Zinc is a trace mineral your body cannot make, so it arrives from food or a supplement. It supports immune function, skin health, taste and smell, and it keeps hundreds of enzymes working. Australian adults need 14 mg a day (men) or 8 mg (women) from food, and Hoola carries 38.9 mg of zinc citrate dihydrate in the 10 g serve, listed on the public register as AUST L 508472 (published 8 August 2025). Of all its jobs, taste and smell is the one almost nobody hears about.
TL;DR
- Zinc supports immune function, skin health, taste and smell. Underneath those three sits the reason it matters at all: it is required for the working of hundreds of enzymes.
- Australian adults need 14 mg a day (men) or 8 mg (women). The US and Canadian values are 11 mg and 8 mg.
- Form changes absorption: zinc citrate and zinc gluconate absorb at around 61% in young adults, zinc oxide at 50%.
- Hoola uses zinc citrate dihydrate at 3.89 mg per gram, which is 38.9 mg in the daily 10 g serve, and the form is named on the register entry. The same entry lists the elemental equivalent: 12.5 mg of zinc per serve.
- Labels do not all count the same thing. The US convention is to declare elemental zinc, not the weight of the whole compound, so check that before comparing two products.
What does zinc do in your body?
Zinc is present in every cell, and most of its work is enzymatic. It is required for the catalytic activity of hundreds of enzymes, and one count puts the figure above 300, covering metabolism, digestion and nerve function. The three jobs a label names, immune function, skin health, and taste and smell, all sit on top of that basic work.
Your body cannot make zinc, so it has to come from food, and most of what you hold sits in muscle and bone.
Zinc supports immune function and it is needed for the normal working of immune cells, which is why it turns up in almost every multivitamin on the shelf. Zinc supports skin health as well, and the skin holds a relatively high share of the body's zinc: around 5%.
Why is zinc linked to taste and smell?
Because both senses rely on an enzyme that needs zinc to work. Your body needs zinc in order to smell and taste, and one of the enzymes crucial for those two senses is dependent on the mineral. The US fact sheet on zinc lists the sense of taste among its roles in the body, and taste and smell is one of the three areas Hoola's zinc line names.
That is the machinery behind the phrase on a label. Supports taste and smell names a role with real biology under it, and it is the quietest of the three the formula covers.
How much zinc do you need a day?
Australian adults need 14 mg of zinc a day (men) or 8 mg (women). The US and Canadian reference values land close to that: 11 mg for men and 8 mg for women from age 19.
| Guidance | Adult daily figure |
|---|---|
| Australian RDI, men | 14 mg |
| Australian RDI, women | 8 mg |
| US and Canadian RDA, men | 11 mg |
| US and Canadian RDA, women | 8 mg |
Those are the intake figures to aim at, and most people reach them the ordinary way. Harvard's nutrition team puts it plainly: most people, including vegetarians, can get enough zinc through a balanced and varied diet.
The catch is that zinc does not come out of every plate equally well. Zinc from animal foods is absorbed better than zinc from plant foods, and the amount you take up from a meal can range from about 5% to more than 50%, depending on how much plant material is in it. Compounds called phytates, found in legumes, grains and seeds, bind zinc and hold some of it back. Soaking beans, grains and seeds for several hours before cooking reduces that binding and helps more of the mineral through. That is the practical difference between a plate of steak and a plate of lentils, and it is the reason a plant-heavy diet asks a little more care on this mineral than on most others.
Food covers the figures for most people. A daily formula is the top-up for the days when meals do not deliver.
Does the form of zinc matter?
At the margin, yes, and the absorption research is specific about where the margin sits. Zinc from supplements that contain zinc citrate or zinc gluconate is absorbed at around 61% in young adults, while absorption from zinc oxide is 50%. The US fact sheet lists zinc sulfate, zinc acetate and zinc gluconate among the common forms on a shelf. Healthline's guidance to readers is to pick zinc citrate or zinc gluconate rather than zinc oxide, which it describes as poorly absorbed.
Hoola uses zinc citrate dihydrate, which sits in that better-absorbed group. The register entry lists it at 3.89 mg per gram, which works out to 38.9 mg in the daily serve, and the form is named in full rather than folded into a blend line. You can see the number against the rest of the panel on the Hoola Daily Multivitamin page, and the mineral gets its own treatment in the zinc collection.
Where does zinc come from in food?
Oysters lead by a distance, and the rest of the list is ordinary whole food. Meat, seafood, dairy and eggs carry the most, with legumes, nuts, seeds and whole grains adding to the total.
| Food, as published | Zinc per serve |
|---|---|
| Oysters, Eastern, farmed, raw, 3 ounces | 32 mg |
| Beef, bottom sirloin, roasted, 3 ounces | 3.8 mg |
| Blue crab, cooked, 3 ounces | 3.2 mg |
| Breakfast cereal, fortified with 25% of the daily value for zinc, 1 serving | 2.8 mg |
| Oats, regular and quick, cooked with water, 1 cup | 2.3 mg |
| Pumpkin seeds, roasted, 1 ounce | 2.2 mg |
| Cheese, cheddar, 1.5 ounces | 1.5 mg |
| Lentils, boiled, half a cup | 1.3 mg |
| Greek yogurt, plain, 6 ounces | 1.0 mg |
| Egg, 1 large | 0.6 mg |
One number makes the shape of it clear. A single 3 ounce serve of oysters carries 32 mg, which is more than twice the Australian daily figure for men. An egg carries 0.6 mg, so scrambled eggs for breakfast will not do it. Zinc is not a rare mineral, but the big servings come from a short list, and most people get there through variety rather than one hero food.
How do you check a zinc supplement on the label and the register?
Three checks settle almost any zinc product, and the third is the one most people skip.
- Read the form and the number together. Zinc on its own tells you nothing. A quantity with a form beside it tells you what the product is built on, and the absorption figures above tell you why the form earns a second of your time. Then check what the number counts. On a US Supplement Facts panel, the declared amount is elemental zinc, not the weight of the whole zinc-containing compound. Two products can print very different figures for the same mineral if they count different things, so compare like with like: same form, same unit, same serve size.
- Look up the listing number. Listed medicines in Australia carry an AUST L number, and the public register at tga.gov.au/resources/artg shows the ingredients and quantities behind it. Search 508472 and the entry that comes back is HOOLA, published 8 August 2025, sponsored by Hoola Australia Pty Ltd. The register also tells you how crowded the shelf is: a keyword search for zinc there returns 15,544 results, 2,969 of them in the medicines category.
- Compare the entry with the label, per serve. Register entries work in grams and labels work in serves, so do the multiplication once. Hoola's 3.89 mg per gram becomes 38.9 mg in the 10 g scoop, and if a panel carries a blend line with no numbers next to it, the entry is where you find out what a serve actually contains. Every one of the formula's 27 actives is listed with its quantity in the full ingredient breakdown.
None of those checks asks you to trust a brand's copy. They ask for a number, a search box and about two minutes.
Zinc in one scoop, with the number published
Hoola is one 10 g scoop into a glass of cold water each morning, and zinc is one of the 27 actives on its register entry: zinc citrate dihydrate at 3.89 mg per gram, which is 38.9 mg in the serve.
The 30 day supply is $125.00, which the product page prints as $4.16 a serve, and the page showed 14 reviews when we checked on 17 September 2026.
Three support areas, one form, one published number. You can read the whole build on Hoola's formula page before you decide anything. One scoop. One glass of cold water. One less thing to worry about.
Frequently asked questions
What are the 5 benefits of zinc?
Zinc's three headline jobs are immune function, skin health, and taste and smell. The nutrition references list two more: zinc is required for the working of hundreds of enzymes involved in metabolism, digestion and nerve function, and it plays a role in cell growth and division.
How much zinc is in Hoola?
One 10 g scoop carries 38.9 mg of zinc citrate dihydrate, listed on the register as 3.89 mg per gram, with an elemental equivalent of 12.5 mg of zinc per serve. The form is named on the entry, which is what makes the number checkable, and the same line sits beside the other 26 actives with their own quantities.
Can you take zinc and magnesium together?
Both minerals are common in multinutrient formulas, and Hoola's formula is one of them: the zinc arrives as zinc citrate dihydrate, and the magnesium arrives attached to the vitamin C in the formula as magnesium ascorbate. The absorption caution the fact sheets attach to zinc concerns iron: 25 mg or more of iron taken at the same time can reduce how much zinc you absorb. If you take several products, the register entry is the tidy way to add up what you are actually getting, because each active is listed there separately.
Why do I feel so good after taking zinc?
Most of what people describe comes from the parts of the routine around the product: the glass of water, the same time each morning, a bit more attention on food. Zinc is not a stimulant, and there is no hit to feel. What you can check is the part that does not depend on a feeling, and that is the form, the number and the listing on the register.
Does the number on a zinc label mean elemental zinc?
Not always, and that is exactly why it is worth knowing. The US fact sheet spells out the convention on its own panels: a Supplement Facts panel declares the amount of elemental zinc in the product, not the weight of the entire zinc-containing compound. Hoola's register entry names the ingredient in its formulated form instead, zinc citrate dihydrate, with 3.89 mg per gram. The practical rule covers both styles: before you compare two products, check what each number counts and what it is measured per.
Can you get enough zinc from food alone?
For most people, yes. Harvard's read is that most people, including vegetarians, can get enough zinc from a balanced and varied diet, and the food table above shows why: meat, seafood, dairy, eggs, legumes, nuts and whole grains add up across a normal week. Where the difficulty sits is absorption rather than access, because zinc from plant foods comes through less efficiently than zinc from animal foods. A daily formula is the simple cover for the days when meals do not deliver.
