The same vitamins, or minerals, the same ingredients, and yet a drastic difference in price. How is this possible? In this article, we explore the perplexing phenomenon of products containing identical ingredients but commanding vastly different prices.
Delve into questions about whether the higher-priced supplements really offer superior benefits, or whether the difference is simply the result of effective marketing strategies. Get an overview of the tough quality metrics when choosing supplements, focusing on examples like vitamin K2. Discover practical tips for choosing the right dietary supplement without the need for expertise in nutrition or supplementation. Understand what manufacturers need to consider when developing a product and highlight the key role of quality ingredients. Uncover the correlation between price and quality and conclude with helpful advice for consumers navigating the supplement market.
Article at a Glance:
- Understanding the Relationship Between Price and Value
- Let's take vitamin K2 as an example
- You Don't Need to Be an Expert in Supplementation: Finding a Trustworthy Supplement Manufacturer
- Key Considerations for Choosing Suppliers in Product Development
- Factors Influencing Dietary Supplement Quality and Safety
- Concluding: Trime's Commitment to Quality in Dietary Supplements
Our brand isn't positioned as one of the cheapest on the market, which is why we feel it's important to delve deeper into this topic. While our article won't transform you into an expert on dietary supplements, we aim to highlight a few fundamental criteria. These criteria will help you better understand the relationship between quality and price when evaluating individual products.
Consumer interest in nutritional supplements is steadily increasing. Some individuals choose supplements to address specific health concerns, using them as supportive therapy, while others prioritize disease prevention or seek to address nutritional deficiencies. Regardless of the motivation, the effectiveness of dietary supplements always hinges on their quality.
Understanding the Relationship Between Price and Value
Dietary supplements are definitely not governed by the seasonal cycle like, for example, clothing, and it is therefore necessary to monitor other parameters than just the price tag. Even a well-absorbed form is not a guarantee that your body will use the substance perfectly.
Let's give an example of vitamin K2, which is so widely discussed for its many positive effects. If you decide to supplement vitamin K2 (preferably together with vitamin D3, with which, as research shows, they form an excellent combination for supporting healthy bones and the cardiovascular system), you are doing yourself a very good thing. Your bones and cardiovascular system will appreciate it at any age. You also probably already know that K2 MK-7 is considered the best form. But even after being so well instructed, you can reach to the side of the vitamin shelf and buy a low-quality product.
Decoding Vitamin K2 Supplements: Understanding Quality, Structure, and Price Disparity
One of the important quality parameters of supplements containing vitamin K2 MK7 is its chemical structure, or different spatial geometry. In this case, it refers to the proportion of cis and trans forms in which the vitamin K2 molecule is found. This differing geometric configuration significantly influences the biological availability of the vitamin. In nature (for example, in the Japanese traditional dish Nattō, considered the richest source of vitamin K2 MK-7), K2 MK-7 is found in the so-called trans form. Conversely, the cis form does not occur naturally and therefore does not guarantee the same benefits. The average customer may not have the capacity to perceive these "subtle" but absolutely fundamental differences in quality during a quick purchase.
Many products promise on the label, for example, 100 micrograms of vitamin K2 MK-7 in one dose, but the manufacturer often does not bother to determine the ratio of cis and trans forms. During the industrial production process, the molecular structure can change, resulting in inactive cis isomers predominating instead of the expected trans configuration. As a result, only a small amount is absorbed into the body, even though you paid for 100 micrograms of vitamin K2.
Let's provide an example. The label indicates that the product contains 100 μg (micrograms) of vitamin K2 MK-7. Therefore, you expect the majority of that amount to be absorbed or bioavailable, right? However, this is not always the case. Testing selected samples of different brands revealed that some products did not meet quality requirements, with part of the vitamin K2 content declared on the label being in an inactive cis configuration (some products contained only 15% of K2 MK-7 in a biologically usable trans form!). In short, the manufacturer should ensure they are selling vitamin K2 in a usable form and in the correct proportion, and the customer should be informed about this.
Since the natural forms of vitamin K2 MK7 require a demanding extraction process, it is important to choose a manufacturer that guarantees a minimum content of extraction agents in the final product.
An honest fermentation method that mimics nature and occurs under strict control conditions, followed by gentle extraction, is undoubtedly more expensive than production methods that prioritize speed and the cheapest possible technology. Naturally, all of this should be reflected in the final price of products containing vitamin K2 (and these are just a few selected parameters mentioned!).
To ensure the quality of our products, we conduct meticulous and often investigative work behind the scenes to assess quality criteria for you.
As you can see, it is not easy to assess the price of dietary supplements without knowledge of the entire issue. Many surveys monitoring customer behavior in the supplement market, including ours, have shown that the average consumer does not have enough experience to correctly evaluate the real quality and functionality of a given dietary supplement. Often, they make purely impulsive and irrational decisions when purchasing for their "health".
You Don't Need to Be an Expert in Supplementation: Finding a Trustworthy Supplement Manufacturer
If you don't want to delve deeply into qualitative parameters and study complex chemical processes, the easiest approach for you will be to find a reputable manufacturer who prioritizes quality above all else. Such a manufacturer gradually builds their reputation in the market through a high-quality portfolio, remaining unaffected by passing trends. They are interested in presenting information about the composition as transparently as possible (as permitted by legislation) and prefer to showcase their products through facts rather than bombastic advertising messages. In essence, it should be a manufacturer who invests more in developing functional formulas containing the best available ingredients, active forms of substances, and the highest quality production technologies rather than in flashy marketing. They will be your partner, educating you and keeping you informed about further developments, changes, and innovations.
Key Considerations for Choosing Suppliers in Product Development
What do we need to compare among suppliers from the position of the manufacturer during the development of a certain product?
From a vast array of offers, we always select several favorites. We are interested in the method of extraction of individual ingredients, the origin and conditions of cultivation of raw materials, processing technical specifications, provided certifications, studies, but also the ethics of the entire production process and the question of sustainability. Ultimately, we decide among the best of the best, often based on how transparently and professionally each supplier communicates.
Factors Influencing Dietary Supplement Quality and Safety
Quality ingredients cannot be the cheapest at the same time. It probably doesn't surprise anyone that a cheap product is usually synonymous with cheap raw materials or compromised processing technology. This applies to both food and dietary supplements. Unfortunately, while with basic foods even an uninformed person can judge by appearance, smell, texture, etc., with highly processed foods and dietary supplements, these simple methods are not sufficient. To distinguish real quality from cheap imitation, you must have a thorough understanding of the subject matter. Therefore, we would like to draw attention to some objective criteria and shed some light on why product prices vary so much and when it makes sense to pay extra. After all, we are choosing something that enters our bodies (often for a long time and regularly) and is expected to have positive effects. This can only happen when certain quality standards are met:
1. Content of Functional Substances
The representation of functional substances in the formulation is often inadequate. Simply put, functional components are present in the product in such small quantities that they cannot provide any significant benefits to our bodies. A manufacturer who aims to produce dietary supplements with a functional content of active ingredients must understand not only the metabolic processes of the human body but also the real nutritional situation of the given population.
2. Chemical Structure
Functional components are present in the product in a form that our bodies cannot utilize, or they can only be utilized very limitedly. Most of them pass through our digestive tract without benefit and only burden our autoregulatory homeostatic and excretory system. In such cases, we rightfully speak of "overpriced urine". As an example, we have already mentioned differences in the spatial geometry of individual substances, such as cis and trans configurations in vitamin K2. Another example could be fatty acids, which are highly unstable and prone to oxidation. If improperly processed or stored, they exhibit poorer quality characteristics and become less usable for our bodies. In the worst case, their quality may be so low that they are actively harmful to us.
3. Additives Used
There are many uncertainties and concerns regarding the safety of dietary supplements in terms of the presence of additives. On one hand, there are experts and consumers who claim that these additives are all approved and therefore safe. On the other hand, there are experts and informed laypeople who disagree and particularly point out the cocktail and cumulative effect, which manifests itself only after long-term use. The fact is that we still have little information about the potential harmfulness of many of these additives, and moreover, the manufacturer is not required to disclose the amount of additive used. This means that even though a safe maximum daily dose is established, with long-term consumption of various combinations of these additives (or dietary supplements and foods, as well as cosmetics containing such additives), you cannot be certain that the cumulative effect will not exceed your individual tolerance threshold.
Therefore, if we have the opportunity to choose dietary supplements that are safe from this perspective, in which the manufacturer replaces potentially risky, often synthetically produced additives with natural ones, you don't have to keep track and meticulously monitor how much of each additive you have consumed. It is important to realize that some dietary supplements are taken regularly on a daily basis for many years. In such cases, even details such as the representation and forms of additives determine the final quality and safety of your supplements.
Of course, these were just a few selected points by which you can critically reevaluate the quality of your supplementation. Dietary supplements are the same as food, wine, coffee, etc. You cannot buy taste; you have to "live through" it. Sometimes it's a long and thorny road, sometimes it's not the cheapest route, but that's okay. After all, we're doing it for ourselves
Concluding: Trime's Commitment to Quality in Dietary Supplements
Vitamins and minerals in the form of dietary supplements raise many controversial questions and divide both society and the professional community into two camps - some enthusiastically recommend them, while others completely condemn them. Unfortunately, this situation has not been helped by the wave of low-quality, non-functional, or even harmful products that are increasingly prevalent on the market. And unfortunately, even after years of experience with purchasing and using dietary supplements, the public still tolerates these low-quality products.
Yes, Trime products are positioned at a higher price level. Higher price is relative; it's always about what you get for your money. We have chosen the path of quality. We want to develop products for long-term use, and in such cases, cutting corners does not pay off, and quality should come first! That's why we invest a lot of resources in the development and purchase of the best technologies and ingredients that the current market offers. We do not want cheaper production technologies that could potentially degrade the quality of our products. We do not want cheaper ingredients for our dietary supplements at all costs unless we are convinced of their adequate biological value and safety profile, even from the perspective of long-term use. Therefore, we build our portfolio gradually, slowly, without undue pressure on price, deadlines, etc. We always strive to bring to market a product that is the best in every aspect of its detail. If we didn't care about every detail that reflects the final quality of our products, we could literally have dozens of products under the Trime brand by now. But that is not our philosophy, and we do not seek to maximize profits at any cost. Our goal is to bring to market a new brand that will gradually build a reputation as one of the strictest manufacturers in the European market, which does not compromise on quality. As they say, the secret to success is to do ordinary things extraordinarily well.
Already, Trime's portfolio is built on products of top quality, but we still have a lot of work ahead of us and there is room for improvement. During the first few years of production, we paid the novice's tax, and despite clearly defined criteria for the quality we want to bring to market, we sometimes didn't succeed as we wished. But that's evolution, and with humility, we admit that if it were that simple, anyone could do it.