As scrutiny of supplement claims continues to grow, particularly in areas like litigation over protein claims, National Advertising Division challenges, and AI-generated wellness misinformation, transparency has become an increasingly important point of differentiation for manufacturers.
As a result, industry stakeholders are increasingly investing in clinical substantiation, third-party verification and other initiatives aimed at helping consumers distinguish evidence-backed products from marketing claims.
This year’s NutraIngredients USA Editors’ Award for Industry Initiative of the Year recognizes one effort focused on that challenge. The award was presented to Canomiks’ WhatToTrust, a platform that evaluates dietary supplements using product-specific scientific evidence and publicly explains how those evaluations are reached.
The Editors’ Award recognizes initiatives that deliver meaningful benefits beyond a single organization by improving quality, transparency or consumer confidence across the dietary supplement industry.
Looking beyond marketing claims
“The supplement industry has a trust problem,” Dr. Leena Pradhan-Nabzdyk, CEO and co-founder of Canomiks, told NutraIngredients.
She said the idea for WhatToTrust grew out of conversations with both consumers and healthcare professionals who wanted an easier way to identify supplements supported by evidence rather than marketing language.
“I kept hearing the same thing from consumers and even from physicians: ‘I don’t know what to buy because I don’t know what to trust.’ That’s literally where the name came from,” she explained.
The platform evaluates both ingredients and finished formulations, linking products to the scientific evidence supporting their scores. According to Pradhan-Nabzdyk, that approach was designed to address what she described as “borrowed science,” or marketing claims supported by research conducted on different ingredients, formulations, or sources than the finished product itself.
![“There’s a real gap between actual science and borrowed science, where a brand’s marketing claim rides on a study done on a totally different form, source, or product [and] nobody was closing that gap for consumers in a scalable, independent way," said Leena Pradhan-Nabzdyk, PhD, MBA Canomiks CEO & Co-Founder.](https://www.nutraingredients.com/resizer/v2/G5J7ZOPO3FBRTO44XXI7DXTWWE.jpg?auth=1fe1207add3b0b540abb05f5d9dd9e912109ff0ed491dbd06bfcec42c93097f4&width=713&smart=true)
Incentivizing stronger substantiation
Pradhan-Nabzdyk believes making evidence easier for consumers to understand could also influence how companies invest in research.
“When consumers can see the science behind a product, their buying behavior shifts toward it, [and] when buying behavior shifts, industry investment follows,” she said.
She argued that manufacturers and ingredient suppliers investing in efficacy studies have historically had few ways to communicate that work directly to consumers. Greater visibility for product-specific evidence, she added, creates an incentive for more companies to pursue scientific validation.
The platform does not charge listing fees and discloses any independent testing that contributes to a product’s score.
“That independence is the whole point,” she said. “It’s what lets us be a credible, trusted resource for the market, brands and consumers alike.”
An independent layer for the AI era
The award also comes as more consumers rely on generative AI, social media and online marketplaces to research supplements before making purchasing decisions. While those tools have made health information easier to access, questions remain about the quality of the information they surface.
Pradhan-Nabzdyk said WhatToTrust was designed to provide an independent, evidence-based reference point.
“AI tools and social media have made it so much easier for consumers to research supplements, but that information isn’t always grounded in verified science,” she said.
Rather than evaluating an ingredient in general, she explained the platform assesses the evidence supporting a specific finished product while distinguishing between preclinical and clinical research.
According to Canomiks, WhatToTrust has attracted more than 12,000 active users globally and has evaluated more than 600 dietary supplement products since its launch.
Raising the industry’s expectations
Pradhan-Nabzdyk said WhatToTrust was developed to complement existing certification and testing programs rather than replace them.
“Certification and testing bodies do essential work verifying quality and safety,” she said. “What we add is a layer focused specifically on evidence: does the science actually support what this specific product claims?”
Ultimately, she hopes the industry’s expectations evolve beyond compliance alone.
“Success, to me, looks like normalizing an expectation: that every supplement should be evaluated not just for regulatory compliance, but for real biological efficacy backed by independent, reproducible science,” she said.
“Once that expectation takes hold, it’s lasting,” she added.
