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Undenatured type II collagen
The collagen of cartilage, taken from chicken and kept in its native, unbroken shape. There is no health claim for it on the EU register and, as far as our file records, no claim has been submitted for it. It sits in one formula, at 40 mg, because the randomised knee trial on file used exactly that amount.
WHAT WE ARE ALLOWED TO SAY
No authorised claim. None has been submitted.
There is no health claim for undenatured type II collagen on the EU register, so there is no wording for us to quote. It is not on the list of applicants either: our file records that no claim has been submitted for it under Regulation 1924/2006, and nothing for it appears in Regulation 432/2012.There is no health claim for undenatured type II collagen on the EU register, and no claim has been submitted for it, so there is nothing for us to quote.
It is in our formula for the joints, but that rests on one trial on file, not on a claim, and we do not attribute an effect to it. In Bones & joints, the authorised claims are for bones, and they come from the calcium, vitamin D3, vitamin K2 and magnesium next to it, not from the collagen.
WHY UNDENATURED
No claim to protect. The shape of the protein is the point.
No form of type II collagen carries an authorised claim, so the form is not a claim argument and we do not use it as one. Our regulatory file ties this ingredient to one specific form, undenatured UC-II from Lonza/InterHealth, and our form file marks it as the preferred one: it dissolves in water and tastes neutral. The same file marks it as not stable in liquid, which matters in a liquid system, and we say so below.
Our file records chicken cartilage as its origin. That makes it an animal protein: not vegan, not vegetarian, and not for you if you have a confirmed allergy to poultry or egg.
Native type II collagen, kept in its original shape rather than broken down into peptides. Our notes describe it acting in your gut rather than in your blood, which is why the amount is so small: 40 mg, against the 10 g at which we serve hydrolysed collagen in other formulas.
Our form file marks this form as not stable in liquid, and Bones & joints is a liquid formula. How it holds up in the cartridge is not documented yet, and we would rather write that down than leave it out.
Our notes describe a mechanism called oral tolerance. Most of the collagen is not absorbed at all: cells in the lining of your small intestine, in areas called Peyer's patches, present it to your immune system, and the regulatory immune cells this produces are said to travel on to the joints. Around 10–15% is absorbed as small peptides, peaking at about 2 hours, with a half-life of around 4 hours; the rest leaves through your gut, and none of it builds up. The trials our notes cite put any change 8 to 12 weeks away, and our own confidence in the ingredient is graded B. It is a proposed mechanism, not an authorised claim.Our notes say most of it is not absorbed at all: it is thought to act through the immune tissue of your gut. Around 10–15% is absorbed, and any change is put 8 to 12 weeks away.
WHERE IT APPEARS
One of the twenty-nine carries type II collagen.
It appears only in Bones & joints, the CORE formula taken each night with dinner, next to calcium, vitamin D3, vitamin K2, magnesium and chondroitin. The window is the formula's, set around the calcium, not its own. The knee trial on file used the same 40 mg a day we serve, in the same undenatured form. The formula is pending clinical validation and has its own exclusions, listed on its page.
THE CEILING
No upper limit set. We serve 40 mg.
EFSA has not established an upper intake level for undenatured type II collagen, and no NRV is set either. Our dose file records no ceiling at all, only the 40 mg a day used in the published work on file. The engine has no rule written for it yet: today, what keeps your total at 40 mg is that only one formula carries it.EFSA has not established an upper intake level for undenatured type II collagen. The one formula that carries it serves 40 mg, the dose of the trial on file.
Only Bones & joints carries it, at 40 mg each night. That is the dose of the randomised trial on file, which ran for 180 days in 191 people with symptomatic knee osteoarthritis. That is a reason to include it, not a permission to promise anything.
Our notes describe a mechanism that does not need the collagen to reach your blood, and record 40 mg a day as the amount used in the trial on file. Our dose file holds no other amount for it.
It contains chicken protein, a potential allergen: do not take it if you have a confirmed allergy to poultry or egg. It is not vegan or vegetarian. If you are pregnant or breastfeeding, the data are insufficient, so ask a healthcare professional first. Do not exceed the daily dose, keep it out of reach of young children, and do not use it in place of a varied, balanced diet. Bones & joints is also ruled out if you have high blood calcium or sarcoidosis, or take a vitamin K antagonist such as warfarin, because of the other ingredients in it.
WHAT IT REACTS WITH
Documented pairs, not hunches.
Undenatured type II collagen is one of the 140 ingredients in our library, so it has 139 possible partners. We have not documented any of them yet, out of the 443 pairs on file.
Our pair table has no row for it. In Bones & joints it shares a pour with calcium, vitamin D3, vitamin K2, magnesium and chondroitin, and none of those five pairings is documented. Unchecked, not cleared.
Our notes record no interaction with the CYP450 liver pathways that medicines go through: it is a native protein, handled mostly in your gut, and it does not build up. That is a note, not a tested pair.
Our drug table has no row for it, and the engine has no rule written for it. Nothing documented is not the same as proven safe, so if you take regular medication, ask first.
443 of the 9,730 possible pairs in our library are documented, which is 4.55%. The rest are not "safe", they are simply unchecked, and we would rather write that down than let the number look like a badge.443 of the 9,730 possible pairs in our library are documented, which is 4.55%. The rest are not safe, they are simply unchecked, and we would rather write that down than let the number look like a badge.
SOURCES
Everything on this page, with its reference.
Reviewed by VION nutrition team · last reviewed 16 September 2026
140 INGREDIENTS · 64 IN USE TODAY
Every one of them has a page like this.
What it is, what we are allowed to say about it, which formulas carry it, what it reacts with and where each of those statements comes from. No proprietary blends, no hidden amounts.