U.S. Anti-Doping Agency Launches Supplement Reference for Athletes

COLORADO SPRINGS, COThe U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) has debuted its Supplement 411 program, designed to help athletes navigate the information on supplement safety, risks, certification and science. According to the agency, the initiative addresses several important goals: challenging commonly held perceptions that dietary supplements are safe and effective; raising awareness of the risks in the dietary supplement marketplace; and providing guidance, resources and steps that can be taken to reduce risk as much as possible if an individual decides to use dietary supplements.

"The current marketplace has created a dilemma in which all athletes must balance their beliefs that these products provide a nutritional benefit, with the very real threat of the potential for dangerous health side-effects, said USADA CEO Travis T. Tygart.

Supplement 411 will list products USADA has determined are of a higher risk to contain prohibited substances. For substances appear on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Prohibited List, the initial contains more than 100 products that either openly list such ingredients on their labels or have been tested and shown to contain any of these ingredients. USADA noted the list is growing and will be updated regularly.

NSF International is currently the only independent third party testing and certification organization to meet the stringent requirements of USADAs Supplement 411 program, which requires Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) audits and toxicological reviews. NSF, which developed the only American national standard for dietary supplements (NSF/ANSI Standard 173), developed the NSF Dietary Supplement Certification and NSF Certified for Sport® programs to test and certify the safety and quality of dietary and sports nutrition products.

The NSF Dietary Supplement Certification program requires GMP audits of manufacturing facilities, as well as toxicology, label claim and contaminant reviews. The NSF Certified for Sport® program takes this further by also screening supplements for more than 165 banned substances and undeclared ingredients including stimulants, narcotics, steroids, diuretics, beta-2-agonists, masking agents and other substances, as well as unsafe levels of contaminants. The NSF Certified for Sport® program is recognized by major sports organizations such as the NFL, MLB, and their player associations, PGA, LPGA and the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES). NSF recently launched its Certified for Sport App for both iPhone and Android mobile phones.