By Roy, founder Last updated 18/08/2026
Put an Australian supplement next to an American one and the labels barely look like the same kind of product. Different panel, different words, different claims on the front of the pack. That's not sloppiness. It's two different regulatory systems, and once you know the shape of each, both labels get a lot easier to read.
Why do US and Australian supplement labels look so different?
In the US, most of what we'd call a sleep or wellness powder sells as a "dietary supplement", its own category, separate from ordinary food. It carries a "Supplement Facts" panel, and the brand can make certain structure and function claims about the body, as long as the wording avoids naming a disease. That system leans on the brand to substantiate what it says, with the regulator checking in after the fact.
Australia doesn't have that middle category. A product here is regulated as one of two things: a listed medicine, which needs an AUST L number and goes through a therapeutic-goods pathway, or a food, which sits under the Food Standards Code and has to play by food rules. There's no third lane for "supplement" the way the US has it. That single structural difference is why the two labels end up saying such different things.
What does "FDA approved" actually mean, and why don't Australian brands say it?
Worth being blunt here: even in the US, "FDA approved" doesn't mean what people assume for a dietary supplement. The FDA doesn't pre-approve supplement formulas the way it approves a new medicine. "FDA approved" on a supplement label is imprecise at best, and it carries no weight in Australia. The FDA has no jurisdiction here.
Settl doesn't use it, and no honest Australian brand should. What we can say, because it's true and specific, is that Settl is packed in Sydney in a facility that holds a TGA manufacturing licence. That licence describes the facility's manufacturing standard, not the product. Settl holds no AUST L listing and none is being filed, because Settl is sold as a food, not a medicine.
AUST L medicine label or FSANZ food label. Which one are you holding?
This is the fork that decides everything else on the pack.
AUST L medicine label. If a product carries an AUST L number, it went through the Therapeutic Goods Administration's listing process. Within limits, the label can make specific claims about what it does, because the product met a threshold to get that listing.
FSANZ food label. If a product is a food, it sits under the Food Standards Code, administered by Food Standards Australia New Zealand. Food labels carry a Nutrition Information Panel, not a Supplement Facts panel, and the claims a food can make are tightly gated. A general food can't make a health claim, an "it does X to your body" claim, unless it clears a nutrient profiling scoring test first. High sodium, low fibre, or high sugar foods commonly fail that test outright, ruling out health claims regardless of the formula.
Settl is a food. That's a deliberate choice: the label can state exactly what's in the tub and how much, but it can't tell you what any of it does for you. Check the actual thresholds against the TGA's and FSANZ's own published guidance if you want the fine print. It changes, and this article isn't the register of record.
Why is the same ingredient legal to talk about differently in each country?
Same molecule, different rulebook. A US supplement brand under its own dietary-supplement framework can often make a structure or function claim, something like "supports relaxation", provided the wording avoids naming a medical condition. An Australian food brand selling the identical ingredient at the identical dose cannot make that claim, because the food pathway has no claims category that stretches that far without clearing the health-claim gate first.
That's why an Australian brand playing it straight often sounds more restrained than its US counterpart, even with a near-identical formula. It's not caution for its own sake. It's a different legal ceiling.
Serving size and units: the parts that trip people up
A few practical differences worth knowing when reading either label:
| US Supplement Facts | Australian food label | |
|---|---|---|
| Panel name | Supplement Facts | Nutrition Information Panel |
| Amounts shown | Per serving, sometimes with a "% Daily Value" | Per serving and per 100 g or 100 mL, both required |
| Reference intakes | US Daily Values | Australian Recommended Dietary Intakes, a different reference set |
| Proprietary blends | Often permitted as a single combined weight | An Australian food label listing named amounts has to name the amount for each one separately |
The per-100 g or per-100 mL column is the one worth using. It's the only figure that lets you compare two different serving sizes on equal footing, which the headline "per serve" number can't do on its own.
What does the country-of-origin mark on an Australian label actually tell you?
Most packaged Australian food carries a standard mark: a kangaroo-in-triangle logo next to a bar chart showing what percentage of the ingredients are Australian, alongside wording like "packed in Australia" or "made in Australia". That's a mandated format, not marketing copy, and the two phrases mean different things. "Made in" implies the last substantial transformation happened here. "Packed in" is the narrower, more honest claim when the bulk ingredients or manufacturing happened elsewhere and only the final packing was local.
Settl's pack carries that standard mark, showing the true Australian ingredient percentage alongside honest wording for where the bulk manufacturing actually happens. There's more on how we read our own numbers in the ingredients-explained article and the magnesium RDI breakdown, which walks through what an Australian recommended intake reference means on a label.
The practical takeaway
Neither system is more honest than the other; they're built around different questions. The US framework asks a brand to substantiate what it says a supplement does. The Australian food framework mostly stops a food from saying what it does at all, and puts the weight on stating exactly what's in it. When reading a label, the fastest sanity check is which pathway you're looking at: an AUST L number, or a food with a Nutrition Information Panel. Everything else follows from that one answer.
If you want the full picture of how Australian labelling works before you buy anything in this category, the Australian sleep supplement guide walks through the rest of it.
This explains how the labelling systems generally work. It isn't legal advice, and current rules should be checked against the TGA's and FSANZ's own guidance.
Settl is the nightly sleep powder behind this blog. One scoop in cold water before bed, built to get you to sleep faster, wake less at 3am, sleep deeper and wake up refreshed. No melatonin. Seven actives, every dose on the label. Packed in Sydney, in a TGA-licensed GMP facility. Start For $69.99, then $89.99 a month, inc. GST. Cancel, pause or skip any time. Or buy a single tub, $99. One-time order. Nothing renews.
Cheers, Roy