NSF Supports FDA's Increased Enforcement to Safeguard Against Adulterated Dietary Supplements and Nutritional Products

This is why professional sports organizations asked NSF to develop the NSF Certified for Sport program to reduce the risk that a dietary or sports supplement contains banned or disqualifying performance enhancing substances.

12/17/2010 --- NSF International, an independent public health organization that tests and certifies dietary supplements to protect against adverse health effects, fully supports the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) announcement yesterday that reemphasizes and reinvigorates the FDA's legal authority to aggressively eliminate adulterated dietary supplements in the marketplace. In a letter to manufacturers of dietary supplements, the FDA asserted that the problem of "spiked" supplements has grown significantly in recent years, and now constitutes "a significant public health problem." The FDA letter reminds companies of their legal obligations and responsibility to prevent tainted products from reaching the U.S. market and that the companies should take appropriate steps to insure that their products do not contain adulterating substances that can cause serious adverse health consequences.

NSF applauds the FDA's recommendation that dietary supplement manufactures, importers, distributors and retailers understand and investigate their full supply chain and review their manufacturing and quality assurance activities to insure the lawfulness, quality and safety of their products and, as required by existing federal regulation, that dietary supplement components conform to established product specifications and that they maintain documentation of the qualification of a supplier for the purpose of relying on a supplier's certificate of analysis.

As the developer of the U.S. national standard for dietary supplements and provider of accredited third-party testing and certification of dietary supplements, NSF has in-depth knowledge of the supplement manufacturing and retailing industries and possesses a strong reputation for protection of public health. This is why professional sports organizations asked NSF to develop the NSF Certified for Sport program to reduce the risk that a dietary or sports supplement contains banned or disqualifying performance enhancing substances. The NSF Certified for Sport program is recognized by the National Football League (NFL), Major League Baseball (MLB), Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES), the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) and the PGA, among other major sports organizations, and demonstrates that spiked or adulterated products in the marketplace can be minimized with the help of third-party certification labels that consumers can trust when purchasing supplements.

In addition, market sampling and independent testing of "suspect" products by NSF International researchers confirms the FDA's findings that illegal supplements spiked with steroids, erectile dysfunction drugs and stimulants are very readily available from both retail stores and internet merchants. That is one of the reasons that major league sports organizations only allow NSF Certified for Sport supplements and nutritional products into their locker rooms.

NSF International applauds FDA's announcement and stands ready to assist in reducing this public health concern.