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How to Read a Proprietary Blend, and When You Can Beat One
What a proprietary blend has to print, the six-step method for reading one, the three traps that look like answers, and this product worked all the way through as the example.
Written and reviewed by the Maxforce Editorial Desk · Last updated October 29, 2026
Quick answer
FDA requires a proprietary blend to print its total weight and to list its members in descending order of predominance by weight. So find any member with its own printed amount: everything below it is capped at that amount, everything above it is at least that amount, and the first member is capped at the total minus the minimum the others must take.
3 things a blend has to print
What a proprietary blend must print, and what it may withhold
Three requirements, one omission, and one of the three is more useful than it looks.
A proprietary blend is a legal device rather than a trick. Learn the three things one has to print and you can read any blend on any shelf, because the rules do not change from product to product. Only the numbers do.
The three things a blend has to print
FDA’s labeling guide is specific. The group has to be named as a group: “You must identify proprietary blends by use of the term ‘Proprietary Blend’ or an appropriately descriptive term or fanciful name.” Its total weight goes on the same line: “On the same line, you must list the total weight of all ‘other dietary ingredients’ contained in the blend.” And then the requirement that does the real work for a reader: “Indented underneath the name of the blend, you must list the ‘other dietary ingredients’ in the blend, either in a column or linear fashion, in descending order of predominance by weight.”
The one thing it does not have to print
The split. Individual weights are not required, so a blend can be almost entirely its cheapest member with a trace of everything else, or an even division, and those two products carry an identical panel. A blend is not a rule being broken; it is a rule permitting one number where several belong.
Why the ordering rule is worth more than it looks
Descending order of predominance by weight is a sentence about sequence, and sequence is arithmetic. Every row weighs at least as much as the row beneath it. On its own that is a ranking. Add one printed number anywhere in the list and the ranking becomes bounds on every other row.
6 steps, and only subtraction
Six steps, and the hardest arithmetic is subtraction
Here is the procedure. It works on any blend and the hardest arithmetic in it is subtraction. Run the steps in order, because step six needs the answer from step five.
Find the blend total
It sits on the same line as the blend’s name. Write it down in milligrams: that figure is the whole budget every member has to come out of.
Count the members
They are indented underneath. Count all of them. A large total split many ways is smaller per member than a small total split two ways.
Look for a member with its own printed amount
Most blends give you none, and then the ranking is all you get. Some itemise one anyway, usually a purified compound with its own labelling habit: caffeine, a vitamin, a mineral.
Cap everything listed below it
Every member printed after that figure weighs that much or less. Not approximately: at most, by the ordering rule the panel was printed under.
Floor everything listed above it
Every member printed before it weighs at least that much. Multiply the figure by the number of rows above it for the minimum they account for.
Subtract to bound the first member
Total, minus the printed figure, minus that minimum, and what is left is the most the first-listed member can be. The heaviest ingredient now has a ceiling.
82 mg across nine members
The worked example: 82 mg, nine members, one printed figure
Now run the six steps on this jar.
Steps one and two: 82 mg, nine members
The panel declares a single line — Proprietary Blend, 82 mg — and indents nine ingredients underneath: muira puama, maca, catuaba and green tea extracts, caffeine (5mg), ashwagandha, L-arginine, tribulus terrestris and horny goat weed extract. One number for nine, in descending order of weight.
Step three: one member carries a figure
Caffeine, fifth of the nine, printed as 5 mg. Itemising it inside the blend rather than burying it in the total is the most informative thing on this package, and to the label’s credit.
Steps four to six: the bounds
Rows six to nine — ashwagandha, L-arginine, tribulus terrestris and horny goat weed extract — sit below a 5 mg row, so each is 5 mg or less. Rows one to four sit above it, so each is at least 5 mg. And row one, muira puama extract, can be no more than 62 mg: 82 in total, minus 5 for the caffeine, minus at least 5 each for rows two, three and four. Derivations, not estimates.
| What | Figure | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Blend total, printed | 82 mg | Same line as the blend name. |
| Members, printed | 9 | Indented, in descending order of weight. |
| Row 5, caffeine, printed | 5 mg | The only itemised figure. |
| Rows 6–9, derived | 5 mg or less each | Listed below a 5 mg row. |
| Rows 2–4, derived | at least 5 mg each | All three sit above row 5. |
| Row 1, derived | no more than 62 mg | 82 − 5 − 5 − 5 − 5 = 62. |
| Dry-powder footnote | 567 mg | Whole blend, about 6.9 to 1. |
Three rows are printed; four are derived. The home page does the same arithmetic live: the 82 mg splitter.
567 mg, the footnote that rescues no row
Three things that look like answers and are not
Three things look like answers to the quantity question and are not.
The dry-powder equivalence
A footnote reading “equivalent to approximately 567mg of dry powders” describes the whole blend and rescues no single row. As an extract ratio it is about 6.9 to 1 across nine ingredients at once, no per-ingredient ratio is printed anywhere, and even the entire 567 mg divided nine ways is about 63 mg each. ODS: “U.S. law does not require dietary supplements to be standardized. In fact, there is no legal or regulatory definition of the term in the United States.”
An extract ratio with nothing attached to it
A bare 10:1 tells you nothing about what any single row weighs unless the panel prints a ratio against that row. ODS on the word itself: “The presence of terms such as standardized, for example, does not necessarily indicate that the product is of high quality.”
A big total split many ways
An even nine-way division of 82 mg would be about 9 mg a member, and nothing says the division is even. A two-member 50 mg blend would be 25 mg each. The bigger total is the smaller amount per ingredient, which is why step two is counting.
2 to 20 grams a day, the ODS range
What to compare a derived bound against, and the question to ask
A derived bound is only worth having if you have something to set it against.
A federal page’s own figure, where one exists
NIH ODS discusses L-arginine with the amounts attached: “The research to support supplemental arginine as a performance enhancer is limited and conflicting. Overall, it suggests that doses of 2–20 g/day arginine have little to no effect on performance in either anaerobic or aerobic exercise.” That is 2 to 20 grams a day, against a row here capped at 5 milligrams. FDA on caffeine: “For most adults, the FDA has cited 400 milligrams a day — that’s about two to three 12-fluid-ounce cups of coffee — as an amount not generally associated with negative effects.” The scale rail on the home page sets those comparisons side by side.
And where no federal page exists, write that instead
Five of the nine members on this panel have no consumer page on NCCIH, NIH ODS or MedlinePlus at all. Absence of a page is absence of a page: not evidence against an ingredient and not evidence for one. It means there is no published amount to compare your bound against.
The one question to ask a desk
One line, the same on every product in this category: “How many milligrams of each ingredient are in the blend?” Anybody holding the specification sheet can answer it, and nobody can answer it from the package. The number beside the distributor’s name is 888-338-0317.
4 steps, and the order matters
A reader’s rule for this whole category, in four steps
One last habit, and it belongs to the category rather than to any jar. FDA publishes notifications about supplements sold for sexual enhancement that were found to contain undeclared prescription drug ingredients. There is a right order in which to hold that fact, and it is worth keeping as a reader’s rule in four steps.
One: keep the subject plural
FDA’s own sentences describe a class of products: “These products are typically promoted for sexual enhancement, weight loss, pain relief and body building and are often represented as being all natural.” Leaving them in the plural is the difference between a fact and an insinuation.
Two: treat an absence as a dated search result
A search of FDA’s Sexual Enhancement and Energy Product Notifications on September 25, 2026 did not return Maxforce. That is a statement about what a database contained on a date.
Three: quote the caveat in the same breath
“FDA is unable to test and identify all products marketed as dietary supplements that have potentially harmful hidden ingredients.” A list is not a test, no test result for this product exists in the public record, and nothing in this aisle is assessed before sale: “Under DSHEA, FDA does not have the authority to approve dietary supplements before they are marketed.”
Four: close on the action
“Talk to a health care professional before buying or trying a new product for your health.” That is the step that asks something of you.
Questions
Maxforce FAQ: reading a blend questions
Is there a proprietary blend?
Yes, and it is declared as one. FDA’s labeling guide allows it: a blend must print “the total weight of all ‘other dietary ingredients’ contained in the blend” and list the members “in descending order of predominance by weight”. Individual weights are not required.
How much of each ingredient is there?
Only one is itemised: caffeine, at 5 mg. The other eight share the remaining 77 mg in proportions the panel does not print. That is legal — FDA requires a blend to print its total weight and the members in descending order of weight, not the individual amounts.
So you cannot tell me anything about the amounts?
More than you would expect, actually. Because the members must be listed in descending order of weight, and because caffeine is listed fifth with 5 mg printed beside it, everything listed after it can be no more than 5 mg. That caps ashwagandha, L-arginine, tribulus terrestris and horny goat weed at 5 mg each.
And the first ingredient?
Muira puama extract is row one, so it is the heaviest. It sits between about 14 mg and 62 mg. The ceiling is 82 total, minus 5 for the caffeine, minus at least 5 each for the three rows between them. The floor is the same rule read from the other end: every row is capped by this one or by the 5 mg caffeine line, so nine rows cannot add up to 82 mg unless this one is at least about 14 mg.
What does “equivalent to approximately 567mg of dry powders” mean?
It is an extract-ratio claim: 82 mg of extract presented as equivalent to about 567 mg of the raw dried plant, roughly 6.9 to 1 across the whole blend. No per-ingredient ratio is printed, so it cannot be applied to any single row, and even 567 mg split nine ways is about 63 mg each.
References
Sources for this page
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Dietary Supplement Labeling Guide: Chapter IV, Nutrition Labeling. www.fda.gov. Accessed September 25, 2026.
- NIH Office of Dietary Supplements. Botanical Dietary Supplements: Background Information. ods.od.nih.gov. Accessed September 25, 2026.
- NIH Office of Dietary Supplements. Dietary Supplements for Exercise and Athletic Performance. ods.od.nih.gov. Accessed September 25, 2026.
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Spilling the Beans: How Much Caffeine is Too Much?. www.fda.gov. Accessed September 25, 2026.
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Sexual Enhancement and Energy Product Notifications. www.fda.gov. Accessed September 25, 2026.
Next
Keep reading
The 82 mg blend, worked in full
The same derivation with every row, and the splitter that shows the bounds.
Read it →The panel, line by line
Everything printed on the label, transcribed, including all three footnotes.
Read it →What the federal pages say
NCCIH on this category, and the two of nine ingredients with a page.
Read it →Read the Maxforce panel before you order
30 gummies a jar, one a day, thirty days a jar. A proprietary blend of 82 mg holding nine ingredients, with caffeine printed at 5 mg in row five — which is what makes rows six to nine derivable at 5 mg or less. Sales line +1 (302) 200-3480, and 60 days from purchase to change your mind.
Price shown at checkout · 60-day window from the date of purchase · ships from inside the US · sales line +1 (302) 200-3480