Assurance for Athletes

At Healthspan Elite® we have made Informed-Sport part of our existing quality assurance systems to ensure that every product in our range is safer for athletes to use. The programme provides the highest level of assurance that a product is free from a wide range of substances banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

What's the risk?

Any athlete who competes or is named as a member of a team participating in a competition at any level within the UK, is eligible for drugs testing
As many as 1 in 10 well-known European supplement brands contain substances banned by WADA
The risk is real and can lead to a lifetime ban

Stringent Quality Control

Healthspan Elite® have been working closely with Informed-Sport who provide high quality analytical testing to minimise the risk of banned contaminants finding their way into our products and into the sports industry.

This rigorous certification programme is voluntary for supplement companies who wish to register some, or all, of their products and carry the Informed-Sport logo on those products.

Athletes who see the Informed-Sport logo, such as on the entire Healthspan Elite® range, can be assured it has undergone an extensive screening programme for substances banned by sport and is safer to use than supplements which do not carry the logo. This only applies when the logo is displayed on the packaging and not just online. A logo solely on a website only signifies the retailer’s products have been manufactured on a site whose facilities meet the programme’s quality standard and this does not mean that the actual products have been batch-tested

The Informed-Sport programme is run by LGC (formerly HFL Sport Science), one of the world's leading sports doping control laboratories. It assures athletes that products have been regularly tested for over 146 substances considered prohibited in sport. Testing methods are validated and accredited to the ISO 17025 standard in supplements/ingredients in each of the relevant matrices for complete confidence. Since the inception of the programme, Informed-Sport have tested over 35,000 product samples and no product on the programme has ever been implicated in a positive drugs test.

What does certified mean?

A certified Informed-Sport product is one which has passed the programme’s manufacturing quality system audit and rigorous product testing. This includes:

1. Pre-registration product testing which includes the testing of 5 samples from different production runs

2. Extensive product evaluation, including analysis of the formulation, label claims and nutritional labelling

3. Raw material evaluation, looking at the quality of the ingredients, the supplier and storage

4. Manufacturer review to ensure the validity of accreditations

5. Assessment of the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and quality systems in place for every company which has handled the product

6. Batch testing of every single production run of that product prior to release for sale

Only after the audit is satisfactory and the product testing has shown no contamination issues can the product be registered into the programme and carry the Informed-Sport mark.

UKAD and Informed-Sport

On their website UKAD advises exercising caution when deciding whether to supplement and to take the following steps:

1. Undertake thorough internet research

2. Only use batch-tested products

3. Check a product carries the INFORMED-SPORT logo and the batch is listed on their website Informed-Sport risk minimisation programme

Further to this, it is advisable for all athletes to look for the Informed-Sport mark such as is on the Healthspan Elite® range.