Standards
Informed Choice
Informed Choice is a certification program that tests supplements for banned substances and verifies manufacturing quality for use in sport contexts.
Informed Choice answers a specific question:
Can this product be used with reduced risk of banned substance contamination?
It is a third-party certification program focused on sports use,
where even trace amounts of prohibited compounds can carry consequences.
While similar in intent to NSF Certified for Sport, it operates as an independent system with its own testing protocols and certification process.
At a high level, certification centers on three signals:
- Banned substance screening — testing against lists aligned with organizations such as WADA
- Manufacturing quality review — assessment of production processes and risk controls
- Ongoing monitoring — repeated testing to reduce variability and contamination over time
This is a risk-reduction standard.
It does not evaluate nutritional quality, formulation design, or effectiveness.
A product can be certified and still deliver minimal active ingredients or poorly aligned dosing.
The certification reflects contamination control, not product value.
See Also
NSF Certified for Sport is a certification program that tests supplements for banned substances and verifies label accuracy for use by athletes.
NSF is an independent certification organization that verifies product safety, label accuracy, and manufacturing compliance, with specialized programs such as NSF Certified for Sport.
cGMP (Current Good Manufacturing Practices) is a regulatory framework that defines how supplements must be manufactured to ensure consistency, quality control, and basic product safety.