Banned substance testing programs provide extended value to the sports nutrition market
Increased quality assurance and consumer confidence highlight benefits from expanding and improving certification programs.
Updated Jan. 11, 2019.
The sports nutrition market has expanded well beyond competitive amateur and professional athletes, but the primary certification unique to sports supplements is banned substance testing, which was primarily established to serve athletes subject to drug testing by Olympic and pro league bodies. However, the value of banned substance testing also may go beyond this initial focus to provide valuable insight on quality and integrity for any supplement brand or product aimed at sporting and active consumers.
There are four main banned substance testing firms whose services focus primarily on compounds on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) banned list, as well as on the lists maintained by professional and Olympic sports governing bodies.
Don Catlin set up the UCLA Olympic Analytical Laboratory in 1982 as the first sports drug testing lab in North America, the third in the world at the time. Based on his pioneering work on testing methods and approaches, the Banned Substance Control Group (BSCG) launched in 2004 to create a proactive means of protecting athletes from contaminated supplements. BSCG’s Certified Drug Free program tests for banned substances and illicit drugs in sports supplements.
World-class lab LGC (formerly HLF Sport Science) offers Informed-Choice as a quality assurance program for sports nutrition products, suppliers and manufacturing facilities in the United States—a similar program called Informed-Sport services Europe and the global market. Launched in 2007, the service includes a review of the manufacturer or supplier’s quality programs as well as monthly skip lot testing of products or materials to screen for banned substances.
NSF International’s Certified for Sport® is a widely adopted testing and auditing certification program established in 2004 to ensure sports supplements contain what is on the label and are free from contaminants, banned substances and masking agents. The process, developed via consensus involving regulatory, sports industry and consumer groups, includes toxicology review, facility inspections, lab testing/analysis and ongoing monitoring of formulation and supplier changes.
Research on sports supplements conducted in 2004 by the Institute of Biochemistry of the German Sport University Cologne gave birth to the Cologne List (Kölner Liste) of tested products, which the Olympic Training Center Rhineland (Olympiastützpunkt Rheinland, OSP) first compiled in 2006 with 25 products. In 2010, it allowed manufacturers to voluntarily offer products for testing, growing to a list of 270 products. The National Anti-Doping Agency Germany (NADA) integrated the Cologne List into its offerings in 2014.
As banned substance certification continues to draw attention, and the testing programs continue to tweak and expand their offerings, how do leagues, companies and consumers choose between the programs, and what is the value of these certifications to the overall sports nutrition marketplace?
Heightened Awareness of Banned Substance Testing
A major factor in choosing the best certification program is understanding what each one does and does not offer. Each program is careful to note there is no 100 percent guarantee a product is free from contamination, adulteration and, specifically, banned substances. However, these programs provide the market with a starting point for investigating which products are made with rigorous quality processes and are tested for banned substances.
Many professional and Olympic athletes, especially in the United States, are aware of banned substance certification and understand the basics of what they offer.