"Is it vegan?" and "is it gluten-free?" sound like they should have the same shape of answer — yes or no, done. They don't. One is an ingredient-sourcing question you can settle by reading a panel carefully. The other is a testing-and-certification question that a panel can only answer if somebody chose to put the claim on it. Getting those two confused is how this article ended up carrying a false statement for several weeks.
So here is the straight version, built from the physical labels rather than from web copy. Two of the five current products are vegan. Three are not. And on gluten, we are not in a position to make a verified claim at all.
The short answer
Vegan: Sleep Support and Magnesium Glycinate are vegan. Cognitive Support, Sleep Formula and Omega-3 are not.
Gluten-free: none of the five panels carries a gluten-free claim. That is not the same as saying they contain gluten — but it is not the same as a verified gluten-free product either, and if you have coeliac disease you should treat the difference as material and contact us before you buy.
Where the vegan error came from, and why it matters
Vegan status for a capsule product almost always comes down to two things: the shell, and the source of the actives. The shell is the part people forget. Capsules are typically either gelatin — animal collagen, usually bovine or porcine, not vegan — or a plant-derived alternative, most commonly hypromellose (HPMC). Softgels are a third case: they are almost always gelatin plus glycerin and water.
The reason this article got Cognitive Support wrong is specific and worth naming. Its product-page ingredient list does not state the capsule material at all. Its physical panel does: gelatin capsule, brown rice flour. We had been reading the web copy, treating a silence as an unknown, and publishing that as "genuinely unclear." It was never unclear. It was printed on the bottle. If you want the full breakdown of what else is on that panel, we cover it in Inside Cognitive Support.
The same trap applies in reverse to the actives. A chelated mineral like magnesium glycinate is manufactured rather than extracted from an animal, which is why it comes out vegan even though nothing about the word "glycinate" tells you that — glycine can be animal-derived in other contexts. Fish oil is the opposite: definitionally animal, and our Omega-3 softgel is gelatin on top of that, so it fails on both counts. Our write-up of why we chose the glycinate form goes into the absorption side of that decision.
Product by product, from the physical panel
| Product | Capsule / shell as printed | Vegan |
|---|---|---|
| Sleep Support | Hypromellose (vegetable capsule); magnesium stearate (vegetable); silicon dioxide | Yes |
| Magnesium Glycinate | Hypromellose; magnesium stearate; silicon dioxide; rice flour | Yes, with one caveat — the label does not state the source of the magnesium stearate |
| Cognitive Support | Gelatin capsule; brown rice flour | No — corrected from "unconfirmed" |
| Sleep Formula | Gelatin capsule; brown rice flour | No |
| Omega-3 EPA/DHA | Softgel: gelatin, glycerin, water. "Contains: Fish (sardines, anchovies)" | No — fails on both shell and source |
One honest note on Magnesium Glycinate. Magnesium stearate is a processing lubricant made from stearic acid, which can be sourced from either plant or animal fat. Most commercial supplement-grade magnesium stearate is vegetable-derived, and our label is silent on which. We are calling it vegan because the rest of the panel is unambiguous and vegetable sourcing is the industry norm, but "the industry norm" is not a certificate, and we would rather flag the gap than round it up. If that level of precision matters to you, ask us and we will chase the supplier documentation.
Gluten: what a label legally has to tell you, and what it doesn't
This is the part we got wrong, and the mechanics are worth understanding because they apply to every supplement you will ever pick up.
Two different rules govern the words on a Supplement Facts panel. The first is allergen labelling: under the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act, wheat is a major allergen and must be declared on the label if it is present as an ingredient. None of our five panels declares wheat. Our Omega-3 panel does carry a "Contains: Fish (sardines, anchovies)" line, which shows the allergen-declaration machinery is working as intended on these labels.
The second rule is the gluten-free claim itself, and this is where the distinction bites. "Gluten-free" is a voluntary claim. Under 21 CFR 101.91 a product may only carry it if it contains less than 20 parts per million of gluten — which in practice means someone has to test for it, including for cross-contact from shared equipment and from ingredients like oats or barley-derived processing aids that are not themselves wheat. Absence of a wheat declaration tells you wheat is not a formulated ingredient. It does not tell you the finished product has been tested to below 20 ppm.
"No wheat in the ingredients" and "tested gluten-free" are two different statements. We previously published the second while only having grounds for something closer to the first.
So: none of the five Proco panels makes a gluten-free claim, and we are not going to make one on their behalf. If you are coeliac, or gluten-sensitive to a degree where 20 ppm matters, contact us and we will tell you exactly what testing the manufacturer does and does not run on a given batch. That is a slower answer than a badge, and it is the only one we can stand behind today.
How to check any of this yourself
- Read the "other ingredients" line, not the marketing copy. The capsule material lives there. Gelatin means not vegan; hypromellose, HPMC, pullulan or "vegetable capsule" means it is. A softgel is gelatin unless it explicitly says otherwise.
- Check the physical panel, not the web page. Our own mistake here was the other way round, and it is the common one. Web copy is summarised by humans and goes stale; the printed panel is the regulated document.
- Look for a named certifier on any dietary claim. "Gluten-free" with a certifying body behind it means testing. The same words with nothing behind them are a manufacturer's assertion.
- Ask for the batch paperwork. A certificate of analysis will not usually state vegan status, but it tells you what was actually in the batch and what was tested for — we walk through how to read one in what a certificate of analysis actually tells you.
- Remember format changes the answer. Gummies, softgels and capsules have completely different shell chemistry, which is part of why we compare them in capsules vs. gummies.
Bottom line
The useful thing about publishing a correction twice on the same page is that it makes the failure mode obvious. Both times, the error came from trusting a summary instead of the regulated document. That is exactly the habit we tell readers not to have, and we walk through the discipline properly in How to Read a Supplement Label and in Inside Sleep Formula, which is the one product in the range where every dose is printed individually. Inside Sleep Support is the counterweight: same category, and most of its botanicals sit inside a 905mg blend.
If vegan status is a hard line for you, the range currently gives you two options rather than three, and we would rather you knew that from us than found out from the bottle. If gluten is the hard line, talk to us first.
This article is for informational purposes only. Ingredient sourcing and capsule composition can change — always check the current product label or contact Proco directly if a specific dietary requirement is critical for you.
Browse the focus and cognitive support collection or the sleep collection if you want to see the current range.
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