Nutraceuticals & Functional Foods worked example

Ingredient Potency Overfill at 12% potency overage above claim: a worked example

What does the result look like when potency overage above claim reaches 12%? The full calculation is worked below with real intermediate numbers. A formulation or cost team needs to know what the active overage above label claim adds to batch cost when covering assay variation and shelf-life decline.

The inputs for this scenario

  • Active ingredient per batch: 12 kg (unchanged)
  • Active ingredient cost: 180 $ / kg (unchanged)
  • Potency overage above claim: 12 % (raised for this scenario; the documented default is 10)
  • Fixed assay and stability cost: 300 $ (unchanged)

Working through the calculation

  • Applying the documented formula (Overage material cost = active ingredient per batch × active ingredient cost × potency overage above claim) to the inputs above produces each figure below.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 559 $ for total overage cost, the number this scenario is built around.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 46.6 $ / kg for overage cost per kg of active.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 259 $ for overage material cost.
  • At this operating point the engine returns 300 $ for fixed assay and stability cost.

How this compares with the baseline

  • Against the tool's baseline example, where potency overage above claim sits at 10% and the headline result is 516 $, this scenario comes in 8.37% above the baseline at 559 $.
  • A figure at this level is achievable when potency overage above claim is genuinely sustained, not just peaked for a shift. It assumes a single flat overage percentage and does not model degradation curves, so it will not tell you the minimum scientifically justified overage.

Results at a glance

  • Total overage cost: 559 $ (headline result)
  • Overage cost per kg of active: 46.6 $ / kg
  • Overage material cost: 259 $
  • Fixed assay and stability cost: 300 $

Run it with your numbers

  • Every input above is editable in the live Ingredient Potency Overfill calculator, which recalculates instantly and can be shared with the inputs intact.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.