Now that vitamins and other supplements are everywhere, both in stores and online, many people ask how vitamins are made? Millions of people take supplements for all kinds of reasons, such as energy, losing weight, prevention, or managing symptoms of ailments. Anyone thinking of selling their own supplements may wonder, how are vitamins made? 

What Are Vitamins and Supplements?

There is sometimes confusion between vitamins and supplements and how these terms are used. “Vitamins” and “supplements” are often used interchangeably, but they aren’t exactly the same. Vitamins are a specific type of supplement, substances that have been identified as essential for human health. There are 13 vitamins that are necessary for the body to function properly, including Vitamin A, the spectrum of B vitamins, and Vitamins C, D, E, and K. Before answering how are vitamin supplements made, we need to remember that these essential vitamins are found in foods, especially vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. However, people don’t always consume ideal diets. For example, those who eat many fast foods and takeout meals may not get sufficient vitamins in their regular diet.

When asking how are vitamin supplements made, the most basic answer is that the manufacturer starts with either a natural or synthetic vitamin. Other ingredients are then often added as well. Supplements are a wider category, which includes vitamins, but also minerals, herbs, homeopathic remedies, food-based items (e.g. healthy greens such as spirulina and chlorella), fish oil supplements, and many others. However, people often speak of all types of supplements as vitamins. Now let’s explore the question: how are vitamin supplements made?

How Are Vitamin Supplements Made? It Depends on Certain Factors

Whether we are talking about only actual vitamins or all types of supplements, let’s address how are vitamins made. There are several factors to consider, such as the raw ingredients used. Vitamin supplements can be made from a wide variety of raw ingredients, which may include plants, animals, and synthetics. There’s also the delivery method to consider, such as tablets, capsules, softgels, and liquid supplements. Now let’s see how vitamin supplements are made, step by step. 

How Are Vitamins Made? A List of Steps

Regardless of the ingredients used and the delivery method, there are certain processes that are common to all vitamin and supplement manufacturing. Let’s look at the fundamentals of vitamin manufacturing. 

• Create the formula. The dosage ingredients need to be set. Aside from active ingredients, you may need to add other ingredients to preserve freshness, maintain structure, or improve flavor. These include fillers, binders, preservatives, sweeteners, etc.
• Gather and test ingredients. All ingredients must be checked to ensure they meet quality and safety standards. Manufacturers either have in-house testing or they send ingredients to a lab for testing for purity and potency. 
• Getting ingredients ready. Depending on the ingredients and the type of vitamin (e.g. tablet or capsule), they may need certain treatments before they can be manufactured. Raw ingredients may need to be ground in a mill. Wet granulation may be performed before tablets can be produced. 
• Ingredients are weighed and mixed. To ensure proper dosage, supplement ingredients must be weighed. They are then mixed to prepare them for their final structure, such as tablet or softgel.
• Encapsulation. An encapsulation machine is used to create uniform capsules. They are then encapsulated in gelatin capsules or compressed into tablets, depending on the specifications of the supplement brand. 
• Polishing. The polishing machine removes any debris or powder from the vitamins with brushes. 
• Inspection. Inspectors check all vitamins and discard any that are damaged or that have irregular shapes or sizes. 
• Packaging. Machines are used to package the vitamins into their final forms such as tablets or capsules. The vitamins are placed in bottles that are sealed and capped. They are then labeled and shrink-wrapped. The vitamins are finally placed in boxes and prepared for shipping.

When addressing the question of how vitamins are made, you have to keep in mind that the specific process and the equipment involved vary quite a bit depending on the type of supplements being made. Larger facilities will also tend to use more sophisticated machinery. Smaller outfits may still do some of the tasks by hand. 

Find the Right Supplement Manufacturer

When someone wants to sell vitamins and other supplements, they often ask “how are vitamins made?” Unless someone has expertise, funding, and equipment to run their own facility, the next step is usually to find a company that can manufacture supplements for them. NutraPak USA offers a range of services for manufacturing vitamins and associated services. 

• Private Label Vitamins and Supplements — Put your own brand name and logo on supplements.
• Manufacturing, filling, & packaging. 
• Order fulfillment and warehousing. Our end-to-end logistics include order processing, inventory management, packaging, and shipping.
• Quality control. As noted in the How Are Vitamins Made section, testing and quality control play a major role in the manufacturing process. NutraPak conducts comprehensive testing at every stage to ensure safety, purity, and label claim accuracy. 
• Marketing solutions. Nutrapak provides customized, turnkey branding and marketing services. 

Nutrapk clients who may wonder how vitamin supplements are made can rest assured that Nutrapak handles the entire process. For more questions about how vitamins are made, or to learn more about any of our services, contact NutraPak.