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PlainVitamins

Editorial & Corrections Policy

PlainVitamins turns the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements' Dietary Supplement Label Database into readable supplement, brand, and ingredient pages. This page explains how those pages are produced, the standards we hold them to, and exactly how to flag a figure that looks wrong.

How Pages Are Produced

PlainVitamins' supplement, brand, ingredient, and ranking pages are generated from a single published federal dataset: the NIH Dietary Supplement Label Database (DSLD), maintained by the Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) at the National Institutes of Health. We download the DSLD product catalog directly from NIH's public API, load it into a structured database, and render every page from that database. The figures you see — ingredient lists, amounts and units per serving, product counts per brand, ingredient prevalence across the catalog — are rendered directly from the DSLD label records, not hand-typed and not estimated by us.

This is a data-publishing model: the same template renders more than a hundred thousand product pages so that every label in the DSLD is covered consistently. No page is hand-written and no figure is typed in by an editor. The editorial work goes into the pipeline — how the data is sourced, normalized, indexed, and computed — into the methodology, and into the written guides; not into hand-authoring thousands of near-identical product pages, which would add no accuracy and invite inconsistency.

Sourcing Standards

  • One primary source for the data. Every product, brand, ingredient, and ranking figure comes from the NIH DSLD, as documented in our methodology. We do not blend in scraped retail data, manufacturer marketing claims, or third-party "best supplement" lists.
  • Attribution in context. Each data page names the DSLD as its source and links to the methodology that explains how the database is built and what its label data does and does not represent.
  • Derived values are labeled. Numbers we compute ourselves — brand product counts, ingredient prevalence, percentile context, and comparisons between products — are presented as our analysis of DSLD data, distinct from anything stated on a label.
  • Reference context is clearly separated. Nutrient dosing context (RDA, Adequate Intake, and Tolerable Upper Intake Level) is compiled from publicly available NIH ODS Health Professional Fact Sheets and shown as general reference values, clearly distinct from any individual product's label.
  • No invented data. Where a value is missing from the DSLD for a product, the page says so rather than filling the gap with an estimate.

Update Cadence

The DSLD is updated by NIH on a rolling basis as new products are added and existing entries are revised. We refresh our copy of the database periodically to capture new product additions and status changes, then recompute the derived brand- and ingredient-level statistics. Because the DSLD records label data at the time a product is entered, the formulation shown for a product reflects its label as catalogued by NIH, which may lag a manufacturer's most current product. The data reference period is stated on our about and methodology pages.

Corrections Process

If a figure on PlainVitamins looks wrong, please tell us. Because our pages are generated from the DSLD, a genuine error almost always traces back to either the source record or our processing of it — so this is how we handle a report:

  1. Report. Email corrections@plainvitamins.com or use the contact page with the page URL and the figure that looks off.
  2. Verify. We compare the figure against the underlying DSLD record for that product, brand, or ingredient.
  3. Fix at the source. If the value is wrong on our side, we correct it in the database and pipeline that generate the page — not just on the single page — so every affected page is fixed at once. If the figure faithfully reflects the DSLD label record, we explain that and, where useful, add context (for example, that a label may differ from independent lab testing).
  4. Note it. Material corrections are reflected the next time the affected pages rebuild.

We aim to acknowledge data-error reports within a few business days.

Editorial Independence

PlainVitamins is an independent publisher and is not affiliated with the NIH, the Office of Dietary Supplements, the FDA, or any supplement manufacturer, brand, or retailer. We do not accept payment, sponsorship, or promoted placement from any entity we cover. Our only revenue is contextual display advertising served by Google AdSense; advertisers do not influence which products we catalog, which brands we list, or how we present label data. Our rankings are computed mechanically from DSLD figures, so no brand can pay to move up a list.

Appropriate Use

PlainVitamins presents factual label data and is for informational purposes only. It is not medical advice and does not recommend, endorse, or evaluate the safety or efficacy of any supplement. Dietary supplements are not reviewed by the FDA for efficacy before marketing, and label data can differ from a product's actual contents. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before starting any supplement. See our full health & appropriate-use disclaimer.