OUR POLICY ON HONEST LABELS

At G&G we strongly believe that people have a right to know exactly what they’re putting in their body. When certain raw materials are made, they utilise other products to create them. For instance, an oil-based product is often spray dried onto something starchy to dry it out (more on this in a bit). Although we can simply state the name of the finished ingredient, we think you ought to know all the components that went into making that final ingredient regardless of how small an amount was used, and so we take the unusual approach of declaring all of it right on our label. In other words, we list everything, no matter whether we’re legally required to do so. We never add any excipients or flow agents ourselves, however there are raw materials we buy that already contain other ingredients such as maltodextrin, sucrose or silicon dioxide. Naturally we will always try and buy “pure” ingredients, but as we deal in powders this isn’t always possible.

Our vegan Vitamin D3 is a perfect example of this. We use a very special D3 that comes from lichen. This D3 is extracted as an oil, and so, to turn it into powder it is sprayed onto a starch matrix which includes things like silicon dioxide and Arabic gum. This helps stabilise the product and allows us to put it into a capsule, so ultimately every capsule contains a minute amount of these ‘base’ ingredients. We could simply state that our capsules contain ‘Vitashine Vitamin D3’, as this is the name of the finished ingredient. Instead we list every one of the ingredients that has gone into making the finished product, even where only tiny amounts were used, because we think that’s the right thing to do. As mentioned, we never add these ourselves, and where possible we buy raw materials without any such additives, but there are some where this is quite simply not possible.

Finally, we’re sometimes asked why maltodextrin is in a small number of our products. Again, we often don’t have to declare its presence, as it is only present in tiny amounts. Similar to the D3 example, it comes premixed into certain raw materials where the absence of it would cause the powder to crystallise (which makes it unusable). The good news is that the amounts used are very small and perfectly safe. We hope you appreciate our decision to be completely honest and transparent. If you’re unsure about an ingredient or would like to know more about why we have used a particular raw material, we encourage you to get in touch with us and our team will answer your questions as best we can.

GLOSSARY:
Starch
A white substance occurring widely in plant tissue and obtained chiefly from cereals and potatoes.

Flow Agent
An additive that is placed in powdered or granulated materials to prevent the formation of lumps (caking) and for easing packaging, transport, flowability, and consumption. Caking mechanisms depend on the nature of the material.

Lichen
A simple slow-growing plant that typically forms a low crusty, leaf-like, or branching growth on rocks, walls, and trees. It naturally contains vitamin D3.

Starch Matrix
A matrix is a mixture that holds something else or has something embedded in it (in this case an active substance). A starch matrix consists of a starch or combination of starches that are used to hold an active ingredient; often the matrix will protect the integrity of the active ingredient.

Silicon dioxide
Also known as silica, made of two of the earth’s natural compounds (silicon and oxygen). Its use in food supplements is as an anti-caking agent to avoid clumping in powders.

Arabic gum
A water-soluble, gummy substance that seeps from the acacia tree, used as an adhesive or an emulsifier (a substance that stabilises a mixture of two or more liquids/oils that wouldn’t normally mix well).

Maltodextrin
Maltodextrin is produced from vegetable starch, such as from corn or potatoes. It’s in a lot of food products and is usually used as a bulking agent, thickener or (as in our case) a stabiliser.