Most supplement sourcing projects begin with a product idea and a factory search, in that order. The step that gets skipped sits between them: deciding which dosage form the product should take. That decision quietly sets your shortlist, because a China contract manufacturer is not licensed to make "supplements" in general — it is filed, audited and certified to make specific product categories, and a form outside those categories is a new registration rather than a new order.
This guide covers the four dosage forms that carry most nutraceutical contract manufacturing in China, what each one does to your actives, and how to read a factory's paperwork to confirm it can legally make the form you want. It is written for brand owners and importers commissioning a first or second private-label programme.
The form decides your factory shortlist before it decides your product
In China, a manufacturer exporting food and supplement products holds an export food producer filing that names the categories it is registered to produce. The filing is specific. Guangci Nutraceuticals, a Dongguan contract manufacturer on this platform, holds export food producer filing 4400/11384, issued by Fenggang Customs on 15 July 2022, and its recorded scope reads: tablet candy, gel candy, hard candy and solid beverage. Four named categories, not a general permission.
That matters commercially. When a factory says it "can do capsules too", it may be describing a genuine capability, a partner line, or an intention. None of those is the same as a filed scope, and the difference surfaces at customs rather than at quotation. Treat the filed category list as the first filter on any shortlist, and confirm it in the document itself rather than in an email. The wider evidence set to request is covered in the guide to auditing a supplement factory in China.
The four forms that carry most China contract manufacturing
The categories above are not marketing labels — they are manufacturing processes with different equipment, different failure modes and different economics.
Gel candy, sold as gummies. A sugar or sugar-free syrup is gelled with gelatin or pectin, deposited into moulds, cured, then tumbled and coated. Consumer acceptance is the highest of the four, which is why the form dominates retail. It is also the most process-sensitive: the gel sets in a narrow window, and moisture migration governs shelf life. The manufacturing detail sits in the guide to private label gummy manufacturing in China.
Hard candy. Sugar is boiled to a high temperature, flavoured, then formed and cooled. The result is shelf-stable and cheap to ship, but the cook step is punishing: any active that degrades under sustained heat either has to be added late, protected, or abandoned. Hard candy suits robust ingredients and flavour-led propositions more than it suits delicate actives.
Tablet candy, both chewable and pressed. Powders are blended and compressed. There is no cook and no added water, which makes this the friendliest process for heat-sensitive and moisture-sensitive ingredients, and it carries the densest active load per unit. The trade-off is sensory: compressed products have a chalkier mouthfeel and a narrower flavour range than a gummy.
Solid beverage, meaning powder sachets and stick packs. Ingredients are blended dry and filled into sachets or sticks for the consumer to mix. This form carries several times more payload per serving than the other three, which is why protein, fibre, electrolyte and probiotic products default to it. The cost is a compliance step for the consumer: the product only works if they mix it, so the format trades convenience for capacity.
| Form | Active payload per serving | Main process stress | Typical retail packaging |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gel candy (gummy) | Low to moderate | Gelling window, moisture migration | Bottle, pouch, blister |
| Hard candy | Low | Sustained high-temperature cook | Flow wrap, tin, pouch |
| Tablet candy | Moderate to high | Compression, blend uniformity | Bottle, blister, tube |
| Solid beverage | High | Blend uniformity, moisture ingress | Sachet, stick pack, jar |
Your actives are the real constraint, not your preference
Buyers usually arrive with a form in mind and a formula in mind, and discover during sampling that the two are in conflict. The order of operations that avoids this is to fix the serving payload first, then choose the form that can carry it.
Three process variables do most of the damage. Heat degrades sensitive vitamins and botanicals, which is why hard candy is the least forgiving format. Water activity governs whether a live culture survives to its labelled count, which is why probiotic claims are far more common on stick packs than on gummies. Compression is comparatively gentle, which is why tablet candy carries the highest doses. If your target serving is several grams of anything, gummies and hard candy are already out on arithmetic alone — you would need a serving of four or more units, and consumers do not comply with that.
Ask any factory two questions before sampling: what overage it proposes for each active, and what evidence supports the shelf life it is quoting. A specific answer indicates the factory has run the form before. A vague one indicates you would be paying for its learning curve.
Packaging and freight follow the form
Dosage form is also a logistics decision. Gummies require a moisture barrier and, in warm lanes, temperature-aware routing; they are heavy relative to their dose. Powders in stick packs are light for the number of servings they deliver, which usually gives them the best freight cost per serving of the four. Hard candy is the most robust in transit. Tablets sit in between and are the most tolerant of long lead times.
Because primary packaging is often sourced separately, confirm early who is buying the bottles, films and cartons, and to whose specification — a point worth settling alongside the general guidance on sourcing packaging from a China manufacturer. Artwork, fill volumes and closure types are the most common cause of a second sampling round.
Reading a factory's certified scope, line by line
Once the form is chosen, the paperwork check is narrow and quick. You are matching one word — your form — against the scope wording on three documents.
Using the same factory as a worked example: Guangci holds ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 22000:2018 certificates issued by Zhongjian Certification, valid to 7 October 2026, and the ISO 22000 scope names other solid beverage including plant and probiotic solid beverage, hard candy, tablet candy and gel candy, tied to a named production workshop. The company also holds a U.S. FDA food facility registration, No. 17267166330, which is renewed biennially, and a registered foreign-trade operator filing, 04900619. Founded in 2014 in Fenggang, Dongguan, it operates as a pure OEM and ODM manufacturer with no stock catalogue, so every programme is built to the buyer's brief.
Two cautions apply to every factory, not only this one. First, a scope tied to a named workshop means the certificate covers that workshop — if production moves, ask whether the certificate followed it. Second, forms a factory describes as available but which do not appear in the scope wording, such as effervescent tablets, capsules or loose powders in the example above, should be treated as claims to be evidenced rather than as certified capability. What the certificates do and do not prove is set out in ISO 22000 vs HACCP vs GMP for supplement buyers, and the underlying question of whether you are dealing with the producer at all is covered in how to tell a factory from a trading company.
The registration language that should stop a conversation
A U.S. FDA food facility registration is a registration, not an approval or a certification. The FDA does not approve food or supplement factories, and any supplier presenting itself as "FDA approved" or "FDA certified" is either misinformed about the U.S. system or willing to misrepresent it — both are reasons to slow down. The correct form of words is a registration number, plus the fact that it is renewed biennially, and you are entitled to ask for the current renewal evidence rather than a certificate from a previous cycle.
The same discipline applies to your own labelling and import file, where responsibility sits with the brand or importer rather than the factory. The obligations are mapped in the guide to importing dietary supplements from China to the USA.
A decision sequence you can run this week
Run these in order. Each step removes options, so doing them out of sequence creates rework.
- Fix the serving payload. Total milligrams or grams of actives per serving, and the maximum units per serving a consumer will accept. This alone eliminates at least one form.
- Shortlist forms, not factories. Two candidates is enough. Note which actives are heat or moisture sensitive.
- Match the form to filed scope. Read the export filing and the ISO scope wording for your exact category before the first call.
- Settle who owns the formula. OEM, ODM and private label allocate the development work and the intellectual property differently — the distinction is drawn in supplement OEM vs ODM vs private label.
- Write the brief before requesting quotes. Form, payload, packaging, target market and claims, using the structure in how to write a product spec sheet for a Chinese factory.
- Sample against the brief. The mechanics of a first sample round are covered in the sample order process, and realistic timing expectations in first-party MOQ and lead time data.
Common questions
Which supplement dosage form is cheapest to manufacture in China?
Hard candy and tablet candy are usually the cheapest supplement dosage forms to manufacture in China, because both run on fast, established lines with simple inputs, while gummies carry markedly higher process and packaging costs and solid beverage sits between them on a per-unit basis. Measured per serving of delivered active rather than per unit, stick packs are frequently the most economical of the four.
Can one China factory make gummies, tablets and powders?
Some Chinese contract manufacturers do make gummies, tablets and powders, but the capability has to be verified separately for each form rather than assumed from a company profile, because every dosage form runs on different equipment and appears as its own named category in the factory's export filing and ISO scope wording. Ask for the filing document and match your form to the wording.
What does an export food producer filing number tell a buyer?
An export food producer filing, such as 4400/11384 issued by Fenggang Customs, records that Chinese customs has registered one specific facility to produce named categories of food for export, which confirms both the identity of the facility and the exact product categories it is cleared to manufacture. The scope wording on the filing therefore matters to a buyer more than the number itself.
Does “FDA registered” mean the same as FDA approval?
A U.S. FDA food facility registration means only that a facility has notified the FDA of its existence and renews that notification every two years, and it involves no inspection of the product and confers no approval of any kind, because the FDA does not approve food or supplement factories at all. "FDA approved" and "FDA certified" are therefore not valid descriptions of any manufacturer.
Should I choose the dosage form before or after choosing a factory?
Choose the dosage form before you choose a factory, because the form determines which manufacturers are legally and technically eligible to quote for your product, and selecting a factory first tends to produce a product shaped by that factory's existing lines rather than by your own formula. Switching form later usually means restarting development, re-sampling and redoing packaging artwork.
Guangci Nutraceuticals is a verified contract manufacturer on ChinaMakersHub working in gel candy, hard candy, tablet candy and solid beverage. To review its filings and certificate scope in full, see the Guangci Nutraceuticals factory profile.