Knee & Joint Material Map — A Thousandfold Dose Spread, and Names the Register Fixes

All figures come from the Consumer Affairs Agency “Foods with Function Claims” notification database, snapshot of 5 October 2026, counted by functional ingredient name after splitting multi-ingredient entries on their separators. “Past twelve months” means a notification date on or after 1 October 2025.

1. A thousandfold spread in dose

Ingredients used for knee and joint claims, by notification count and modal daily amount.

Functional ingredient name	Total	Active	Past 12 mo.	Modal daily amount
Salmon nasal cartilage proteoglycan	195	145	34	10 mg (84) / 16 mg (48)
N-acetylglucosamine	134	87	16	500 mg (51) / 300 mg (32)
Glucosamine hydrochloride	97	45	2	1,500 mg (51) / 2,000 mg (14)
Bonito-derived elastin peptide	84	58	8	75 mg (74)
Collagen peptide	68	51	7	3,000 mg (17) / 2,000 mg (15)
Undenatured type II collagen	54	16	2	10 mg (26) / 3.2 mg (7)
Salmon nasal cartilage type II collagen	17	16	7	16 mg (14)
Undenatured type II collagen (as triple helix)	8	8	8	3.2 mg (5) / 2.4 mg (3)
Chondroitin sulfate	8	7	1	60 mg (5)

From 3.2 mg to 3,000 mg is about a thousandfold. That is not a statement about efficacy — it is what the materials are. Putting 3,000 mg into a tablet and putting 3.2 mg into one are different engineering problems with different excipient budgets. A brief that says only “we want a joint ingredient” comes back to this point every time. Fix the dosage form and the daily ceiling first, then choose the material.

2. The register fixes how the name is written

The most commonly missed constraint in this category is the wording of the ingredient name.

As notified	Notifications
Salmon nasal cartilage-derived proteoglycan	195
Proteoglycan (no origin stated)	1

Virtually every filing carries the origin in the name. A specification that says only “contains proteoglycan” cannot carry the figure into a notification. The first sourcing question is therefore: can the content be stated on the specification sheet under the same wording the register uses?

The same shift is underway for undenatured type II collagen. The older name has 54 cumulative notifications but only 16 active and 2 in the past twelve months, while all eight notifications of “undenatured type II collagen (as triple helix)” are from the past twelve months. The parenthesis declares what was measured to arrive at the stated milligrams, and new filings have moved to it. A specification written to the older name will need to be reissued on the newer basis.

3. Glucosamine is moving from the hydrochloride to the N-acetyl form

Glucosamine appears under three names, and the flow between them is clear.

Ingredient name	Total	Active	Past 12 mo.	Modal daily amount
N-acetylglucosamine	134	87	16	500 mg
Glucosamine hydrochloride	97	45	2	1,500 mg
Glucosamine (no salt stated)	12	1	0	1,500 mg

Two consequences for sourcing. First, the required amount differs threefold (1,500 mg against 500 mg). Second, filing a new notification on the hydrochloride means a thin pool of comparable notifications — 2 in the past twelve months against 16.

Origin matters as well. Most glucosamine is made from shrimp and crab shells, and shrimp and crab are mandatory allergen labelling items in Japan. A fermentation-derived grade removes that constraint. See the glucosamine guide for origin and form.

4. Some “joint” ingredients are notified for skin

Counting the words that appear in the notified claim text shows where each material’s centre of gravity actually sits.

Ingredient	Frequent claim terms (count)
Salmon nasal cartilage proteoglycan	cartilage 195 · joint 165 · stairs 143 · walking 130
Salmon nasal cartilage type II collagen	knee 17 · walking 17 · cartilage 17 · joint 16
N-acetylglucosamine	joint 121 · knee 118 · stairs 114 / skin 32 · dryness 31
Glucosamine hydrochloride	joint 83 · bending 41 · discomfort 30
Collagen peptide	skin 37 · discomfort 31 · joint 24
Bonito-derived elastin peptide	joint 28 · discomfort 27 · skin 25 · dryness 25 · moisture 24

Collagen peptide’s most frequent term is skin; joint comes third. Elastin puts joint and skin almost level. Circulate either internally as “a joint material” and the notifications you can actually cite sit in a different indication. Proteoglycan and salmon nasal cartilage type II collagen, by contrast, cluster on the vocabulary of movement — cartilage, stairs, walking. The same structure appears in the beauty ingredient map.

5. What we carry, and what we do not

To be straightforward: salmon nasal cartilage proteoglycan, the most-notified ingredient in this category, is not currently in our catalogue. Tell us if you need it and we will look into sourcing. What we do carry:

• Fermented N-acetylglucosamine — fermentation-derived, so no crustacean allergen labelling
• Glucosamine — confirm origin and salt form on the specification
• Chondroitin sulfate (porcine, 70%) / (20%) — two content grades; the same charge delivers 3.5× different amounts of the target component
• MSM — not registered as a functional ingredient; used as an ordinary food ingredient
• Fish collagen — depending on species, salmon or mackerel trigger recommended labelling

6. Four things to settle before ordering

1. Fix the dosage form and daily ceiling first — a 3,000 mg material and a 10 mg material are different projects
2. Can the specification use the notified wording? Including “salmon nasal cartilage-derived” and “(as triple helix)”
3. What is the denominator? Per gram of raw material, or per daily serving
4. Origin and allergen labelling — shrimp and crab are mandatory; salmon, mackerel, gelatin and pork are recommended. A fermentation route can remove some of these

FONTIA compiles, for an ingredient you are evaluating, the number of comparable notifications, the distribution of daily amounts, and the claim wording actually used — including for materials not in our catalogue.