The method
Personalised food supplements.
How 34 questions become a dosed protocol, justified line by line. The full mechanism, its guardrails — and what it cannot do.
- 01
The questionnaire
34 questions, with grouped screens so a diagnostic does not turn into paperwork. They cover sleep, skin, energy, diet, physical activity, current medication and exclusions. None is cosmetic: each feeds a score or an exclusion.
- 02
The profile
Answers become scores across six health axes, plus a set of hard exclusions: allergens, diet, pregnancy, breastfeeding, stimulants, declared interactions. Exclusions are not preferences — they permanently remove products from the pool.
- 03
Composition
The algorithm allocates the tier’s slots (3, 6 or 8) across axes by rank, then selects within each axis the best-scoring products that respect the cost ceiling and do not duplicate an active already present.
- 04
Justification
Every line is rendered with its reason and, where one exists, its authorised claim — taken word for word from the EU register (63 wordings in our frozen table). A product with no authorised claim ships with none.
- 05
Evolution
The next month is not a copy. The engine rotates part of the selection, factors in what you log in the app, and projects the months ahead. A protocol that never changes is not a protocol, it is a subscription to a cardboard box.
What the method cannot do
It measures nothing. A questionnaire collects self-report: what you think of your sleep is not your sleep, and no answer replaces a blood test. A real deficiency is diagnosed in a lab, not online.
It does not know your medical record. Declared interactions are taken into account; undeclared ones are not. That is why current medication is an explicit question, and why a pharmacist’s advice outranks the algorithm.
It is bounded by what is authorised. An active popular elsewhere but blocked in Europe — Novel Food status, restricted substance — cannot enter a box, whatever the demand. The catalogue stops where the law stops, so part of the market is off limits to us.
Frequently asked
What is a personalised food supplement?
An assortment composed from individual data rather than a standard catalogue. At Protokol, 34 questions feed a profile, and a deterministic algorithm derives a selection from 382 eligible products, within a slot budget set by the tier.
Is it really personalised, or three formulas in disguise?
Composition is recalculated for every box from the profile and the current month: health axes are weighted, exclusions applied, duplicate actives forbidden. Two similar profiles can receive different boxes, and the same profile does not receive the same box in month 1 and month 6.
Can an algorithm replace a healthcare professional?
No, and that is not what it does. It composes an assortment of food supplements within the regulatory framework of authorised claims. It does not diagnose, does not detect a deficiency, and does not replace a blood test or medical advice.
What if my constraints make the box impossible?
The engine refuses the sale rather than shipping a diminished box. If exclusions (allergens, diet, pregnancy, medication) leave too few compliant products to reach the tier minimum, the order is blocked and explained.
Can I choose the contents myself?
No, deliberately. Server-side composition is what guarantees no active is doubled, no exclusion bypassed and no dose ceiling exceeded. Everything in the catalogue is, however, available à la carte with no subscription.
Sources
Only regulatory texts and public registers, checkable by anyone. No bibliographic reference is cited without verification: on a health topic, a false source costs more than none.
- Règlement (CE) n° 1924/2006
Sets the framework: a health claim is lawful only if authorised. Bans any claim to prevent or treat a disease.
- Règlement (UE) n° 432/2012
Establishes the list of permitted claims other than disease-risk-reduction ones, with their conditions of use.
- Commission européenne — EU Register of nutrition and health claims
Searchable database of every authorised and rejected claim. The reference that lets anyone check, word for word, what a product may state.
- Directive 2002/46/CE
Governs the composition and labelling of food supplements: permitted vitamins and minerals, mandatory statements, warnings.
- Règlement (UE) 2015/2283
Requires prior authorisation for any ingredient without significant consumption history in the EU before May 1997. This is the text that blocks several actives popular elsewhere.
- Agence fédérale pour la sécurité de la chaîne alimentaire
Controls the placing of food supplements on the Belgian market, including prior product notification.
Our method
No health claim is written by us: every such sentence is taken word for word from the EU register. An active with no authorised claim is presented with none — never with a softened wording.
Food supplements are not a substitute for a varied, balanced diet or a healthy lifestyle. This page is informational and is not medical advice. If you are on medication, pregnant or breastfeeding, seek advice from a healthcare professional.
Corpus checked
Checkable
The figures on this page are not written by hand: they are read from the product at render time — 34 questions, 382 box-eligible products, 63 authorised claims, 491 catalogue entries. They follow the product with nobody having to remember.