A supplement strip looks like a magic trick: a wafer of film, thinner than a stamp, that somehow carries a full labeled dose and vanishes on your tongue. It isn't magic — it's materials science, and the ingredient list is short enough to explain in full. Here's the anatomy of an Onset strip, layer by layer.
The film: pullulan
The body of every strip is pullulan — a polysaccharide produced by natural fermentation, commonly derived from tapioca starch.¹ ² It forms a clear, flexible, fast-dissolving film, which is exactly the job description: hold the actives in a stable matrix, then get out of the way in seconds. It's the same class of material used in dissolving breath films for decades. Supporting cast: cellulose and mannitol, plant-derived structurants that keep the film uniform so every strip carries the same dose.
The actives
Each SKU carries its labeled actives distributed evenly through the film — caffeine and L-theanine in Energy, melatonin and GABA in Sleep, collagen peptides in Beauty, probiotics in Probiotic + Metabolism, and so on. Every active and every milligram is printed on the Supplement Facts panel. If it's in the film, it's on the label — there is no “proprietary blend” anywhere in the lineup.
If it's in the film, it's on the label.
The taste layer
Strips are sweetened with stevia (steviol glycosides), monk fruit extract, and erythritol — no sugar, nothing artificial doing the heavy lifting — plus natural flavors: cranberry, raspberry, mango, mixed berry, strawberry-peppermint, chocolate. Malic acid and pectin round the edges. The design goal is a clean, brief flavor that ends when the film does.
What's NOT in it
The shorter list is the more interesting one. No water needed — the format carries itself. No capsule shell, because there's nothing to encase. No compression binders or flow agents, because nothing is being pressed into a tablet. No coatings, because there's nothing to hide. A strip is closer to a formulation printed on a dissolvable page than to a pill — what remains is the film, the actives, and the flavor.
That's the whole anatomy. Thirty strips to a tin, one strip to a dose, every ingredient accounted for — read any of our Supplement Facts panels and you'll recognize every line on it.
References
- Prajapati VD, Jani GK, Khanda SM. Pullulan: an exopolysaccharide and its various applications. Carbohydrate Polymers. 2013;95(1):540–549. source
- Singh RS, Kaur N, Rana V, Kennedy JF. Pullulan: a novel molecule for biomedical applications. Carbohydrate Polymers. 2017;171:102–121. source
- U.S. Food & Drug Administration. GRAS Notice No. GRN 000099: Pullulan. Agency response letter, 2002. source