The global value of the vitamins and supplements market is projected to grow from $154.98 billion in 2024 to $250.81 billion by 2032, reflecting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.20%.1Vitamins and Supplements Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Type (Multivitamins, Calcium Supplements, Pediatric Supplements, and Others), Form (Capsule, Tablet, Powder, and Liquid & Gel), Distribution Channel (Supermarkets, Convenience Stores, Specialty Stores, and Online Retails), and Regional Forecast, 2024-2032. Fortune Business Insights. Retrieved February 6, 2025 from https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/vitamins-and-supplements-market-104051 Among the various supplement delivery forms, capsules continue to gain popularity.
According to SPINS data2Casteel B. SPINS presentation. UNPA Member’s Retreat, Deer Valley, UT. September 2024., as of September 2024, capsules account for 10.2% of the supplement delivery market by dollar share, reflecting a 2% year-over-year increase. Additionally, vegetable-based capsules make up 4.5% of the market, with a 3.3% increase over the same period. As the interest and popularity of capsules continue to grow, understanding the capsule manufacturing process has become increasingly essential for supplement brands.
The rising demand for capsules as a preferred delivery form is no surprise, given their advantages:
- For consumers: Capsules offer convenience, ease of consumption, and the benefit of avoiding the unpleasant taste associated with some nutraceuticals found in gummies, liquids, or powders.
- For supplement brands: Capsules provide cost efficiency and precise dosage control, eliminating the need for taste-masking solutions.
In this article, we’ll break down the capsule manufacturing process step by step. Let’s begin by understanding how capsules are made.
Understanding the Process: How Are Capsules Made
Answering the question “How are capsules made?” or “How are encapsulated products manufactured?” requires an understanding of several key steps:
- Raw Material Selection – Choosing high-quality ingredients for the capsule fill material and the capsule shell.
- Blending – Mixing active ingredients and excipients to ensure uniformity and consistency.
- Encapsulation – Filling the capsule shells with the blended formulation using specialized machinery.
- Polishing & Statistical Inspection – Removing excess powder, ensuring capsules meet quality standards, and checking for defects.
- Packaging & Labeling – Protecting capsules from environmental factors and ensuring compliance with labeling regulations.
Each of these steps plays a crucial role in producing high-quality encapsulated supplements. We’ll explore these stages in greater detail in the next section.
Raw Material Selection
The first step in making capsules is selecting evidence-based, high-quality raw materials, which are essential for ensuring the efficacy of a well-formulated dietary supplement.
Raw materials are sourced globally based on their quality, potency, and bioavailability. While these materials are typically accompanied by a Certificate of Analysis (COA) from the supplier, additional in-house testing is crucial upon arrival at the manufacturing facility.
Key tests include:
- Identity verification – Ensuring the raw material matches the expected ingredient.
- Potency testing – Confirming the active ingredient levels meet specifications.
- Microbiological testing – Detecting potential contaminants like bacteria or mold.
- Heavy metals analysis – Checking for harmful levels of metals such as lead, arsenic, cadmium, and mercury.
These quality control measures are critical for maintaining the safety and effectiveness of the final product.
Blending
Once the raw materials have been selected and tested, they are blended using a large-scale commercial mixer to ensure a uniform distribution of ingredients. Proper blending is essential to guarantee that each capsule contains the precise, predetermined amount of each nutraceutical.
During this process, wet or dry granulation may be used to improve the blend’s consistency and flow properties:
- Wet granulation introduces water or an organic solvent into a nutraceutical blend to produce fine particles into granules with a specific size, specific flow properties, and to improve uniformity.
- Dry granulation produces granules without using liquids since some nutraceuticals are sensitive to moisture and heat.
To confirm uniformity, a sample of the blended material is sent to the laboratory for testing. This step ensures that the distribution of key ingredients is consistent across the entire batch before proceeding to the next step – the encapsulation process.
The Encapsulation Process
The encapsulation process is fully automated, ensuring efficiency and consistency in capsule production. A capsule filling machine moves empty capsules through a series of stations where they are filled with the powdered blend, then sealed.
The key steps include:
- Loading – Empty capsules are placed into a hopper for automated processing.
- Sorting – Capsules are properly aligned and inspected; any defective capsules are rejected.
- Filling – The precise amount of the powder blend is dispensed into each capsule.
- Compaction – A tamping pin may be used to compress the powder for uniformity.
- Closing – The capsule body and cap are securely joined and sealed.
- Ejection – The filled and sealed capsules are discharged for further processing. This streamlined approach ensures accuracy, efficiency, and product integrity before moving on to the next stage: polishing and statistical inspection.
Polishing and Statistical Inspection
After the encapsulation process is completed, the capsules are polished to remove any residual powder or debris. This step enhances the appearance and quality of the final product.
A capsule polisher is used for this process. It consists of a polishing chamber with a rotating spiral brush that gently removes excess particles from the capsules’ surface. This equipment is widely used in both the nutraceutical and pharmaceutical industries to ensure capsules meet cleanliness and quality standards.
The benefits of polishing include:
- Improved surface cleanliness – Removes dust, excess powder, and debris.
- Enhanced appearance – Capsules achieve a smooth, uniform, and professional finish.
- Consistency in dosage – Reduces the risk of powder accumulation affecting weight accuracy.
After polishing, capsules undergo a statistical inspection before moving to packaging and labeling.
Packaging and Labeling
Once capsules are polished and inspected, they move to the packaging line, where they are automatically counted, bottled, sealed, and labeled. A typical packaging line includes:
- Counting machines – Precisely measure and dispense the correct number of capsules into each bottle.
- Sealing machines – Apply tamper-evident and protective seals to ensure product integrity.
- Capping machines – Securely place and tighten caps on bottles.
- Labeling machines – Apply branded labels with essential product information.
Considerations for Packaging Design
When selecting a supplement packaging design, it’s essential to ensure that bottle shapes and container types are compatible with automated packaging equipment. Unique or non-standard containers may require manual filling, which can significantly increase costs and production lead times.
By optimizing the packaging process, supplement brands can improve efficiency, product safety, and compliance with industry regulations while maintaining a professional presentation.
Common Challenges Faced by Brand Owners During Capsule Supplement Manufacturing
Every dietary supplement delivery form comes with its challenges, though capsules generally present fewer difficulties compared to options like gummies. However, brand owners should still be aware of potential issues such as visual defects, filling inconsistencies, and quality control concerns.
- Visual defects – In working with a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), it is important to ensure that the capsules are stored in a temperature-controlled facility. If the facility is too warm, it can cause deviations in the capsule shape, causing it not to fit in the encapsulation machine. Even if they fit, high temperatures can compromise their appearance, leading to misshapen or unattractive finished products.
- Filling challenges – It is likewise important that your CDMO has a great deal of experience in dietary supplement manufacturing in general, and in the operation of encapsulation specifically, to ensure good capsule fill weight. This is not only a function of well-maintained equipment, but also of a good powder blend with good flow properties. Otherwise, there may be undesirable variations in capsule fill weights.
- Quality control – Comprehensive quality control (QC) and quality assurance (QA) are essential for ensuring that the final product meets industry standards. Before partnering with a CDMO, brand owners should evaluate:
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- QC inspection protocols – Are capsules checked for defects, uniformity, and compliance?
- QA procedures – Does the facility follow strict testing guidelines for ingredient identity, potency, and contaminants?
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By working with a reputable CDMO that prioritizes storage conditions, precise filling, and rigorous quality control, brand owners can minimize manufacturing challenges and ensure the production of high-quality encapsulated supplements.
Manufacture Your Capsule Supplement with Vitaquest
Vitaquest is a CDMO that has provided new and established nutraceutical brands with exceptional capsule supplement manufacturing, packaging design, powder and particle engineering services using fluid bed, oscillation, and roller compaction technologies, and fulfillment solutions for over 45 years.
Whether you’re a newcomer to the industry or aiming to diversify your product range, Vitaquest possesses the expertise, cutting-edge facilities, and solutions needed to swiftly and effectively turn your encapsulated supplement concept into reality. In addition to capsules, Vitaquest also offers a variety of other dosage forms, including tablets, chewable tablets, oral disintegrating tablets (OTD), effervescent, and powders. Furthermore, you’ll receive an exceptional level of customer support.
Vitaquest also brings expertise in both domestic and international regulatory standards, alongside a strong commitment to sustainability practices. By sourcing sustainable ingredients and utilizing eco-friendly manufacturing processes, we help enhance brand appeal in today’s environmentally conscious market.
Our FDA cGMP compliance, along with third-party certifications such as NSF, USP, and others, assures brand owners and consumers that we consistently meet rigorous industry regulations and standards. Additionally, our ability to offer Kosher, Halal, and certified organic products, as well as our FSSC 22000 certification for food safety, underscores our commitment to manufacturing excellence.
Are you ready to capitalize on the trending market for the capsule delivery form for dietary supplements? If so, call 800-526-9095 to speak with one of our knowledgeable sales executives or request a nutraceutical manufacturing price quote if you’ve already finalized your project requirements!
Conclusion
In this article, we explored the capsule manufacturing process, providing a clear overview of the key steps involved.
Beyond the grammatical issues, a quick Google search reveals that “how to make capsules” and “how are pill capsules made” are popular search terms, reflecting the growing consumer interest in capsules as a preferred dietary supplement delivery form—a trend further supported by SPINS data.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Capsule Manufacturing Process
Q: What are the steps in manufacturing capsules?
The primary steps in manufacturing capsules are raw material selection (which includes testing for identity, potency, microbiological agents, and heavy metals), blending (which may include wet or dry granulation), the encapsulation process (which involves a capsule filling machine), polishing and statistical inspection, and packaging and labeling.
Q: What are the raw materials for capsules?
The raw materials used in capsules include the active ingredients (vitamins, minerals, herbs, etc.) and inactive ingredients (flow agents, fillers, etc.). Raw materials may be selected worldwide based on quality.
Q: What equipment is used in capsule manufacturing?
A large-scale commercial mixer blends all the raw material powders, a capsule filling machine, capsule polishing equipment, and a packaging line consisting of a series of machines. There is also laboratory equipment that is used for testing the purity and potency of the raw materials.
Q: What type of gelatin is in capsules?
The gelatin used in capsules is typically derived from bovine (cattle) sources, though it can also come from porcine (pig) sources. For those seeking plant-based alternatives, there are also vegan capsules made from cellulose or tapioca starch, offering a suitable option for individuals with dietary restrictions.
