Vitamins. It’s sometimes a challenge getting them all into your diet. A busy lifestyle can disrupt even the most committed meal prepper. That's where supplements come in. Convenient little doses of goodness topping up your diet when you need them.
But I’m not here to talk about the power of supplementing. I’ll leave that to expert nutritionist Katie Brown. I’m here to give you an inside look at how we make our vitamins.
For this episode of In The Lab, Myprotein Product Developer Paul Smith-Johnson returned to the floor of our UK factory for another behind-the-scenes tour, this time looking at the vits production line. Here’s what he found…
What are vitamins?
Paul explains best...
“Vitamins are organic compounds that are necessary in small amounts in the human diet to sustain life and health. The absence of certain vitamins can cause disease, poor growth and a variety of health problems. 13 vitamins have been identified as necessary for human health.”
How vitamins are made
“Recipe” sheet
Much like how whey protein is made, the process of making vitamins starts with a works order, which is a sheet informing the line operator exactly what ingredients they need. Paul compares it to a recipe sheet.
Weigh room
Once the ingredients are picked from the warehouse, they’re brought to the weigh room. Here —you guessed it — each ingredient is weighed out to ensure the works order can be completed.
Every country has its own regulations on the quantity of vitamins and minerals permitted in supplements, so we must ensure our products are in line with compliance in as many countries as possible.
Blending
Once all the raw ingredients have been weighed and checked, they’re brought to the blending station, also known as the rip ‘n’ tip. Here, the line operator tips the raw materials into the IBC and pushes it through a fine sieve ready for mixing.
Each blend is capped at 100kg to ensure the operators can measure exactly how much they need.
Pill Press
After the raw ingredients have been mixed thoroughly in the IBC, they go to the pill press to be pressed into compact tablets, providing just the right dosage of vits and minerals.
The pill press also scans every pill that passes through to ensure there is no contamination in the batch.
Once all the pills have passed through, they’re ready to move to the packaging line.
Packaging time
Bottles, caps and labels are loaded onto the line, ready to be filled.
The pills are manually tipped into the pill hop and loaded onto the vibrating plate, allowing for easy transfer of the pills into bottles.
Once the bottles are filled, they pass through the capping machine, which automatically seals each one.
Next, they head to another speedy machine, where the batch number, date of production and the best before date are all printed on the cap.
The final stop on the line is the label machine. A label is swiftly applied to each pot, and each one is x-rayed one final time to check for contamination.
And just like that, we’ve made a match of vitamin supplements ready to head out to your door.
Take home message
Hopefully Paul has given you a little more insight into exactly how your vitamin supplements are made, so next time you get an order, you know where they came from!
For more info on why supplementing vitamins can be so beneficial and how to know which ones to consider taking, check out our nutritionist explains series on YouTube.
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Our articles should be used for informational and educational purposes only and are not intended to be taken as medical advice. If you're concerned, consult a health professional before taking dietary supplements or introducing any major changes to your diet.
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