Fillers and flow agents, and what they do in a powder
Maltodextrin, silicon dioxide, magnesium stearate. What these ingredients are for, which are functional, and how to tell filler from bulk.
Part of How to read a supplement label. Related: Daily Greens and Signal.
Vineet Thakur
Near the end of most supplement ingredient lists sit a few names nobody markets. Maltodextrin, silicon dioxide, magnesium stearate, microcrystalline cellulose. They are worth understanding, because some are doing a job and some are occupying space you paid for.
What a flow agent does
Powder does not behave like liquid. It clumps, it bridges over openings, and it sticks to equipment. A flow agent is added in small amounts so the blend moves consistently through filling machinery and comes out of the pouch evenly.
Silicon dioxide is the common one. It is present at well under one percent and its job is mechanical. Magnesium stearate does something similar in capsules, acting as a lubricant so material does not weld itself to the press.
These are functional. A blend without them can fill inconsistently, which means the scoop you take is not always the serving on the label.
What a filler does
A filler occupies volume. Maltodextrin, rice flour and microcrystalline cellulose are the usual ones, and they are cheap.
Sometimes there is a legitimate reason. A formula with very small actives needs bulk to make a scoop measurable, and a capsule needs to be full or the contents rattle and settle.
Sometimes the reason is that filler costs a fraction of what an extract costs, and a pouch has to weigh what the front of the pack says it weighs.
Telling one from the other
Position in the list is the strongest signal, because Indian labelling rules require descending order by weight.
- Near the end, in trace amounts, doing a mechanical job: a flow agent.
- Near the top, above ingredients the marketing talks about: bulk, and worth asking why.
- Inside a blend total where you cannot see the position at all: unknowable, which is the point of that format.
Maltodextrin as the first or second ingredient in a greens powder is the clearest example. It means the pouch is mostly a cheap carbohydrate carrier with plant material added.
Sweeteners are a separate question
Stevia, sucralose and monk fruit are not fillers. They are there because plant powders taste like plants and a lot of people will not drink them otherwise. That is a legitimate formulation decision, and the honest way to present it is to say so rather than to bury it.
What is worth checking is quantity. Heavy sweetening is often covering a raw material that would otherwise be unpleasant, which is a clue about what went in.
Anti-caking agents in humid climates
This one is more relevant in India than in the markets most supplement writing comes from. Powders absorb moisture, and a pouch opened daily through a Mumbai monsoon takes on water every time. A small amount of anti-caking agent is the difference between a scoopable powder in month two and a solid block.
Storage matters as much as formulation here, which we cover in the piece on taking and mixing a greens powder.
What to check on a label
- Where do the non-active ingredients sit in the descending order?
- Is maltodextrin or another bulk carbohydrate near the top?
- Are amounts given, or is everything inside one blend total?
- Is there a stated reason for anything present in quantity?
Where SWATVA stands
Every ingredient is printed by name in descending order, so the position of everything is visible rather than pooled into a total. The full list is public before you buy, and the label decoder covers the checks worth running on any pack.
The first run is 55 pouches. Pre-ordering takes four minutes and nothing is charged.
Both SWATVA blends were made to pass these checks.
Every ingredient named in pack order, standardised extracts, a named probiotic strain and batch tests published. Nothing hidden in a blend.
| Grass juice powders, spirulina, chlorella, moringa | The greens most busy diets miss, in one scoop |
| Amla, ashwagandha, tulsi, turmeric, ginger | Standardised extracts with the figure on the label |
| Spore probiotic + PHGG and inulin | A daily gut routine that keeps without a fridge |
| B12, vitamin D, iodine, selenium | The gaps a plant base cannot fill |
| 23 ingredients, all named | No proprietary blend, every batch tested. Mango and lime. |
| L-tyrosine, L-theanine, bacopa, gotu kola | Focus ingredients with human trials behind them |
| Choline, acetyl-L-carnitine, algal DHA, taurine | Built for long desk days, vegetarian DHA included |
| Magnesium, active B-complex, vitamin D3 | The workday micronutrients, in active forms |
| No caffeine, no stimulants | Fits an afternoon without a late coffee |
| 24 ingredients, all named | No proprietary blend, every batch tested. Berry and lemon. |
First batch: only 55 pouches. Pre-ordering is free, and nothing is charged until we email you the price. If you take prescribed medicine or are pregnant, check the ingredient list with your doctor first.
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Every ingredient,
printed in pack order.
Most labels here hide behind a blend name. Daily Greens and Signal name every ingredient on its own line, in the order it goes into the pouch. If you have read this far, the ledger is the page worth your next four minutes.
