viable cells† **." Cross-read against bottle photographs GUEST_74d5291b and GUEST_b404d417; all three agree. Other ingredients: glucose syrup, sugar, water, gelatin (porcine), less than 2% of citric acid, natural flavors, colors (carrot and hibiscus concentrate, paprika extract, turmeric extract), sodium citrate, pectin. Suggested use: "As a dietary supplement, adults take two (2) gummies per day. Chew thoroughly before swallowing." Labelled for ages 4 and up. Distributed by Target Corporation, Minneapolis MN 55403 · Made in Spain · TM & ©2024 Target Brands, Inc. The CFU-basis footnote is legible only in GUEST_b404d417.
- Dated capture of the brand’s own page — target-redsky-50368923-2026-07-31https://www.target.com/p/probiotic-gummies-for-digestive-health-mixed-fruit-80ct-up-38-up-8482/-/A-50368923 — Address given, not linked: this site does not link out to the products it audits. captured Recovered through Target's RedSky product API, since target.com itself serves a JavaScript shell with no product data in the HTML. TCIN 50368923 · UPC 850017715646 · DPCI 094-02-0588 · $11.29 live, store 1768, price stamp 50368923-1768-11.29-2025103018, unit price "$0.14 /count". This capture is the evidence for two of the three figures in the CFU contradiction: the enrichment.nutrition_facts entry {"name": "Bacillus coagulans viable cells", "quantity": 50000000.0} and the merchandising attribute "Colony forming units (billions): 1".
- NIH Dietary Supplement Label Database record — DSLD 62616 (opens in a new tab) captured Schiff Digestive Advantage Probiotic Gummies — the product the prior-generation up&up bottle invites a comparison with. Ingredient row "BC30 Bacillus coagulans GBI-30, 6086", noted as 500 million viable cells; label statement "That's because Digestive Advantage contains BC30, a probiotic that survives 100x better than leading probiotics and yogurt so it can deliver good bacteria where you need it." The basis of the finding that the comparison matches on species and cell count while the organism differs.
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
$0.28 a day at the dose the label itself instructs.
- Price
- $11.29 USD
- What that buys
- 80 gummies, 2 gummies daily, 40 servings per bottle ($11.29 ÷ 40 = $0.2823). Target's stated unit price is "$0.14 /count", accurate per gummy, i.e. $0.28 per label serving. Cost per billion CFU per day, $0.56 — twelve and a half times the up&up capsule on the same shelf.
- Price checked
- — the source we read it fromhttps://www.target.com/p/probiotic-gummies-for-digestive-health-mixed-fruit-80ct-up-38-up-8482/-/A-50368923 — 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Any third-party certification | Not checked | 31 July 2026 |
Any third-party certification
We have not queried this register for this product. It does not mean the product holds nothing.
None claimed, none found. No USP, NSF, Informed Choice, Non-GMO Project or cGMP seal appears on the label or in Target's product data, so there was no issuer register to query. The bullet claims "No Artificial Flavors, Colors or Preservatives" and "Gluten-Free" are self-asserted formulation claims, not third-party certifications.
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 three-contradictory-cfu-figures-published-by-target-for-one-bottle
Same bottle, same day, three Target-controlled sources. The printed Supplement Facts panel, which is authoritative, says 500 million viable cells per 2-gummy serving. Target's RedSky product API records the organism as bare "Bacillus coagulans viable cells" with quantity 50000000.0 — 50 million, a ten-fold understatement, with the strain designator dropped entirely. Target's own merchandising bullet on the product page reads "Colony forming units (billions): 1" — 1 billion, a two-fold overstatement. A twenty-fold spread between the retailer's own highest and lowest published figure. The merchandising attribute is the field that powers Target's faceted filtering and is the one most likely to be scraped into third-party comparison tables, so the number most likely to propagate is the one that is wrong in the flattering direction.
The record: Printed panel transcribed from Target's flat-panel render GUEST_cd18536e-fecd-4779-9417-bab0b7f17143, against the RedSky pdp_client_v1 enrichment.nutrition_facts block and the PDP merchandising bullet for TCIN 50368923, all 2026-07-31 — open ithttps://www.target.com/p/probiotic-gummies-for-digestive-health-mixed-fruit-80ct-up-38-up-8482/-/A-50368923 — Address given, not linked: this site does not link out to the products it audits.
Finding 2 the-dose-is-one-quarter-of-the-dose-the-strain-was-tested-at
Both human trials of LMG S-31876 used 2 billion CFU per day. The label serving delivers 500 million — 25% of it. To reach the tested dose a buyer needs eight gummies a day, at which point the 80-count bottle lasts 10 days rather than 40, the cost becomes $1.13 a day, and added sugars reach 16 g per day, 32% of the Daily Value, from a digestive supplement. Nothing on the label tells the buyer any of this. The strain is real and disclosed and has genuine human trial evidence; the product is simply not dosed at the level that evidence was generated at.
The record: PMID 39882040 and PMID 38375355, both 2 billion CFU/day, against the transcribed panel serving of 500 million viable cells per 2 gummies, 2026-07-31
Finding 3 the-comparison-claim-points-at-a-different-organism
The prior-generation bottle, still shown in Target's own "New look. Same trusted quality" packaging- transition image, carries "Compare to Digestive Advantage® Probiotic Gummies‡". Digestive Advantage's entire clinical dossier is Bacillus coagulans BC30 (GBI-30, 6086) — per the government transcription, DSLD 62616, its ingredient row reads "BC30 Bacillus coagulans GBI-30, 6086" noted as 500 million viable cells. Same species, identical headline cell count, entirely different organism. The evidence bases are not close: "GBI-30" returns 52 records and 13 with a randomised-controlled-trial publication type, against 4 records and 0 for LMG S-31876. A shopper reasoning "same thing as Digestive Advantage, at Target's price" is matching on the two attributes that are identical — species and cell count — while the attribute that determines the effect differs.
The record: DSLD 62616 (Schiff Digestive Advantage Probiotic Gummies) against the transcribed up&up panel; PubMed "GBI-30" → 52, "GBI-30, 6086" → 42, "GBI-30" AND randomized controlled trial[pt] → 13, "LMG S-31876" → 4, all 2026-07-31 — open it (opens in a new tab)
Finding 4 the-ten-times-survivability-claim-is-unsubstantiated
"10x better survivability vs. yogurt" appears on the packaging-transition image and in the product-page copy with no substantiation published on the label, the page, or anywhere locatable. It is a weaker restatement of the competitor's own 100× claim, applied to a different strain.
The record: Target PDP copy and packaging-transition image GUEST_8ac79405 for TCIN 50368923, against DSLD 62616 label statement, both 2026-07-31
Finding 5 the-cfu-basis-footnote-is-physically-unreadable-in-most-published-images
The single most consequential sentence on the bottle — what the 500 million is guaranteed against — is cut off by the bottle's curvature in three of the four product images Target publishes. It is recoverable only from one specific alternate photograph. A consumer in the aisle can rotate the bottle; a consumer shopping online largely cannot.
The record: All four Target product images for TCIN 50368923 read individually; the footnote is legible only in GUEST_b404d417, 2026-07-31
Finding 6 the-weakest-cfu-basis-of-the-three-store-brands-audited-alongside-it
"Formulated to provide the same amount at expiration date" is a commitment about formulation and overage, not a guarantee of the delivered count. The up&up capsule on the same shelf says "contains a minimum of 10 billion… until at least the Best Used By date", and Member's Mark says "contains 10 billion live cells when manufactured and until at least the Best Used By date". Same category, same week, three different strengths of promise, and this is the softest.
The record: Transcribed footnotes from the up&up gummy, the up&up 50 ct capsule and DSLD 287361 (Member's Mark 10 Strain Probiotic), all 2026-07-31
Finding 7 porcine-gelatin-behind-a-broad-sounding-allergen-reassurance
Other ingredients include gelatin (porcine). Target's own bullet says "Does Not Contain Any of the 9 Major Allergens", which is true — gelatin is not a major allergen — but pork gelatin is disqualifying for halal, kosher, vegetarian and vegan buyers, and the allergen bullet may read as broader reassurance than it is.
The record: Transcribed other-ingredients line from the panel render, against the Target PDP allergen bullet for TCIN 50368923, both 2026-07-31
Finding 8 four-grams-of-added-sugar-per-serving-in-a-digestive-product
Total Carbohydrate 6 g, Total Sugars 4 g, Includes Added Sugars 4 g — 8% of the Daily Value per two-gummy serving, and 32% at the dose the strain's own trials used.
The record: Supplement Facts transcribed from Target's flat-panel render GUEST_cd18536e-fecd-4779-9417-bab0b7f17143, 2026-07-31
Finding 9 the-most-expensive-live-organisms-in-its-batch-by-a-wide-margin
$0.56 per billion CFU per day, against $0.045 for the up&up capsule on the same shelf and $0.021 for Member's Mark. The gummy format carries roughly a twelve-fold cost-per-organism penalty inside a single brand, before the added sugar is counted.
The record: Live prices and label servings for TCIN 50368923 and TCIN 51784210, 2026-07-31, against DSLD 287361 with the price carried from the brief
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.
- Any third-party certification status
- None claimed, none found. No USP, NSF, Informed Choice, Non-GMO Project or cGMP seal appears on the label or in Target's product data, so there was no issuer register to query. The bullet claims "No Artificial Flavors, Colors or Preservatives" and "Gluten-Free" are self-asserted formulation claims, not third-party certifications.
- A men’s-versus-women’s label diff
- The same brand’s women’s SKU has not been compared against this panel.
- Substantiation for the "10x better survivability vs. yogurt" claim
- None is published on the label, on the product page, or anywhere that could be located. It is also a weaker version of the competitor's own claim — Digestive Advantage's label says its strain "survives 100x better than leading probiotics and yogurt" — applied to a different strain. Treated as unsubstantiated vendor claim.
- Any government label record for this SKU
- None exists. UPC 850017715646 returned 0 hits, and the absence rests on the same ten-query protocol run for the sibling capsule: two UPC lookups plus q=up&up, q=probiotic&brand=up&up, q=up&up probiotic gummies, q=Target probiotic gummies, q=Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG Target, q=up&up rhamnosus, q=Probiotic Colon Support and q=up&up mens probiotic. The brand has 12 records in DSLD and five probiotic SKUs — 12091, 19890, 20185, 240347, 318004 — and this is not among them.
- A men's-versus-women's diff for this product
- Not applicable and not run. This is a family format labelled for ages 4 and up, and Target sells no men's probiotic against which to diff it.
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.
Three numbers, three Target sources, one bottle, same day.
The printed Supplement Facts says 500 million viable cells per two-gummy serving. Target’s product API says 50 million — and drops the strain designator, recording the organism as bare “Bacillus coagulans viable cells”. Target’s merchandising attribute on the product page says 1 billion. That is a twenty-fold spread between the retailer’s own highest and lowest published figure for the same product. The merchandising attribute is the field that powers Target’s own faceted filtering and is the one most likely to be scraped into somebody else’s “best probiotic” table, which means the number most likely to propagate across the internet is the one that overstates.
The label itself is better than that. Bacillus coagulans LMG S-31876 is a real culture-collection accession from BCCM/LMG in Ghent, printed on the panel with the organism’s full dose beside it. Two genuine randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled human trials exist — one on stress and immune endpoints, one on diarrhoea-predominant IBS. Both are n=50, both are affiliated with the ingredient supplier, Abode Biotec, and both say so in their own competing-interests statements.
Both also used 2 billion CFU a day. This product delivers 500 million. A quarter of the tested dose. Reaching it takes eight gummies daily, at which point the 80-count bottle lasts 10 days rather than 40, the cost goes from $0.28 to $1.13 a day, and added sugar reaches 16 g — 32% of the Daily Value — from a digestive supplement. None of that is on the label, and none of it is wrong on the label either: the label simply states its dose and lets the buyer assume the trials were run at it.
A methods note worth publishing on its own. Filtering PubMed by publication type returns zero
trials for this strain, even though two exist, because neither Frontiers paper is indexed with a trial
type. Anyone checking this strain the standard way — clinical trial[pt] — will conclude the evidence base
is empty. It is not. This is exactly what a double-query rule is for.
And the comparison points somewhere else. The prior-generation bottle says “Compare to Digestive Advantage®”. Digestive Advantage’s entire clinical file belongs to B. coagulans BC30 (GBI-30, 6086) — 52 records, 13 randomised trials. This gummy contains LMG S-31876 — 4 records, 2 trials, both from the supplier. Same species. Same 500 million headline. Different organism. The shopper matches on the two attributes that are identical and misses the one that decides whether anything happens.
The CFU footnote is the softest of the three store brands audited alongside it — “formulated to provide” rather than “contains a minimum… until at least” — and it is physically unreadable in three of the four images Target publishes, cut off by the curve of the bottle. Elsewhere: porcine gelatin under a “no major allergens” bullet, 4 g of added sugar a serving, and $0.56 per billion CFU per day against $0.045 for the capsule on the same shelf.