Bespoke electrolyte and hydration supplement manufacturing

Electrolyte formulas for sport and every day, with sodium set by use

Our Leicester facility, ISO 9001, HACCP and GMP certified by BSI, is where custom electrolyte and hydration supplements for sports, wellness and everyday hydration brands are developed and made, as powders, single-serve sticks, salt capsules, hydration gummies, liquid concentrates and effervescent tablets. As an electrolyte supplement manufacturer, we set sodium by use: drinks built for the carbohydrate-electrolyte claims carry 460 to 1,150 mg of sodium per litre, and everyday formulas shift the balance towards potassium and magnesium. Every batch is tested by accredited partner laboratories, and you receive the mineral calculations with the specification. Electrolytes sit within our sports nutrition manufacturing. Your formula is yours.

Salt choice sets taste, solubility and how much mineral each gram delivers:

Hydrated and anhydrous grades carry different mineral shares, so we calculate every label value from the exact grade on the certificate of analysis. Carbohydrates, acids, sweeteners and flavours complete the system.

Sticks, tubs, tablets or gummies for private label electrolytes

Private label electrolytes now span drink mixes, tablets, capsules and chews. As an electrolyte powder manufacturer, we fill one formula into tubs and sticks, so a single development project can launch in both. Single-serve packs took 65.3% of electrolyte powder market revenue in 2025 (Grand View Research, July 2026).

• Powder tubs and pouches: multi-serve, with a scoop sized to the blend; see our powder and drink mix manufacturing.
• Single-serve sticks: one exact dose for a bottle of water, and the pack that leads the market; see sachet and stick pack manufacturing.
• Effervescent tablets: made in-house; the bicarbonate base adds sodium, which counts towards the label total.
• Capsules: salt capsules for endurance athletes who drink plain water.
• Hydration gummies: made in-house as gummies, with an active assay on every batch as standard; a serving carries a modest mineral dose, so they suit everyday positioning more than heavy sweat losses.
• Liquid concentrates and shots: small-volume formats diluted into water or taken straight.
• Hybrids: hydration with caffeine for energy, with creatine for training, or beside protein powders in a recovery range. We also add electrolytes to pre-workout formulas.

We also make ready-to-drink sports drinks in Leicester. As of October 2026, UK and EU food supplements with added caffeine must state that they contain caffeine and are not recommended for children or pregnant women. Heat-resilience products for older adults and outdoor workers follow the same claim rules.

Electrolyte blends pull in moisture, so the pack is part of the formula. We match the stick film to the blend: foil laminates give the highest moisture barrier, mono-material films with a barrier coating suit recycling plans, and we arrange barrier and shelf-life testing in the chosen film before you commit. Tubs close with induction seals, and pouches are resealable.

Sodium first, then osmolality and the sugar-free trade-off

Ratios: sodium first

Sweat rate and sweat sodium vary widely between and within people (Baker, Sports Medicine, 2017), and sweat carries far more sodium than potassium. A sport formula therefore leads with sodium, and the carbohydrate-electrolyte claim window of 20 to 50 mmol of sodium per litre (460 to 1,150 mg) is a useful anchor for drinks used during exercise. EFSA considers 2.0 g of sodium a day safe and adequate for adults (2019) and sets an adequate intake of 3.5 g of potassium (2016), so a daily hydration formula can shift the balance towards potassium and magnesium. Labels need careful conversion: 1 mmol of sodium is 23 mg, and UK and EU nutrition labels state salt as sodium multiplied by 2.5.

Absorption and osmolality

In the small intestine, the SGLT1 transporter carries sodium and glucose across the gut wall together, and water follows. That mechanism underpins the two authorised carbohydrate-electrolyte claims, and their conditions are strict: 80 to 350 kcal per litre from carbohydrates, at least 75% of the energy from high-glycaemic carbohydrates such as glucose and sucrose, the sodium window above, and an osmolality of 200 to 330 mOsm/kg. Drinks far above body-fluid osmolality leave the stomach more slowly. Accredited partner laboratories measure osmolality on the drink as mixed to the label.

Sugar-free systems

Taking out sugar takes out the glucose that drives sodium uptake, and with it the carbohydrate-electrolyte claims. Zero-sugar mixes rely on sodium, potassium and flavour, sweetened with sucralose, acesulfame K or steviol glycosides. Polyols such as erythritol add body, but labels need the laxative-effect statement once added polyols exceed 10%. A sugar-free claim means no more than 0.5 g of sugars per 100 g or 100 ml in the UK and EU, and less than 0.5 g per labelled serving in the US. Allulose, common in US formulas, is not authorised in GB or the EU as of October 2026, so we build one sweetener system that clears every target market.

Caking, hard sticks and competing tastes

Electrolyte salts, citric acid and dextrose all attract water, and a blend of water-soluble ingredients takes up moisture at a lower humidity than any one of them alone. The result is caking, hard sticks, vitamin C losses and, in effervescent tablets, an early acid and bicarbonate reaction. We control humidity during production, choose salt grades and particle sizes for flow, use anticaking agents such as silicon dioxide where the label allows, and confirm the barrier pack with stability studies. Taste is the other constraint: salt, bitter potassium and magnesium, and sour acids compete in a small serving. Citrate salts soften the saltiness, and our flavour and taste masking work sets the flavour system with the mineral dose, not after it.

When an electrolyte drink can be compared with water

Register claims in the UK and EU

As of October 2026, claims come only from the GB nutrition and health claims register or the EU register:

• Carbohydrate-electrolyte solutions "enhance the absorption of water during physical exercise" and "contribute to the maintenance of endurance performance during prolonged endurance exercise", but only in drinks that meet the conditions above.
• Minerals: "magnesium contributes to electrolyte balance", "potassium contributes to normal muscle function" and "calcium contributes to normal muscle function", each in a product that is at least a source of the mineral. The chloride claim on digestion cannot be used for chloride from sodium chloride.
• Comparisons with water: a hydration claim that compares with water must keep the meaning of the authorised water absorption claim and credit the carbohydrate-electrolyte solution, not the brand.
• Classification: a drink powder can sell as a food or a food supplement, which changes the label, claims and maximum levels.

US hydration claims and the evidence behind them

As of October 2026, a hydration powder sells as a dietary supplement with Supplement Facts or as a conventional food with Nutrition Facts. On a dietary supplement, structure/function claims such as "supports hydration" need FDA's disclaimer and a notification to FDA. The FTC expects competent and reliable scientific evidence for health claims, generally randomised controlled human trials relevant to the product itself. A comparison with water therefore needs data such as a beverage hydration index study: 1 litre drunk over 30 minutes, with urine collected for 4 hours and compared with still water (Maughan and colleagues, 2016). We arrange that work with our partner network. We are an FDA registered food facility for dietary supplements.

Humidity control at an electrolyte supplement manufacturer

1. Specify. We set mineral targets, the carbohydrate or sweetener system, osmolality at the mixing volume, flavour and shelf life with you.
2. Source. Every salt, sugar and flavour comes from a supplier that has passed our supplier approval, reviewed annually, and arrives with a certificate of analysis.
3. Weigh and dispense. Materials are weighed against the batch record with humidity controlled, under our allergen management plan with yellow colour coding.
4. Sieve and premix. Vitamins, sweeteners, flavours and colours are premixed so micro-ingredients spread evenly.
5. Blend. The batch blends for a set time and is checked for uniformity.
6. Fill and seal. Powder is filled by weight into tubs, or formed, filled and sealed into sticks, with fill weights and seals checked through the run.
7. Label and release. Label verification on every batch is the critical control point in our HACCP plan, and every batch is released by quality control against its specification.

We make effervescent tablets by a dry route in a low-humidity room: the acid and base are compacted and milled into granules without water, blended with the actives and flavours, compressed with in-process checks of weight, hardness and disintegration time, and packed at once into tubes with desiccant closures or foil strips.

Hydration gummies are cooked, deposited with piece weights checked through the run and dried to their target water activity, with an active assay on every batch before release.

Proving each mineral on the label, and the drink's osmolality

Ask how each mineral on the label is proved. Every batch is tested by accredited partner laboratories (ISO/IEC 17025) as part of every order. The testing programme is set per product and market, with certificates of analysis you can share with retailers and marketplaces:

• Minerals: sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium by ICP-OES or ICP-MS; chloride by ion chromatography or titration.
• Osmolality: measured with an osmometer on the made-up drink whenever a carbohydrate-electrolyte claim is planned.
• Sugars and sweeteners: to support sugar-free and carbohydrate claims.
• Moisture and water activity: to protect flow and shelf life.
• Dissolution: time to dissolve in cold water; effervescence time and solution pH for tablets.
• Heavy metals and microbiology: lead, cadmium, mercury and arsenic by ICP-MS, with total viable count, yeasts and moulds.
• Stability: minerals, vitamin C, caking and flavour tracked in the final pack.

Our quality system adds a HACCP study per product type, reviewed annually; three retained samples per batch, kept for shelf life plus one year; and a full mock recall, forward and backward with mass balance, in seconds. Nothing is dispatched without quality control sign-off. Informed Sport certification is arranged for your product. Our testing and batch release page sets out the full approach.

Development runs in stages: brief, evidence review, formulation, bench samples, blind sensory panels, a pilot batch, stability in the final pack and scale-up. You receive the formula, specifications, mineral calculations, process summary, stability data, test reports and a claims review for each market. Research and development is a paid stage, and it can be included with an order of the right size. Send your brief through Start your project and we will come back with the mineral profile, the claims route and the testing plan for your electrolyte range.

References: Maughan and colleagues, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2016); Baker, Sports Medicine (2017); EFSA, dietary reference values for sodium (2019); EFSA, dietary reference values for potassium (2016); Regulation (EU) No 432/2012 (2012); Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 (2011); Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 (2006); FTC, Health Products Compliance Guidance (2022).