What Most Brands Won’t Explain, Because It Changes Everything

I’ve been in this industry a long time, and there’s something I need to say plainly.

This is the quiet scandal of the broth industry and almost no one explains it properly because once you do, the whole house of cards starts wobbling.

Bone broth has been marketed into oblivion. Gut health. Collagen. Glow. Healing. And yet, very few people are ever told how the broth they’re buying is actually made.

That’s not accidental.

Because once you understand the process, you start asking uncomfortable questions and not every product survives those questions.

What Real Bone Broth Actually Is

Real bone broth is not clever.
It’s not engineered.
It’s not optimised for margins.

It’s bones, water, and time.

Bones are simmered long enough for minerals, gelatin, and amino acids to naturally move into the liquid. Nothing is forced. Nothing is added later to “fix” it.

If that broth is dried properly, the only thing removed is water.

That’s it.

No starch.
No fillers.
No rebuilding.

Just broth, minus the liquid.

Where Things Start to Go Wrong

Most commercial broth powders don’t stay intact through processing.

Somewhere between cooking and packaging:

• structure is lost
• proteins fall out
• mouthfeel disappears
• flavour weakens

So instead of asking why that happened, many manufacturers patch it up.

This is where reconstructed broth comes in.

What Reconstructed Broth Really Means

Reconstructed broth is broth that’s been broken — then rebuilt to behave like broth again.

That rebuilding usually looks like:

• tapioca starch for bulk and thickness
• added collagen powder to inflate protein numbers
• salt or nutritional yeast to bring flavour back

On paper, it still qualifies as “bone broth”.
On a nutrition panel, it can look impressive.

But functionally, it’s no longer whole.

It’s been engineered to resemble broth — not preserved as broth.

That distinction matters.

The Problem With “xx% Bone Broth”

This number sounds authoritative. It’s not.

There is no clear, regulated definition of what “94% bone broth” actually means.

It does not have to mean:

• 94% bones
• 94% original liquid broth
• 94% finished product

In most cases, it means:

• 94% of the final blend is something the brand defines as “broth powder”
• which may already contain starch, salt, or added collagen

So yes — you can legally say “xx% bone broth” and still be selling a formulation.

Big percentages look transparent.
They’re often anything but.

Tapioca Starch: The Tell Tale Ingredient

This is my biggest issue with the industry, and I won’t dance around it.

Tapioca starch is used because:

• it’s cheap
• it bulks product
• it improves mouthfeel

It exists to solve a manufacturing problem, not a nutritional one.

From a gut health perspective:

• it adds rapidly digestible carbohydrate
• it contributes nothing to repair or nourishment
• it dilutes the very compounds people buy broth for

If starch is needed to make your broth behave like broth again, then something went wrong earlier.

That’s not ancestral food.
That’s formulation.

Why Added Collagen Is Another Clue

Collagen should already be in bone broth. Naturally.

So when collagen is added back in, it tells me one thing:

it didn’t survive the process.

Either it was lost, removed, or damaged.

Adding collagen later is not the same as preserving it from the start. It’s a workaround, and a convenient one, because collagen powder is cheap and marketable.

Real broth doesn’t need protein boosting.
It already earned it.

What About Broth Pastes and Liquid Concentrates?

This is where another category sits — shelf stable broth pastes and liquid concentrates.

Here’s the simple truth:

Real broth is wet, nutrient-dense, and perishable.

So to make it:

• thick like a paste
• stable at room temperature
• shelf stable for long periods

it has to be pushed well beyond its natural state.

That usually means:

• extreme reduction
• very high salt levels
• intense heat treatment
• pH manipulation
• or stabilisation systems

None of this is illegal. But none of it is neutral either.

The more you push broth away from what it naturally is, the more you change how it behaves in the body.

That’s the trade off of shelf stability — and it deserves to be understood, not glossed over.

How We Do It And Why We've Got Nothing To Hide

At Broth of Life, we don’t hide behind percentages or clever wording.

We start with:

• filtered rainwater
• organic, grass fed start to finish bones
• real vegetables
• time

We cook it properly as broth first.
Then we dry it carefully so the structure stays intact.

We don’t:

• add starch
• add fillers
• add collagen back in
• engineer texture

Our ingredient list looks like food because it is food.

It’s harder.
It’s slower.
It costs more.

But it survives scrutiny — and that matters.

Why This Actually Matters

If you’re buying bone broth for gut health, healing, or nourishment, the process matters as much as the ingredients.

Labels don’t tell the full story.
Percentages can distract.
Buzzwords are cheap.

Understanding how your broth was made is where the truth is.

And if a brand can’t clearly explain that — without smoke and mirrors — it’s worth asking why.

Because once you understand the difference between real broth and reconstructed broth, you can’t unknow it.

Real Bone Broth vs Reconstructed Broth vs Shelf-Stable Concentrates