What activity units actually mean

LACU, FIP, GALU, HUT — what these numbers are, why milligrams alone can mislead, and how to read an enzyme label like a researcher.

Milligrams measure mass, not activity

An enzyme is a tool, not a substance. Saying "100mg of lactase" tells you the mass of powder — not how much lactose that powder will actually break down. Two products with identical milligram values can deliver wildly different real-world results, because activity depends on enzyme purity, fold-strength, and assay conditions.

The activity units we publish

• LACU — Lactase units. The standardized assay for lactose breakdown.
• FIP — Federation Internationale Pharmaceutique. The lipase activity standard.
• HUT — Hemoglobin units, tyrosine. The protease activity standard.
• GALU — Galactosidase units. The α-galactosidase standard for legume-sugar breakdown.
• GDU — Gelatin Digestive Units. The bromelain standard.
• TU — Tyrosine Units. The papain standard.

How we use them

Our key enzyme actives are dosed against published literature in their standardized units. That gives you a way to compare us against another product or against a paper. Some of our synergistic combinations remain in proprietary blend form — that is how the formula was tested and that is the form we ship.

If you want to dig further, the Methodology page lists the literature each formula is benchmarked against.