Pick up two multivitamins. One says 26 nutrients. The other says 50 nutrients. Which is better?
Most people assume the second. It is the wrong instinct, and this article is about why.
What fairy dusting is
“Fairy dusting” is the industry's own term for including an ingredient at a level too low to do anything, purely so it can appear on the label.
It works because of how people shop. Nobody compares forty %NRV figures across two bottles in a shop aisle. They compare the numbers on the front — and “50 nutrients” beats “17 nutrients” every time, regardless of what is behind it.
Adding a nutrient at 2% NRV costs almost nothing. Adding it at 100% costs real money. So the incentive runs one way, and the front of the pack is where it shows.
The threshold that gives the game away
British law provides the test, and it is on every label already.
Under retained Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006, a nutrient must be present at at least 15% of its Nutrient Reference Value before a product may make any authorised claim about it. Below 15%, the regulator's position is that the amount is not significant.
That gives you a line to measure against. Anything under 15% NRV is a nutrient the seller is not legally permitted to say anything about — so ask why it is there.
If you want the fuller explanation of what NRV means and where the figures come from, we have a guide to that.
How to check a label in under a minute
- Find the supplement facts panel and the %NRV column.
- Run your eye down it and count how many entries are 15% or above.
- That number — not the one on the front — is how many nutrients the product is actually delivering.
- Now compare that against the price.
Do this with a 50-nutrient product and a 17-nutrient product and the ranking often reverses.
Why not just put everything in at 100%?
A fair question, and there are three real answers.
Space. A capsule holds a finite amount. Minerals in particular are bulky — magnesium and calcium at full NRV would fill a capsule on their own, which is why you rarely see either at 100% in a multivitamin.
Cost. Nutrients vary enormously in price. Some at 100% would put a product beyond what anyone would pay.
Sense. More is not always better. Iodine, selenium, iron, vitamin A and zinc all have upper limits worth respecting, particularly if you take other supplements alongside. A multivitamin at 100% of everything is not automatically a better multivitamin.
The honest position is that a multivitamin involves choices — which nutrients, at what levels, in what space. A seller who has thought about it will say so. A seller who has not will print a long list.
What we chose, and why
The One has seventeen vitamins and minerals. It is not the longest list you will find, and that is deliberate.
Every one of the seventeen is at 25% NRV or above. Nine are at a full 100% — vitamins B1, B2, B6, B12, niacin, pantothenic acid, vitamin E, folic acid and manganese. Vitamin D, K2, biotin, C, iron, zinc and selenium are at 50%. Iodine is at 25%, deliberately low because iodine appears in more supplements than people realise.
There is nothing in that capsule below the threshold at which we would be allowed to tell you it was doing something. That is the whole design brief, and it is checkable — the full table is on the product page.
The counter-argument, stated fairly
A long ingredients list is not automatically dishonest. Some formulas include small amounts of botanicals or trace nutrients for reasons that have nothing to do with claims, and say so openly.
The tell is not the length of the list. It is whether the front of the pack advertises the count while the back shows most of those nutrients sitting at single-figure percentages. That combination is a marketing decision, not a formulation one.
If you are comparing products, our honest buyer's guide to UK multivitamins works through the formats, and is equally direct about the two things a multivitamin will not do for you.
Always read the label. Food supplements are not a substitute for a varied and balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle.
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