Sports Certifications

Sports certifications exist for a specific reason:

Reducing the risk of banned substance exposure.

In competitive environments, even trace contamination can lead to failed drug tests, regardless of intent.
These certification programs are designed to address that risk through testing and process controls.

They do not define what a supplement should be.
They define what it must not contain.

At a high level, sports certifications focus on three signals:

• Banned substance screening — testing against lists aligned with organizations such as WADA
• Contamination control — reducing the likelihood of undeclared or cross-contaminated compounds
• Ongoing verification — repeated testing across batches to maintain consistency over time

Different programs implement these principles in different ways:

• NSF Certified for Sport — structured certification with strong institutional adoption
• Informed Choice — continuous monitoring with emphasis on risk reduction
• BSCG — detection-focused testing targeting undeclared drugs and high-risk substances

These systems overlap, but they are not interchangeable.

All of them reduce a specific type of risk.
None of them evaluate formulation quality, dose relevance, or product effectiveness.

A product can be safe for sport and still be poorly designed.
Safety is a constraint. Not a signal of value.