Every supplement app scores one bottle at a time. The problems live in the combination, which is the one thing scanning a single product can never show you.
Coming to the App Store
A real stack, three ordinary products
Multivitamin
2.1mg
150% NRV, unremarkable
B complex
50mg
3,571% NRV, standard B50
Pre-workout
10mg
714% NRV, buried in the blend
All three contain vitamin B6. None of the labels mention each other.
6.2× the UK safe upper level of 10mg a day for supplements (EVM, 2003). Nothing on any individual label would tell you that.
How it works
Photograph the supplement facts panel, pick a photo you already have, or just type what you take. A screenshot of a shop listing works too, so you can check something before you buy it.
Ingredients and doses come off the panel itself, so there is no product database to be missing from. Got it wrong? Correct any item by hand and run it again.
One number out of 100, broken into dosing, evidence and overlap, with the reasoning for every ingredient shown underneath it.
The difference
Barcode scanners look your product up in a catalogue. An own-brand tub, a reformulation, anything from a smaller manufacturer, and there is simply no result. It is the most common complaint about every app in this category, and it is not a bug they can fix: the catalogue is the product.
Verdict reads the supplement facts panel in the photograph. There is no catalogue to be missing from, because there is no catalogue. If you can photograph the label, it can be scored.
No affiliate links, no shop, no sponsored placements, now or later. The moment an app that scores supplements also sells them, every score it gives is worth less.
No email, no password, no profile. Your stack and your history stay on your phone, so there is no database of what you take, and nothing of yours to leak or sell.
The free allowance is sized to reach a real multi-product analysis, not to stop you at the first interesting screen. You will know whether it is worth paying for before you are asked.
Inside the app
A number you cannot interrogate is just an opinion. Here is what the app actually puts on screen.
MAGNESIUM COMPLEX
SOLID
A comprehensive multi-form magnesium blend providing 400mg of elemental magnesium per serving, though heavy reliance on magnesium oxide lowers the absorption efficiency.
Doses are per the label serving, 2 Capsules. Take a different amount? Add it to your stack and set your own.
Dosing, evidence and overlap are scored separately, so a stack that is well researched but doubled up does not hide behind a single average. The serving the doses were read at is stated, and you can override it.
INGREDIENTS
Matched with published research using 6000mg before exercise to support nitric oxide production and training performance.
Aligned with human trials using 2500 to 3000mg daily to support power output and body composition.
Studied in athletic cohorts at 2000mg daily, placing this dose below clinical trial amounts.
A 350mg single dose exceeds standard ergogenic recommendations of 3 to 6mg per kg and conflicts with caffeine sensitivity.
Each one is compared with the dose used in published human trials, and told plainly whether it matches, falls short or goes past it. A proprietary blend that hides its amounts gets called out rather than credited.
DAILY TOTALS
Combined across everything in your stack, against UK reference intakes (NRV) and EVM upper levels. Supplements only. Food and drink add to these totals.
Over reference
UK guidance: 10mg/day upper level for supplements · NRV 1.4mg
From: Multivitamin, B complex, Pre-workout
Near reference
UK guidance: 25mg/day upper level for supplements · NRV 10mg
From: Multivitamin, Zinc
Within reference
UK guidance: 400mg/day upper level for supplements · NRV 375mg
From: Magnesium Complex
Every product you take, added up per nutrient and compared against the UK reference and upper level. Doses are converted to elemental amounts in code rather than taken off the label, because a salt weight read as the element is the one error worth never making.
INTERACTIONS IN THIS STACK
Caffeine anhydrous at 350mg combined with huperzine A creates a heavy central nervous system stimulant load that may induce jitteriness if you are caffeine sensitive.
Competing absorption, stacked stimulants, minerals that suppress each other. These are properties of the combination, so no amount of scanning one bottle at a time will ever surface them.
ESTIMATED MONTHLY COST
Rough estimates at typical retail prices, your brands will differ. Likely wasted is a judgement about which items are working, not a measurement. Enter what you actually paid in My Stack to make the total real.
Split into what is doing something and what probably is not. Enter what you really paid and the total stops being an estimate, though the split stays a judgement about which items are working, and it says so.
TIMING
Take 30 to 60 minutes before training to allow citrulline and caffeine plasma levels to peak.
Due to the high 350mg caffeine dose, avoid consuming other stimulants or taking this late in the day.
Some things compete for absorption and want a couple of hours between them, some need food to be absorbed at all, and some will keep you awake. The stack is grouped into a daily schedule instead of leaving you to work that out per bottle.
DAILY REMINDERS
Reminders stay on this device. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Four slots, a tick when you take them, and a streak. Taking a supplement consistently is most of what makes it worth taking at all. Reminders are scheduled on your phone and nothing is sent anywhere.
What you get
Combined daily totals across every product you take, measured against UK reference intakes and upper levels. This is the part single-product scanners structurally cannot do.
Zinc competes with copper. Iron and calcium compete with each other. Verdict looks at what you take together, and at what to separate by a couple of hours.
Magnesium oxide is about 60% elemental magnesium and poorly absorbed. Glycinate is about 14% and absorbed well. The form on the label changes what you actually get, and the score reflects it.
What the stack costs you a month, and how much of that is going to ingredients you are already getting from something else in it. Enter what you actually paid and the total stops being an estimate.
Each ingredient rated on the strength of published human research, with the reasoning visible. A score you cannot interrogate is an opinion with a number on it.
Four daily slots, an adherence streak, and nothing else. Taking it consistently is most of what makes a supplement worth taking at all.
The money
Verdict works out what your stack costs you a month, and how much of that is going to ingredients you are already getting from something else in it.
Wasted every month
£22
of an estimated £64 across five products. Roughly £264 a year going on things another product in the same stack already covers.
The split is a judgement about what is working, not a measurement. Enter what you actually paid for each product and the total becomes a fact.
Honestly
Worth knowing before you download it rather than after.
It reads labels, it does not test products. Purity, contamination and whether a bottle contains what it claims all need third-party lab testing. That is a different job and Verdict does not pretend to do it.
It doesn't know your medication. Some supplements interact with prescription medicines. Verdict cannot see yours, so silence from it is not clearance. A pharmacist can check.
Daily totals count supplements only. Food and fortified products add to the same numbers, so your real intake is higher than the app can see.
It doesn't sell you supplements. No affiliate links, no shop, no sponsored placements, ever. The moment there is a buy button, every score becomes suspect.
Questions
It reads the label instead of looking the product up. Every other scanner matches a barcode against a catalogue, so anything not in that catalogue returns nothing, which in practice is own-brand products, reformulations and most smaller manufacturers. Verdict reads the supplement facts panel in your photograph, so there is nothing to be missing from.
The rest is about trust rather than capability: no affiliate links or shop, the reasoning shown behind every score rather than just the number, no account at all, and a free allowance big enough to reach a real multi-product analysis before you are asked to pay.
They compete for absorption in the gut, so taken in the same dose you tend to absorb less of both. It is not dangerous, it is just wasteful. Separating them by two hours or so is the usual advice, and taking one in the morning and one in the evening is the easiest way to do that. This is the sort of thing that is invisible when you look at one bottle at a time.
The UK Expert Group on Vitamins and Minerals set a safe upper level of 10mg a day from supplements in 2003, and EFSA set a tolerable upper intake of 12mg a day for adults in 2023. The reference intake is 1.4mg. High intakes over long periods have been associated with nerve problems in the hands and feet. The catch is that B6 appears in multivitamins, B complexes and most pre-workouts at once, so it stacks up quickly without any single label looking unusual.
They are different trades. Magnesium oxide is roughly 60% elemental magnesium by weight but is poorly absorbed, so a large number on the label does not translate into a large amount absorbed. Glycinate is roughly 14% elemental but absorbs well and is gentler on the stomach. Comparing the milligrams printed on two labels without knowing the form tells you very little, which is why Verdict looks at the form rather than just the number.
Yes, at higher intakes. Zinc and copper compete for the same absorption pathway, and reduced copper absorption is the specific effect the UK upper level for zinc is based on, set at 25mg a day from supplements. This matters most for people taking a zinc supplement on top of a multivitamin that already contains zinc, which is common and easy to miss.
Yes. NHS advice is that adults should not take more than 100 micrograms, which is 4,000 IU, a day. For most people 10 micrograms, or 400 IU, a day is the amount suggested through autumn and winter. Vitamin D is fat soluble, so unlike vitamin C it is not simply excreted when you take more than you need.
They are frequently sold together and the theory is reasonable, but the human evidence that adding K2 to vitamin D changes outcomes is limited rather than settled. Treat combined products as a convenience rather than a requirement. If you take a blood thinner such as warfarin, vitamin K is one of the clearest supplement and medicine interactions there is, so speak to your pharmacist before taking it at all.
NRV stands for Nutrient Reference Value. It is the labelling figure used in the UK and EU, meant to cover the needs of most healthy adults. It is a reference point, not a target and not a ceiling. Two things to know: it is not the same as an upper limit, so 400% NRV is not automatically a problem, and it is not the same as the Daily Value used on labels in the United States, so the percentages differ between countries.
It depends on the nutrient. Fat soluble vitamins, A, D, E and K, are absorbed better with a meal containing some fat. Iron is absorbed better on an empty stomach but is more likely to upset it, and vitamin C alongside improves absorption while tea, coffee and calcium reduce it. Magnesium in the evening suits people who find it settling. Verdict groups your stack into a daily schedule rather than leaving you to work this out per bottle.
Compare the amount per serving against the dose used in published human research, not against the percentage on the label. Proprietary blends are the common warning sign, because they list a total for several ingredients without saying how much of each is present, which usually means the expensive ones are present in small amounts. Serving size is the other trap: a big number on the front often assumes three or four capsules a day.
Usually, but the risk is not in any one product, it is in the total. Water soluble vitamins are largely excreted when you take more than you need. Fat soluble vitamins and minerals such as iron, zinc, selenium and vitamin A accumulate and have real upper levels. The failure mode is three sensible products each contributing a moderate amount of the same nutrient. Adding up the combined daily totals is the only way to see it, and is the reason this app exists.
Yes, and some of the interactions are serious. St John's wort affects the metabolism of a long list of medicines including antidepressants and hormonal contraceptives, vitamin K interacts with warfarin, and calcium and magnesium can reduce the absorption of some antibiotics. Verdict does not know what medication you take and cannot check for this, so a pharmacist is the right person to ask. They will do it free.
No. There is no sign-up, no email and no password. Your stack and history live on your phone and are never uploaded, so there is nothing of yours to leak. There is no analytics or tracking of any kind either.
It reads the supplement facts panel from a photograph, so it does not depend on a product database and there is nothing to be missing from. Barcode scanners fail on anything they have not catalogued, which in practice is a large part of the shelf.
United Kingdom values: NRV figures with EVM upper levels. These differ from the Daily Values printed on labels in the United States, so percentages will not always match what is on your bottle. Neither is wrong, they are different standards.
There is a free allowance, sized so you reach a real multi-product analysis before deciding anything. After that, Verdict Pro is a subscription, monthly or yearly, with the price shown in your own currency before you buy.
No. Verdict describes published research on dosing and evidence. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any condition, and it is not a substitute for a doctor or a pharmacist.
Verdict describes published research on dosing and evidence. It is not medical advice and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any condition. Reference intakes are UK NRV with EVM upper levels. Talk to a doctor or pharmacist before starting or stopping supplements.