Proprietary Blends: Why Ingredient Amounts Really Matter

What a proprietary blend is

Under U.S. labeling rules, a supplement can group several ingredients into a "proprietary blend" and declare only the blend's total weight. Ingredients must be listed in descending order by weight, but the individual amounts can stay private. Companies often say they do this to protect formulas from copycats. Whatever the reason, the effect on a shopper is the same: you know what is in the bottle but not how much of each.

The FDA dietary supplement information page describes the general framework for supplement labeling if you want the official background.

Why amounts matter

With herbs, dose is nearly everything. A study that found an effect with a certain amount of an extract tells you nothing about a product unless you can compare the amounts. Consider what a blend lets companies do:

• Headline an exciting ingredient while including a tiny quantity.
• Look complete with a long ingredient list whose pieces add up to a small total.
• Avoid direct comparison to competitors who disclose each amount.

None of that means every blend is deceptive. Many honest companies use them. It means the burden of trust shifts from the numbers to the brand, which is a weaker place to stand when the claims are about health.

The BreathiZen blend, line by line

The label we reviewed shows a proprietary blend of 154 mg per serving, with no daily value established. The serving size is 4 sprays (0.60 mL), and there are 100 servings per container. The blend contains, in the order given:

• Mullein (Verbascum thapsus) leaf extract 10:1
• Ginger (Zingiber officinale) root extract
• Organic lemon extract

Because the order reflects descending weight, mullein is the largest component and lemon the smallest. Beyond that, we do not know the split. Is it 100 mg of mullein and a few of the others, or three nearly equal parts? Nobody outside the company can say.

The rest of the 0.60 mL is mostly water and glycerin, along with citric acid, natural flavors, and the preservatives potassium sorbate and sodium benzoate. For what those do, see our guide to glycerin and preservatives in oral sprays.

How 154 mg compares in perspective

For scale, 154 mg is about the weight of a few grains of rice, spread across three plant extracts. Studies of herbs like ginger often use doses in the hundreds or thousands of milligrams daily. We are not saying a small amount is useless, as extracts are concentrated and effects do not scale in a simple way. We are saying it is impossible to judge from the label, and that is exactly the problem.

Also note that the 10:1 ratio on mullein describes how the extract was made, not how much you get. It is an indicator of concentration, not a dose.

A thought experiment with the numbers

Imagine two possible splits of the same 154 mg. In one, mullein extract makes up most of it and ginger and lemon are trace amounts. In another, the three are close to equal. Both splits are consistent with the label, yet they describe quite different products, and any study done on ginger would apply to one split far more than the other. Since the panel cannot distinguish them, the honest position is that the real dose of each herb is unknown to the buyer.

This is not a reason for alarm, only for modest expectations. A product with undisclosed amounts can still be made carefully. What you lose is the ability to check, and that is why it deserves a lower level of confidence than a fully disclosed label.

A final tip: when two products make similar promises, favor the one that discloses more. Transparency is not proof of quality, but it gives you something to check, and that is worth a lot in a category built on trust.

How to shop around the gap

If you are considering a product with a proprietary blend, a few steps help:

1. Treat marketing lines as the brand's words, not evidence. BreathiZen's label says it "supports healthy lung function and immune health," a statement that is not FDA-evaluated.
2. Ask the company for ingredient amounts. The label lists a support contact (contact@customercs.com, +1 323-372-9581), and a clear answer or a refusal is informative either way.
3. Lower your expectations to match the evidence. For mullein and ginger, human data are limited.
4. Use the money-back window. The official order page lists a 60-day guarantee from the purchase date.

Our broader piece on reading a Supplement Facts panel shows where else to look, and the ingredients guide covers the three herbs in detail. BreathiZen does not treat any respiratory condition and never replaces prescribed medicine.