One product, one panel, one record.
up&up (Target) Probiotic Supplement Capsules, 50 Count — label audit
The label is fully transparent — one organism, named to strain, with its own CFU on its own line, guaranteed through expiry. Target's own product API publishes a 25 mg unnamed "Probiotic Blend" and drops both the strain name and the 10 billion CFU entirely. The product is honest; the retailer's data pipeline makes it look like it is not.
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 CFU** (Total Probiotic Cultures, inside a 25 mg Probiotic Blend containing one organism) |
| What that count is measured against | Through expiry |
| Strain designators | All organisms coded |
| Organism slots transcribed here | 1 — the full panel |
| Marketed as | Unisex |
Verbatim from the panel: "**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, and it runs to the date on the box. Storage, 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." The capsules ship in foil blister rather than a bottle, which is consistent with a genuine stability strategy rather than a marketing line.
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 CFU (Total Probiotic Cultures; the blend contains this organism only) | Human RCT | "Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG"[tiab] AND randomized controlled trial[pt] → 170; "Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus GG"[tiab] → 276; "rhamnosus GG" → 1906; "ATCC 53103" → 170; "Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG" AND meta-analysis[pt] → 25; "rhamnosus GG" AND "antibiotic-associated diarrhea" AND meta-analysis[pt] → 3 |
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_6b3bbd5b-739d-47f5-8b1f-31f1e0cf877fhttps://target.scene7.com/is/image/Target/GUEST_6b3bbd5b-739d-47f5-8b1f-31f1e0cf877f — Address given, not linked: this site does not link out to the products it audits. captured Target's own flat-panel render, served by its image CDN at up to 5000 × 5000 px, transcribed verbatim: "Probiotic Blend 25 mg †; Total Probiotic Cultures 10 Billion CFU** †; Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG †; Inulin (Chicory root extract) 200 mg †; †Daily Value not established." Cross-read against the carton photograph GUEST_0eb52f86-5624-4a4a-857c-a7ca956461e8; the two agree exactly. Other ingredients: cellulose, magnesium stearate (vegetable source), silicone dioxide, titanium dioxide. Contains no dairy, soy or gluten. Distributed by Target Corporation, Minneapolis MN 55403 · Made in Canada · TM & ©2024 Target Brands, Inc.
- Dated capture of the brand’s own page — target-redsky-51784210-2026-07-31https://www.target.com/p/probiotic-supplement-capsules-50ct-up-38-up-8482/-/A-51784210 — Address given, not linked: this site does not link out to the products it audits. captured target.com itself returns a JavaScript shell with no product data in the HTML; the record came from Target's RedSky product API, whose key was extracted from Target's own page source rather than guessed. TCIN 51784210 · UPC 628055611028 · DPCI 245-05-0314 · $22.49 live, store 1768, price stamp 51784210-1768-22.49-2025103016, unit price "$0.45 /count". This capture is also the evidence for the finding against Target itself: the API's structured nutrition_facts block carries only the inulin line and a 25 mg "Probiotic Blend", with the strain name and the CFU count absent.
- NIH Dietary Supplement Label Database record — DSLD 250859 (opens in a new tab) captured Culturelle Digestive Daily, the product this SKU names in its own comparison. Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG 40 mg, noted as 10 billion CFUs, plus Inulin 200 mg; label statement "Formulated with 10 billion CFUs of the proven effective LGG probiotic strain… plus the prebiotic inulin." Same strain, same CFU, same prebiotic at the same milligram dose; the powder-mass difference (25 mg here against 40 mg there) reflects a different-potency raw material rather than a different delivered dose.
- 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 counterpart used for the diff. Through-expiry guarantee in the same wording; 10 nested organisms transcribed, all species-only, against a label statement claiming 12. That discrepancy is unresolved and neither number is published.
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
$0.45 a day at the dose the label itself instructs.
- Price
- $22.49 USD
- What that buys
- 50 capsules, 1 capsule daily, 50 servings ($22.49 ÷ 50 = $0.4498). Target's stated unit price is "$0.45 /count", which is accurate. Cost per billion CFU per day, $0.045.
- Price checked
- — the source we read it fromhttps://www.target.com/p/probiotic-supplement-capsules-50ct-up-38-up-8482/-/A-51784210 — 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 and none found. No USP, NSF, Informed Choice, Non-GMO Project or cGMP seal appears anywhere on this carton or in Target's product data, so there was no issuer register to query. The one guarantee-shaped line on the pack is retail rather than quality — "Satisfaction guaranteed – Love it or your money back", which is a refund policy, matched by Target's owned-brand return copy ("If you're not satisfied with any Target Owned Brand item, return it within one year with a receipt"). Neither is a test of anything. This product makes no certification claim at all, which is materially different from, and more honest than, claiming one that cannot be verified.
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 50 ct panel transcribed from Target's own label photographs, both 2026-07-31
- All 10 of the women's transcribed organisms are 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 up&up 50 ct panel, 2026-07-31
- This product declares Inulin (chicory root extract) 200 mg; the women's record lists no prebiotic. DSLD 318004 against the up&up 50 ct panel, 2026-07-31
- Counts and pack sizes differ — 50 capsules here, 30 on the women's SKU, both dosed one daily. DSLD 318004 servings data against the up&up 50 ct panel, 2026-07-31
What is identical across the pair
- Both guarantee CFU through expiry, in the same wording
- Both are distributed by Target Corporation, Minneapolis MN 55403
Every finding on this page, with the record behind it
Finding 1 targets-own-api-strips-the-strain-name-and-the-cfu-count
The RedSky product API's structured nutrition_facts for this TCIN lists only "Inulin (Chicory root extract) 200 mg" and "Probiotic Blend 25 mg". It omits both "Total Probiotic Cultures 10 Billion CFU" and the strain name "Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG" entirely. Any price-comparison bot, LLM shopping agent or screen-reader user consuming Target's own API sees a 25 mg unnamed blend — that is, it looks like a proprietary-blend product, when the printed label is fully transparent. The label is honest and the machine-readable record is not.
The record: Target RedSky pdp_client_v1 response for TCIN 51784210, nutrition_facts block, against the transcribed panel, both 2026-07-31 — open ithttps://www.target.com/p/probiotic-supplement-capsules-50ct-up-38-up-8482/-/A-51784210 — Address given, not linked: this site does not link out to the products it audits.
Finding 2 the-most-clinically-studied-probiotic-strain-is-an-unquantified-superlative
The carton reads "specially formulated with 100% Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG, the most clinically studied probiotic strain". It is well supported for this strain and it is still a superlative with no stated basis, no count and no date — where the reference product anchors its version to "the number of Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG studies as of January 2019".
The record: Carton back panel transcribed from Target's own label photograph, 2026-07-31, against DSLD 250859 label statements
Finding 3 the-dysbiosis-sentence-names-a-disease-without-claiming-to-treat-it
Back panel, verbatim: "Our bodies need beneficial bacteria to support digestive and immune health.* However, sometimes bad bacteria flourish, causing an imbalance of bacteria in the intestines. When this happens, your digestive and overall health can become compromised. Digestive problems such as upset stomach, gas, bloating and diarrhea can result." The sentence describes what dysbiosis can cause; it does not claim the product treats diarrhoea, and the FDA disclaimer is present and correctly placed. That is the correct side of the line. It is also written to let the reader draw the inference, and it is recorded here as a legitimate-but-suggestive construction rather than as a violation.
The record: Carton back panel transcribed from Target's own label photograph, 2026-07-31
Finding 4 no-third-party-certification-of-any-kind
Nothing is claimed, so nothing could be checked. Recorded as an absence rather than a failure — the honest position, and the more informative one, because a product claiming an unverifiable certification is in a worse position than one claiming none.
The record: Carton and Target product data for TCIN 51784210, read 2026-07-31
Finding 5 no-government-label-record
Absent from DSLD, established with ten distinct queries including two UPC lookups. The brand is in the database with 12 records and five probiotic SKUs; this product is not one of them, so the label has never been independently transcribed.
The record: Ten DSLD queries against api.ods.od.nih.gov/dsld/v9/, enumerated in full under what could not be verified, all 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.
- Any third-party certification status
- None claimed and none found. No USP, NSF, Informed Choice, Non-GMO Project or cGMP seal appears anywhere on this carton or in Target's product data, so there was no issuer register to query. The one guarantee-shaped line on the pack is retail rather than quality — "Satisfaction guaranteed – Love it or your money back", which is a refund policy, matched by Target's owned-brand return copy ("If you're not satisfied with any Target Owned Brand item, return it within one year with a receipt"). Neither is a test of anything. This product makes no certification claim at all, which is materially different from, and more honest than, claiming one that cannot be verified.
- 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. Unverified for this product, not refuted.
- Any government label record for this SKU
- None exists, and the absence was established with ten distinct queries rather than one: UPC 628055611028 → 0 hits; UPC 850017715646 (the sibling gummy) → 0 hits; q=up&up → 12 genuine up&up records, so the brand is in DSLD; q=probiotic&brand=up&up → 5 up&up probiotic records; q=up&up probiotic gummies, q=Target probiotic gummies, q=Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG Target, q=up&up rhamnosus (52 records returned, none this SKU), q=Probiotic Colon Support, q=up&up mens probiotic — no match on any. The five up&up probiotic records that do exist are 12091, 19890, 20185, 240347 and 318004. The brand is present in DSLD; this product is not. Coverage is voluntary, so this is a sourcing finding rather than a defect claim.
- 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 label image could not be obtained this pass, so neither number is published as settled.
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 label tells you everything. The retailer’s own database does not.
Target’s Supplement Facts for this bottle reads: Probiotic Blend 25 mg → Total Probiotic Cultures 10 Billion CFU** → Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG; Inulin (chicory root extract) 200 mg. One organism, named to strain, full dose stated, prebiotic declared as a line item rather than demoted to other ingredients. The word “Blend” is boilerplate — there is exactly one thing in it. This is about as transparent as a probiotic panel gets.
Now query Target’s own product API for the same item. Its structured nutrition data lists “Inulin (Chicory root extract) 200 mg” and “Probiotic Blend 25 mg”, and nothing else. The strain name is gone. The CFU count is gone. What a price-comparison bot, an LLM shopping assistant or a screen-reader user consuming Target’s API sees is a 25 mg unnamed blend — the exact signature of the proprietary- blend products this project spends most of its time on. The label is honest and the machine-readable record makes it look like it is not. For anything that shops by data rather than by photograph, the retailer’s pipeline is the product record, and here it is wrong in the unflattering direction.
The comparison claim checks out. Against Culturelle Digestive Daily’s own government record, DSLD 250859: same strain, same 10 billion CFU, same 200 mg of inulin. The only difference is powder mass — 25 mg here against Culturelle’s 40 mg — which reflects a higher-potency raw material rather than a smaller delivered dose. And the potency guarantee is the honest form: “a minimum of 10 billion live bacteria when manufactured, until at least the ‘Best Used By’ date.” The capsules ship in foil blister rather than a bottle, which is what a real stability strategy looks like as opposed to a sentence about one.
No certification is claimed, and that is worth stating precisely. No USP, NSF, Informed Choice or Non-GMO Project mark exists on this carton. The one guarantee-shaped line — “Satisfaction guaranteed – Love it or your money back” — is a refund policy. Claiming nothing is a different and better position than claiming something no register will confirm.
Nothing about this product is male-specific: no prostate ingredient, no androgen ingredient, no urinary ingredient, no organism chosen for male physiology. It appears in “best probiotic for men” result sets because it is a high-volume general-purpose probiotic. The retailer-level fact is the one that matters — Target sells a women’s probiotic and no men’s probiotic, and the ungendered product men default to is the better-characterised of the two: one identified strain at a dose matching its reference product, against a women’s SKU with 2.5× the cells, ten times the organisms and zero designators.