When it comes to product development for our multivitamins, our M.O. is simple: to create science-backed, obsessively-researched formulas designed to provide nutrient support. As for the “how” side of things? Like most worthwhile endeavors, the process is a bit more complex. Few things in life are cut and dried—scientific advancements and evolving bodies of knowledge included—but when it comes to making products, our scientific team is clear on what factors need to be in place to ensure a high-quality multivitamin.

Enter The Ritual Method. Developed by our scientific team (in collaboration with some of the world’s leading scientists, researchers, and advisors), this novel 4-step approach informs and underscores everything we create. By identifying nutritional needs across ages, lifestyles, diets, and genetics, our team is able to precision-formulate products for specific life stages. Think personalization, but with context—after all, what good is a product if the people making it don’t put in their due diligence on the backend?

At Ritual, we ask important questions at the outset, before the formulation process even begins: “Who is this for?”, “What should be included?”, “Are there ideal forms?”, “How does everything work together?” It’s the small pieces that make the big picture—and The Ritual Method ensures that we consider both, at every step of the way. The result? Traceable, trustworthy, science-backed multivitamin formulas designed and customized by experts to support nutrient needs by sex and life stage. Here’s how we get it done.*

How the Ritual Method Works: Our 4-Step Approach to Multivitamin Formulation

Step 1: Start With Evidence & Identify Common Gaps

Before we even begin making a product, our in-house science team reviews thousands of human research studies. This search for evidence helps us decide what exactly should go into our products and why.

All of this research also helps us determine the ideal forms of key nutrients we include. Nutrients come in many varieties, and some work more efficiently in the body than others. We look to research to tell us which forms we should use.

In order to build something from the ground up (like a reinvented multivitamin), it’s important to start with a strong, carefully-considered foundation—one informed by the latest scientific research. (Foundational health requires foundational knowledge, and our goal is to make supporting your body as easy as possible. By weeding through studies and data to bring you evidence-based products—and educational content—that you can trust, we aim to do the heavy lifting so you can rest assured that your products don’t just look good, but actually perform.)

When it comes to multivitamins, our ethos is no different: We lead with the science, sifting through thousands of published human research studies to help determine what should be included and why. More specifically, we’re looking for information that helps us pinpoint common dietary gaps of different life stages. Using vetted, credible, highly-respected tools—like the nutritional database NHANES—we’re able to cross-reference nutritional needs at different ages, sexes†, and life stages with nutritional intake from diet.*

To put it simply, these findings reveal specific nutrient gaps for different people—crucial information when it comes to formulating high-quality multivitamins supported by the latest research.

Step 2: Find Ideal Forms

When it comes time to source our ingredients, we scour the globe for the ideal nutrient forms. The nutrient forms your body can efficiently utilize are often the same forms found in healthy foods. However, these nutrient forms can be hard to find, which is why we have to search the world for them. Our nutrients are truly international: we use Magnesium from Utah, Vitamin E from Argentina, and Omega-3 DHA algal oil from Canada, just to name a few. We find our ideal forms and worry about cost later. Thanks to our direct-to-consumer model and operations wizards, we don't compromise quality or price.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: A multivitamin is only as good as its key ingredients are bioavailable. Bioavailability refers to the degree to which a substance becomes entirely available to its biological destination(s)—essentially, how successfully a nutrient reaches its intended landing place. With that in mind, it makes sense that if important vitamins and minerals are present, but they aren’t in forms that the body can efficiently use, we may not be reaping the full spectrum of nutritional support.* (1)

In other words, form matters, and not just when starting a workout routine—some of us have gene variations that make it hard to efficiently process certain nutrient forms. We can circumvent that by choosing high-quality forms that the body can utilize with or without said gene variation. Take folate, for example: Many multivitamins on the market may contain the synthetic form of folate, also known as folic acid, even though up to one-third (!) of people carry gene variants that make it difficult to efficiently utilize. Instead, we opt for 5-MTHF, a bioavailable, cell-identical form of folate.

(If you’re having trouble discerning whether or not a multi was made with such considerations in mind, you may want to pass altogether and opt for a brand that embraces transparency in plain sight.)*

Step 3: Keep It Clean

In addition to letting science lead the way, we strive to create a clean multivitamin. Simple, right? Well, not so much. Because of our commitment to clean formulations (vegan, non-gmo, traceable ingredients and third-party testing for heavy metals and microbes), we’ve actually had to challenge a lot of standards. Our suppliers often say, “There’s the way we do things, and then there’s the way we do things for Ritual.” We never take no for an answer in the pursuit of truly high-quality products.

Step 4: Design For Simplicity

Trying to be health-conscious is already hard; your vitamin regimen shouldn’t make it harder. Even though everything we do to create our products is pretty complicated, we design with user ease in mind. Good examples of this are the beadlet-in-oil technology used in most of our multivitamins and the capsule-in-capsule technology used for Essential Prenatal. These innovative multivitamin designs put both oily and dry nutrients into one multivitamin formulation.

Another good example of simple, easy design lies in scent: Our multivitamins come with a minty tab in every bottle and a lemon tab graces every bottle of Essential Prenatal. Both tabs are made with essential oils, and both tabs help make the multivitamins more pleasant to take, since a lot of people don’t love the ocean-y scent of our vegan Omega-3 DHA algal oil. Adding a pleasant, clean scent is a simple solution.

All in all, Ritual’s philosophy is about products that make sense for your health and your day-to-day life. It should be easy. So we make it that way.

References:

1. Price, G., & Patel, D. A. (2020). ...Bioavailability. In StatPearls [Internet]. StatPearls Publishing LLC.