How to Start a Supplement Brand in Europe: A Step-by-Step Guide

If you are working out how to start a supplement brand in Europe, here is the honest version: most brands that fail here don’t fail because the product was bad. They fail because the founder found out about a rule after the labels were already printed.

This is the order we’d do it in, based on what actually goes wrong when brands come to us mid-project. It’s written for someone launching in the EU, whether you’re in Madrid, Copenhagen or outside Europe selling in.

Step 1: Pick a format you can actually get made

Decide this before you fall in love with a formula, because format decides your cost, your timeline and how many manufacturers will take your call.

• Hard capsules — the workhorse. Cheapest to run, no flavour problems, easy to dose accurately, and every actives-based formula fits. Sizes 00, 0 and 1 cover almost everything. HPMC if you need vegan, gelatin if you don’t.
• Powders — right when your daily dose is too big for capsules. Anything over roughly 1,000 mg of actives per serving is heading for four capsules a day, and customers stop taking it. Powders go into jars, sachets or doypacks.
• Tablets — cheap per unit at volume, but they need binders, coatings and much bigger runs. Not a startup format.
• Gummies, liquids, sprays — specialist lines with their own equipment and their own stability headaches. Different factories entirely.

If you’re launching your first product, capsules or powder in a jar will get you to market fastest and cheapest. We make both — see our supplement production page for capsule sizes and packaging formats.

Step 2: Check your formula is legal before you cost it

Food supplements in the EU sit under Directive 2002/46/EC. Two things in it decide whether your formula is allowed:

• Annex I lists the vitamins and minerals you may use.
• Annex II lists the specific chemical forms of them you may use.

That second one catches people out. “Magnesium” being permitted doesn’t mean every magnesium salt is permitted — the source has to be on the Annex II list. Anything outside it has been prohibited since 1 August 2005.

Then the part nobody expects: the EU has never set maximum levels for vitamins and minerals in supplements. The Commission consulted on it and shelved it because member states couldn’t agree. So maximum doses are still national. A vitamin D level that’s routine in one member state can be over the limit in another. If you’re selling across several countries, check each one before you finalise doses — not after.

Two more to know about:

• Health and nutrition claims are governed by Regulation 1924/2006. Only authorised claims may appear on your label or website. You cannot invent a benefit statement, and “supports immunity” is only usable where an approved claim exists for that nutrient at that dose.
• Novel foods. If an ingredient wasn’t consumed to a significant degree in the EU before 15 May 1997, it needs novel food authorisation before it can be sold. This is where a lot of trendy botanicals and new compounds die. Check it early.

Step 3: Choose a manufacturer — and ask better questions

Most first-time founders ask two things: what’s your price, and what’s your minimum. Those matter, but they don’t tell you whether the project will actually work. Ask these as well:

• Are you GMP certified, and by whom? “GMP standards” and “GMP certified” are not the same sentence. Ask for the certificate and the certifying body.
• What’s your real MOQ for my formula, not your headline MOQ? Minimums move with ingredients. A formula using one expensive extract can carry a higher minimum than a simple magnesium capsule.
• Who is responsible for the specification? If nobody in the chain owns the spec, you own it by default — including when it’s wrong.
• What documentation comes with the batch? You want a certificate of analysis, batch number, manufacturing and expiry dates. Without those, you cannot answer a regulator, a retailer or a customer complaint.
• What happens if a batch fails? Ask before you need to know.
• Do you do the labelling, or do I? Plenty of manufacturers fill and pack but don’t design. Know which, and know who is legally responsible for what’s printed.

For reference, so you’ve got a real number to compare against: our minimum starts at 500 units on many formulas, production runs 6–9 weeks from confirmed formula and packaging, and we’re GMP and ISO 9001:2015 certified, audited by OCA Global, manufacturing in Málaga inside the EU.

Step 4: Get the label right

Labelling runs on Regulation 1169/2011 plus the supplement-specific rules in the Directive. What has to be on there:

• The name “food supplement”
• The nutrients or substances characterising the product, and how much of each
• The recommended daily portion
• A warning not to exceed the stated daily dose
• A statement that supplements are not a substitute for a varied diet
• A statement to keep out of reach of young children
• Net quantity, batch number, best-before date, storage conditions
• Name and address of the food business operator responsible for the product
• Allergens declared in the ingredients list
• Amounts of vitamins and minerals expressed as a percentage of the reference intake

That last address matters more than it looks. Whoever is named there is the legally responsible operator. If it’s your brand name and address, that’s you — not your manufacturer. Understand that before you print.

Also: the label has to be in the language of the country you’re selling into. A single English label doesn’t cover you across the EU.

Step 5: Notify the country you’re selling in

Under Article 10 of the Directive, member states may require you to notify their authority when you place a supplement on their market. Most do. There is no single EU notification — you notify each country separately, and the process differs in each.

In Spain, notification goes through AESAN, the national food safety agency, and the responsible operator also needs to be entered in the RGSEAA, the national register of food companies. Other countries run their own versions with their own forms, fees and timelines. Some are a form and an upload. Some take months.

Plan this in parallel with production, not after it. Waiting until the stock lands is how brands end up with a pallet they legally can’t sell yet.

Step 6: Budget properly

The manufacturing quote is not the launch cost. What people forget:

• Label design and any regulatory review of the artwork
• Packaging components — jars, caps, induction seals, desiccants, label rolls, outer cartons
• Notification fees, per country
• Stability or analytical testing if you need it
• Freight, and duties if anything comes from outside the EU
• A first run that’s larger than you’d like, because MOQs are MOQs

Realistic timeline from “I have an idea” to stock in hand is four to six months for a first product. Production itself is 6 to 9 weeks. Formula finalisation, packaging lead times and notification take the rest.

Mistakes we see most often

1. Printing labels before the formula is locked. One dose change and the whole print run is waste.
2. Designing a dose that doesn’t fit the capsule. Actives have volume. 800 mg of a fluffy botanical extract will not go into a size 0 capsule just because the maths says 800 mg.
3. Copying a competitor’s claims. Their claims may not be authorised either, and you inherit the risk.
4. Choosing on price alone. The cheapest quote usually means cheaper raw materials, and you find out in the analysis.
5. Leaving notification until the end. Covered above, and it’s the single most common one.
6. No second supplier for a key ingredient. One shortage and your restock slips by months.

Frequently asked questions

What is the minimum order for private label supplements in Europe?

It varies by manufacturer and by formula. Ours starts at 500 units on many products. Be careful with anyone advertising extremely low minimums without naming a formula — the number usually changes once they see what you actually want made.

How long does supplement production take?

Our production is 6 to 9 weeks once the formula and packaging are confirmed. Anyone quoting you three weeks for a first run is quoting you a best case that assumes nothing goes wrong. Ingredient lead times, packaging deliveries and a first-batch check all sit inside that window.

Do I need my own licence to sell supplements in the EU?

You don’t need a licence, but the food business operator named on the label must be registered with the national authority, and the product must be notified in each country where it’s sold. If you’re the brand, that’s normally you.

Can I use my own formula, or do I have to pick from a catalogue?

Both exist as models. White label means taking a manufacturer’s existing formula and putting your brand on it. Private label means your own formula, made to your spec. We work mainly private label — you bring the formula — and we hold a limited number of stock formulas such as magnesium and vitamin D3 with K2.

Do you develop the formula for me?

No. You bring a finished formula with the ingredients and doses already decided. We will tell you whether it can be manufactured as written, and we will flag it if a dose won’t physically fit the capsule or an ingredient is going to cause problems in the blend — but we don’t design formulas from a brief. If you need that, work with a formulator or a nutrition consultant first, then come to us to make it.

Does the manufacturer handle EU compliance for me?

Partly. We manufacture to spec and supply batch documentation and analysis. Responsibility for the product on the market sits with the operator named on the label. Any manufacturer telling you they take that off your hands entirely is telling you something that isn’t true.

Can I sell the same product across the EU with one label?

No. Language requirements are national, and maximum permitted levels for vitamins and minerals are still set nationally because the EU never harmonised them. Check each market.

What we do, and what we don’t

Worth being straight about, because it saves everyone a month.

We manufacture. You bring a finished formula and we make it — ingredient sourcing, blending, encapsulating or powder filling, packing into jars, sachets or doypacks, label application, batch documentation and analysis.

We don’t write formulas from scratch. If you have an idea but no formula, you need a formulator or a nutrition consultant first. We will tell you whether a formula is manufacturable — whether it fits the capsule, whether the ingredients behave together, whether the dose is realistic — but the formula has to exist before we can quote it.

We don’t do graphic design. You supply print-ready label artwork and we apply it.

We don’t file your paperwork. Notification and registration are done by the operator named on the label. We give you the batch documentation and analysis you need in order to do it. We don’t do it in your name.

Anyone offering all of it under one roof is usually subcontracting the parts they don’t do, and you pay for the middle layer.

Where to start

If you have a formula, send it with your target quantity and we’ll tell you whether it’s manufacturable, what it costs and how long it takes. If you’re weighing up two formats or two doses, ask — that part we can help with. Send us the details and you’ll get a real answer, not a brochure.

We make capsules and powders in Málaga, Spain, under GMP and ISO 9001:2015 certification. Minimums from 500 units, production 6 to 9 weeks. We speak English, Spanish and Danish.