We’re obsessed with quality at Ritual, and this obsession shapes every step of a product’s journey. In an industry where marketing can sometimes obscure what’s really in a product—or what’s behind the claims being made about it—we believe in showing our work. That means not only holding our products to high standards, but also giving you visibility into our ingredient sourcing and industry-leading testing transparency, so you don’t have to take our word for it.

Here are just a few examples. Our first-of-its-kind Made Traceable^® supply chain allows you to trace ingredients back to their supplier and final place of manufacturing. Our testing programs help us verify the claims we make about our products, including claims around contaminants like heavy metals. Our Certificates of Traceability give you a closer look at each product, with detailed information about its ingredients, testing, third-party certifications, and more. And we’re not shy about jumping through additional hoops to prove our products hold up to our values, either. All of our products are Clean Label Project^™ Certified and have earned the organization’s Purity Award.

Still have questions about Ritual’s processes for ensuring quality? Here’s a deep dive into everything that goes into helping us—and ideally, you—feel confident in every Ritual product purchased.

Are Ritual Products FDA-Regulated?

Dietary supplements are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, aka the FDA, despite the persistent myth that the industry is unregulated. They are regulated as a special category of food with its own set of laws, and are part of the same system that oversees products like bottled water and infant formula.

The FDA requires dietary supplement manufacturers to follow current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP), which include requirements around manufacturing, testing, quality specifications, packaging, and labeling.¹

These FDA requirements form the baseline for our product safety and labeling practices, but we believe consumers deserve higher standards. That’s why we advocate for increased industry regulation and proactively pursue third-party testing, certifications, and verifications for our products.

Learn more about how we’re pushing for stronger supplement standards:

How Does Ritual Source Its Ingredients?

We source our ingredients from carefully vetted suppliers that share our commitment to quality and safety. We work closely with them to understand where each ingredient comes from, how it’s made, grown, or harvested, and how it’s processed. We also require suppliers to maintain facilities that comply with applicable FDA requirements.

Before an ingredient makes it into one of our formulas, it goes through a qualification process to make sure it’s the right fit for our formulas, meaning it can serve its intended purpose and support the claims we make about it. As part of that process, we review and validate the supplier’s Certificate of Analysis (COA), which details the ingredient’s test results. We also conduct additional testing on select attributes, including things like heavy metals.

And in keeping with our commitment to showing our work, we make key sourcing information available to consumers. 100% of our ingredients are Made Traceable^®, which means we publicly share details on their supplier and final place of manufacturing.

Where Are Ritual Supplements Made?

Ritual supplements are made by qualified U.S.-based manufacturers that are certified by NSF, an independent public health and safety organization, and follow current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMPs). cGMPs establish FDA-enforced requirements for the manufacturing, packaging, labeling, and holding of dietary supplements.¹ These requirements govern manufacturing processes and the facilities that make, package, hold, and distribute dietary supplements.

As ingredients are weighed, blended, encapsulated, inspected and packaged, we require our manufacturers to test and inspect to ensure all quality standards are met. We also test for organoleptic properties, such as flavor, color, texture, and smell to confirm our experience standards are met as well.

How Does Ritual Test Its Supplements?

Testing is an important part of how we uphold our quality standards because, like you, we’re skeptics. The FDA sets manufacturing standards, but doesn’t test or approve supplements before they reach store shelves. Instead, supplement companies are responsible for making sure their products meet applicable requirements.

We take this responsibility seriously. Our products are tested during manufacturing and by independent, third-party labs to confirm they meet our quality standards. This testing verifies that our ingredients are what we say they are and are present in the amounts listed on the label.¹

We also use a third-party lab to test every lot of finished product for heavy metals, such as lead, cadmium, mercury, and arsenic, along with microbes and allergens. And because we believe in transparency, we think it’s important to go a step further and make the results of those heavy-metal tests available to you. You can find additional key testing information on each product’s Certificate of Traceability.

Why Do Some Ritual Products Require Special Testing Considerations?

Some Ritual products require special considerations when it comes to testing because of how they’re formulated. Our patented 2-in-1 capsule technology, for example, separates dry and oily ingredients for stability and efficacy.* To test a format like this accurately, a lab needs to understand where different ingredients live within the formulation and how to apply its existing testing methods accordingly. That’s why we work closely with trusted partners such as Eurofins, an internationally accredited, third-party laboratory, to ensure they have the information needed to test our products appropriately.

In some cases, the nutrient forms we’ve chosen also call for a particular testing approach. For example, the folate we use—(6S)-5-Methyltetrahydrofolic Acid Glucosamine Salt—is a specific form that can’t be measured accurately with a standard folate test. So, the folate manufacturer developed a method suited to it, which has since been validated across independent testing centers and adopted by labs worldwide. We ensure this method is being used anywhere our products are being tested.

Is Ritual Third-Party Tested or Certified?

Ritual works with independent third-party organizations to test our products, and they’ve earned a range of outside certifications and verifications.

All of our products are Clean Label Project^™ Certified, which means they have been independently tested for more than 200 environmental contaminants and chemicals of concern, including heavy metals, pesticide residues, and plasticizers.² This is nothing to sneeze at; only 3% of supplement companies have even one product certified. Our entire product line has also earned the Clean Label Project’s Purity Award, which recognizes products that test among the cleanest in their category for contaminants. Our Essential Protein is also the only plant-based protein powder on the Clean Label Project’s Clean 16 list (humblebrag!).

Some of our products, such as Stress Relief, Sleep BioSeries Melatonin^™, Magnesium+ and Essential Protein, are also NSF Contents Certified.³ NSF certifies these products against NSF/ANSI 173, the American National Standard for dietary supplements. Certification involves label-claim review to confirm what’s on the label is in the product, contaminant testing for harmful levels of substances like pesticides, lead, and arsenic, and annual facility audits with periodic product retesting to verify ongoing compliance. Ten of our products have additionally achieved Non-GMO Project Verification.

For us, quality isn’t just something to promise—it’s something to prove. That’s why we go above and beyond to uphold our standards and make sure that not only do we know what’s in every product we sell, but that you do, too.

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