How we verify and rank

How products are selected

We include electrolyte drink mixes, tablets and similar products that are sold publicly and that publish enough information for a meaningful comparison. Selection is editorial and driven by what people search for — brand popularity, format coverage and category gaps. No brand or retailer can pay to be included, and no product is excluded because it has no commercial relationship with us.

Where the numbers come from

Every nutrition figure is transcribed from a manufacturer-controlled source: the official product page, the published nutrition panel, or brand documentation. Each product record stores the source URL, the source type, and the date a human last checked it. You can see all three on every product page.

“Not declared” is not zero

This is the rule the whole site is built on. If a brand does not publish a value — chloride, caffeine, calcium — we store it as undeclared and render it as “Not declared”. It is never recorded, sorted, filtered, ranked or compared as 0. Consequences you'll notice:

• A numeric filter (for example “under 5g sugar”) excludes products that don't declare sugar, rather than assuming they qualify.
• “Caffeine-free” means the brand explicitly declares 0mg — not that caffeine is absent from the label.
• Rankings never reward a product for a nutrient it simply didn't disclose.

Serving basis

All values are per single serving as defined by the manufacturer (one stick, one tablet, one bottle). Serving descriptions differ between brands, so we print the serving basis next to every column in a comparison instead of silently normalising it.

How we handle ingredients

We prioritize manufacturer-published ingredient lists and product documentation. We do not guess missing ingredients. When a manufacturer does not declare an ingredient or component in the source we use, we display “Not declared” rather than assuming it is absent.

Ingredient information can change when manufacturers reformulate products, so every product includes a verification date. Sweetener, coloring and dietary claims shown on the site are only the ones stored against a cited source — we never infer a certification, and we don't draw health conclusions from an ingredient list.

Caffeine

Caffeine has three distinct states and we never collapse them. “Caffeine-free” means the source explicitly declares 0mg. “Contains caffeine” means a figure or an explicit caffeine source is declared, and we show the declared amount where one exists. “Not declared” means the source we used does not establish either — it does not mean the product is caffeine-free.

Calcium

Calcium is recorded in milligrams per serving, taken from the declared panel only, and it follows the same rule as every other mineral: where the source does not declare it, the field stays “Not declared” and the product is excluded from calcium-based filters rather than being treated as 0mg.

Composition

Electrolyte sources — sodium chloride, sodium citrate, magnesium malate and so on — are read only from the declared ingredient list we cite. We never infer a compound from a mineral figure, so a composition field stays “Not declared” unless the ingredient data supports it.

Prices and retailers

Prices and retailer availability are a separate data layer from nutrition, verified on their own schedule and shown with the date they were last checked. Cost per serving is calculated only from a recorded price and a declared servings-per-pack figure — we never estimate either. Prices are indicative, time-sensitive and set by the retailer. Always confirm the current price, pack size and label on the retailer's own page before buying.

How affiliates are kept out of ranking

Affiliate relationships do not determine our product data, verification or comparison methodology.

Structurally, retailer and affiliate information lives in a separate layer from product data, and the search, filter and comparison engines only read declared product values and the criteria you select. Nothing in the ranking code reads whether a product has an affiliate relationship, what network it belongs to, or what it pays. Commission data is internal and never shown to visitors. If we ever sell a placement it will be labelled as sponsored and separated from organic results.

What a comparison result actually means

Comparisons and search results are based on declared product characteristics and the criteria you choose. They are not medical recommendations, and we do not rank any product as universally best, healthiest, safest or most effective. A result means something narrower and checkable: the best match for your selected criteria, the highest sodium among products matching your filters, or the lowest cost per serving among products with recorded pricing.

What “✓ Nutrition Verified” and “Last Verified” mean

“✓ Nutrition Verified” means the relevant information has been checked by a person against an appropriate primary source — a manufacturer product page, published nutrition panel or brand documentation — and that source is recorded against the product.

“Last Verified” is the date the underlying information was actually reviewed. It is not a claim that the product is continuously monitored: formulations, labels and pack sizes can change after a review, which is why we publish the date rather than implying it is always current. Products move through Recently Verified, Review Due and Review Required as that date ages.

To be explicit about what the badge does not mean: it is not independent laboratory testing by Electrolyte Nerd, not certification or approval by us, not medical approval, not a guarantee that every value on the label has been independently tested, and not a promise that the product is unchanged since the verification date. Always check the current pack before relying on a figure.

Duplicates and variants

Every record is matched on brand, product line and flavour before it is added, so an update to an existing product edits that record rather than creating a second one.

Where flavours or formulas differ in declared values — a caffeinated version, a sugar-containing version, a different mineral load — they are treated as separate products, because comparing them as one would misrepresent the label. Where a flavour is purely cosmetic and the declared panel is identical, it stays a single record.

Corrections

If you spot a figure that doesn't match a current label, send us the product, the field and the manufacturer source URL. A person re-checks it against that source; if it has changed we update the record and its verification date. We never change verified values on the strength of a request alone, and we don't retrospectively rewrite past verification records when a legal document or the site itself is updated.

Some retailer links are affiliate links; where they are, we say so next to the link itself. See our affiliate disclosure for the detail.

Medical disclaimer

This site is nutritional research and comparison, not medical advice. Sodium needs vary widely between people and conditions. If you have kidney, blood pressure or cardiac considerations, talk to a clinician before changing your electrolyte intake.