Diet supplements from Korea: what to ask a maker before the first order

Korean health functional food decks are packed tight: a single page holds the formula, the percentages, the grams and the hashtags promising a result. They read easily, but you cannot buy from them, because almost every phrase allows more than one reading. We work through this using materials from SPRX — a Korean brand that has been in the weight management category since 2011 and shared its 2026 catalogue with us.

“Patented ingredient” speaks about a patent, not about an effect

In the composition of Watermix Zero and Three Out the company marks Garcinia cambogia and resistant maltodextrin as patented, and in the capsules the probiotics are listed as patented as well. This is common Korean practice: the patent usually belongs to the ingredient supplier and protects a production method or a specific strain rather than proving a result for the buyer.

So the first question to the factory is the patent number and its holder. The second is whether your country falls within its coverage. The third, and the most practical, is whether you are allowed to print the word “patented” on your market and on your packaging. The answers to these three questions often disagree with one another, and it is better to learn that before the labels go to print.

The numbers in a deck have to be read properly

SPRX quotes specific figures for its items. For the Poman shake it is swelling of the formula by 2,110% and a feeling of fullness for up to 240 minutes; for Alpha CD Calozero it is binding of up to 20.7 g of fat per serving, which the company converts into roughly 186 kcal. Figures like these are almost always obtained in a laboratory model rather than in people eating normally.

What deserves the question is not the numbers themselves but the conditions behind them: on which model, at what dosage, who ran the test and whether there is a protocol you can show your regulator. Without a protocol the number stays a marketing claim, and in most countries it does not transfer to the packaging.

Reconcile the pack size across every source

The description in the deck, the wording on the pack and the price list do not always agree with one another — on volume, pack size or net weight. Before ordering it is worth reconciling these sources, and where the figures diverge, checking them with the manufacturer rather than choosing a version yourself.

For purchasing this matters: net weight and the number of units in a pack drive the shipping cost, the customs declaration and the price-per-gram calculation. So the pack size is confirmed with the company before the order, not after the batch arrives.

What to ask before placing the order

The shelf life of each item and the remaining life at the moment of shipment. A full list of certificates with numbers and dates. The minimum batch for each SKU separately, rather than for the order as a whole. Delivery terms and the price basis. The option to print text in the language of your market, and who pays for reworking the artwork.

And separately — which effect claims are permitted on your market for this category. A Korean label almost always says more than a European or Latin American regulator allows, and the text is better corrected before production than after the container arrives.