One product, one panel, one record.
Walgreens Super Probiotic Digestive Support Capsules, 20 Billion Active Cultures, 30 Capsules — label audit
A $19.99 pharmacy store brand prints full strain designators on all four of its organisms — CUL60, CUL21, CUL34, CUL20 — and those four exact designators are the four organisms in a published, randomised, placebo-controlled human trial. That is a better strain-to-evidence match than most premium DTC brands this project has torn down at three times the price.
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
- No NIH Dietary Supplement Label Database record is on file for this product in this teardown.
- 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, after the founding cohort of 27 was frozen. It sits outside every D27 denominator the site publishes and contributes to none of them.
- 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.
The Label Verifiability Score for this product
76.7 out of 100
Rank 39 of the 154 products in this audit the rubric can score. This rank is shared with 6 other products — 7 products sit on 76.7 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 | 4 of 4 organism slots carry a printed strain designator. | 4 / 4 = 1.0000 | 0.2400 |
| Per-organism amount printed | 0.20 | 0 of 4 organism slots have an amount of its own; the rest are inside a blend total. | 0 / 4 = 0.0000 | 0.0000 |
| What the CFU count is measured against | 0.22 | Potency basis "both-endpoints": 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 | 4 of 4 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. | 4 / 4 = 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 |
0.6600 — the last column added up — divided by 0.86, the weight this record could answer, is 0.7674. Multiplied by 100 and rounded to one decimal, that is the 76.7 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 | LAB4 Probiotics — 143.6 mg (20 Billion CFUs**) |
| What that count is measured against | Both endpoints printed |
| Strain designators | All organisms coded |
| Organism slots transcribed here | 4 — the full panel |
| Marketed as | Unisex |
"**Contains a minimum of 20 Billion active cultures when manufactured and provides a minimum 12.5 billion active cultures at time of expiration"
The panel’s own words on potency, verbatim.
The panel prints both a manufacture figure and an expiration figure, so the decline over shelf life is readable off the label itself.
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 acidophilus | CUL60 | — not stated separately | Human RCT | "CUL60" |
| Lactobacillus acidophilus | CUL21 | — not stated separately | Human RCT | "CUL60" |
| Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis | CUL34 | — not stated separately | Human RCT | "CUL60" |
| Bifidobacterium bifidum | CUL20 | — not stated separately | Human RCT | "CUL60" |
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 — pics-walgreens-prodimg-638779-900-and-2-900https://pics.walgreens.com/prodimg/638779/900.jpg — Address given, not linked: this site does not link out to the products it audits. captured Walgreens' own carton photography, downloaded and transcribed directly - the Supplement Facts panel exists nowhere in page HTML and only inside these JPEGs. Transcribed - Serving Size One Capsule; LAB4 Probiotics 143.6 mg (20 Billion CFUs**); Lactobacillus acidophilus CUL60; Lactobacillus acidophilus CUL21; Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis CUL34; Bifidobacterium bifidum CUL20; the dual manufacture-and-expiry footnote; other ingredients (Vegetarian Capsule Shell (Hydroxypropyl Methylcellulose), Microcrystalline Cellulose, Silicon Dioxide, Magnesium Stearate, Titanium Dioxide); "SUITABLE FOR VEGETARIANS. NO GLUTEN. NO DAIRY. NO SOY."; the storage instruction; MADE IN UNITED KINGDOM; W10809-0420-L; (c)2020 Walgreen Co. The panel was tied to the SKU in the brief by barcode - the carton reads 3 11917 21628 7 and the archived page's JSON-LD gives gtin 00311917216287, a match.
- Internet Archive capture — 20260515171852 (opens in a new tab) captured The Internet Archive snapshot of the product page, and the only route to its structured data since walgreens.com refuses automated fetching. Source of the price ("price":"19.99"), the GTIN, the SKU, the other-ingredients string, the count ("weight":"30.0 ea"), the image manifest that led to the carton photographs, and the empty description / excipients-only activeIngredient fields recorded as a finding above.
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, 4 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
$0.67 a day at the dose the label itself instructs.
- Price
- $19.99 USD
- What that buys
- 30 once-daily capsules, 1 capsule per serving. Walgreens ITEM 865429, SKU 400638779.
- Price checked
- — the source we read it from (opens in a new tab)
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.
No third-party certification mark appears on the carton - no UL, NSF, USP, Non-GMO Project or Informed Choice - so there is no issuer register to query and nothing is recorded as confirmed or refused. One thing on the front of pack is certification-shaped and is not a certification. The "WALGREENS PHARMACIST RECOMMENDED" roundel is a self-referential in-house seal - Walgreens attesting that Walgreens' own pharmacists recommend Walgreens' own brand. It has the visual grammar of a certification mark and no issuer behind it. Note also that the sibling Extra Strength SKU does carry a genuine, register-verified UL mark, so the absence here is specific to this product rather than to the brand.
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 blend-total-only-across-four-organisms
143.6 mg and 20 billion CFU across four organisms, with no per-strain split. The identity of what you are buying is fully disclosed; the ratio is not, so no single organism can be matched to the ratio used in the trial that establishes the consortium.
The record: Carton Supplement Facts panel, pics.walgreens.com/prodimg/638779/900.jpg and /2_900.jpg, transcribed 2026-07-31
Finding 2 the-guaranteed-expiry-dose-is-half-the-trialled-dose
The anchor trial dosed 2.5 x 10^10 CFU per capsule - 25 billion. This carton guarantees 20 billion at manufacture and 12.5 billion at expiration. By end of shelf life the product delivers half the dose of the study its strain identity leans on. The strains match exactly; the dose does not necessarily.
The record: Carton footnote against PMID 18785988, Williams EA et al., Aliment Pharmacol Ther 2009;29(1):97-103, DOI 10.1111/j.1365-2036.2008.03848.x
Finding 3 pharmacist-recommended-seal-in-the-visual-position-of-a-certification-mark
The front of pack carries a "WALGREENS PHARMACIST RECOMMENDED" roundel. It is Walgreens attesting that Walgreens' own pharmacists recommend Walgreens' own brand - a self-referential in-house seal with the visual grammar of a third-party mark and no issuer behind it.
The record: Carton front-of-pack photograph, pics.walgreens.com/prodimg/638779/900.jpg, read 2026-07-31
Finding 4 walgreens-own-structured-data-lists-excipients-as-the-active-ingredient
The archived product page's description field is empty and its activeIngredient field lists only excipients - Walgreens' own structured data tells search engines that the active ingredient of a probiotic is hydroxypropyl methylcellulose and titanium dioxide. The Supplement Facts exists nowhere in machine-readable form; it is inside carton JPEGs only. That is precisely why this SKU was unreadable to automated verification in the first place.
The record: Archived Walgreens page JSON-LD, Wayback 20260515171852, description and activeIngredient fields, read 2026-07-31 — open it (opens in a new tab)
Finding 5 no-third-party-testing-of-any-kind
No UL, NSF, USP, Non-GMO Project or Informed Choice mark on the carton, and the sibling Extra Strength SKU does carry a register-verified UL mark. The certification is not applied across the store-brand range in practice.
The record: Carton photographs pics.walgreens.com/prodimg/638779/900.jpg and /2_900.jpg against the Extra Strength carton's UL VERIFIED mark, certificate V907999, read 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
- No third-party certification mark appears on the carton - no UL, NSF, USP, Non-GMO Project or Informed Choice - so there is no issuer register to query and nothing is recorded as confirmed or refused. One thing on the front of pack is certification-shaped and is not a certification. The "WALGREENS PHARMACIST RECOMMENDED" roundel is a self-referential in-house seal - Walgreens attesting that Walgreens' own pharmacists recommend Walgreens' own brand. It has the visual grammar of a certification mark and no issuer behind it. Note also that the sibling Extra Strength SKU does carry a genuine, register-verified UL mark, so the absence here is specific to this product rather than to the brand.
- A men’s-versus-women’s label diff
- The same brand’s women’s SKU has not been compared against this panel.
- A live price
- walgreens.com refuses automated fetching at connection level, so the published price is Walgreens' own JSON-LD figure from the Internet Archive snapshot of 2026-05-15 rather than a live reading. See the price note.
- How the 20 billion CFU is split across the four organisms
- Not disclosed. The panel prints "LAB4 Probiotics - 143.6 mg (20 Billion CFUs**)" as a blend total. You know exactly which four organisms you are buying; you do not know in what ratio, and therefore cannot check any one of them against the ratio used in the trial.
- Whether this product's dose matches the trial dose
- It does not, at end of shelf life, and the arithmetic is on the carton. The anchor trial dosed 2.5 x 10^10 CFU per capsule - 25 billion. This product guarantees 20 billion at manufacture and 12.5 billion at expiry. What is not established is where in that range any given bottle sits when it is swallowed.
- Any government label record
- None exists. The search was run seven ways - DSLD brand filters "Walgreens" / "Well At Walgreens" (5 records - Probiotic Colon Support, Probiotic with LGG, Probiotic Gummies with Bacillus Coagulans, Children's Probiotic with LGG, Daily Probiotic with Digestive Enzymes; none of them this SKU) and "Finest Nutrition" (2 records, no match); free-text "Super Probiotic 20 Billion Active Cultures"; UPC queries on 311917216287 and 00311917216287 (0 hits); and a designator query on CUL60, which returned one hit belonging to Higher Nature "Pro-Digestion" (DSLD 246050), an unrelated brand.
- Any third-party certification
- None is claimed on the carton, so there is no issuer to query. The "Pharmacist Recommended" roundel is an in-house seal and is not a certification.
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.
A $19.99 pharmacy store brand does the thing the premium shelf mostly does not.
All four organisms on this carton carry a published strain designator: Lactobacillus acidophilus CUL60, L. acidophilus CUL21, Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis CUL34, B. bifidum CUL20. That is the LAB4 consortium, and it is not a house code dressed up as an accession number — each strain has a deposit number in the NCIMB collection, and the combination has been trialled as such.
The anchor is PMID 18785988 — Williams et al., Aliment Pharmacol Ther 2009 — a double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial in 52 Rome-II IBS participants over eight weeks, reporting significantly greater improvement in symptom severity score, quality of life, days with pain and satisfaction with bowel habit than placebo. Its abstract names the four organisms and their four designators. They are the four organisms and the four designators on this carton. Four further RCTs exist on the same consortium (PMIDs 34511049, 25205320, 30982100, 27869661) and its genome has been characterised (PMID 34391865).
The CFU disclosure is the honest form. Verbatim from the footnote: “**Contains a minimum of 20 Billion active cultures when manufactured and provides a minimum 12.5 billion active cultures at time of expiration”. Both endpoints, printed together, so the decay across shelf life is readable off the label — 37.5% disclosed. The front of pack advertises the higher number, 20 billion, but the asterisk resolves to the real floor on the back. That is defensible practice rather than a dark pattern.
Two caveats travel with the credit, and they are not small.
First, the 143.6 mg / 20 billion is a blend total. You know exactly which four organisms you are buying. You do not know in what ratio, so you cannot check any one of them against the ratio in the trial.
Second, the trial dosed 25 billion CFU per capsule. This carton guarantees 20 billion at manufacture and 12.5 billion at expiry — half the studied dose by the end of shelf life, in a product whose whole strength is that its strain identity matches a study.
No third-party certification appears on this carton — no UL, NSF, USP, Non-GMO or Informed Choice. What is on the front is a “WALGREENS PHARMACIST RECOMMENDED” roundel: Walgreens attesting that Walgreens’ pharmacists recommend Walgreens’ brand. It has the shape of a certification mark and no issuer behind it. Worth naming, because the sibling Extra Strength SKU carries a real, register-verified UL mark — so the absence here is about this product, not about the brand’s capability.
One structural note that explains why this SKU was invisible to automated checking until somebody
downloaded a JPEG and read it. The archived page’s description field is empty, and its
activeIngredient field lists only excipients — Walgreens’ own structured data tells search engines
that the active ingredient of this probiotic is hydroxypropyl methylcellulose and titanium dioxide. The
Supplement Facts exists in no machine-readable form anywhere. Neither does a NIH label record: seven
different searches, including two UPC forms, return nothing.
The price on this page is dated 2026-05-15, not today. walgreens.com refuses automated fetching, so the figure is Walgreens’ own JSON-LD from an Internet Archive snapshot, and it is published with that date attached rather than presented as current.