Lexington, KY– A partnership has been created between Natural Products Association (NPA) and Informed-Choice, a globally recognized testing program, which assists US supplement manufacturers in decreasing the risks that their products could contain substances that have been forbidden by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Athletes will have peace of mind in knowing that the products that they are utilizing to train and compete with will be free of any banned substances.

“Athletes deserve to know the supplements they are using contain only those ingredients listed on the label,” said Daniel Fabricant, Ph.D., executive director and CEO of NPA. “Anyone who wants to know if a product is approved for use in sport will simply look for the Informed-Choice logo. Not only will NPA’s partnership with Informed-Choice increase athlete and consumer confidence, it will also raise retailer and supplier confidence. Informed-Choice is the leading global sport certification program and is excited to bring the established and respected certification program to our members. NPA had the first and oldest GMP certification program with third-party auditor Underwriters Laboratories (UL); the addition of Informed-Choice certification now gives our members a one-stop shop for all of their certification needs.”

NPA members will now have priority in having their manufacturing facilities become Informed-Choice Certified Sites, which will contribute to the enhancement of quality assurance throughout the US supplement industry.

“Informed-Choice is designed to minimize the risk of contamination, and the partnership with the NPA will help introduce the program to even more manufacturers, which can only be a good thing for the supplements industry in the US,” said Paul Klinger, Business Development Manager for Informed-Choice in the US. The program is affordable and accessible, and provides significant benefits to manufacturers that wish to show that their facility has been audited and tested for banned substances. We look forward to working closely with the NPA to help further enhance the levels of quality control in the manufacturing of sports supplements.”

As a result, this partnership is expected to increase the amount of Informed-Choice Certified sites across the country. With this increase, improvement should be seen in compliance towards federal standards and consumers will be further protected from products which may have been adulterated. Countries such as Australia, Europe, Japan, New Zealand, South Africa, as well as the US, have already benefited from the Informed-Choice certificate programs.

Becoming an Informed-Choice Certified site is a multiple step process. A thorough audit of the site, including manufacturing processes is performed, and the gathering of 20 swab samples is just the beginning steps to exclude the presence of banned substances being present. After the initial audit, 10 swabs are obtained every six months when the manufacturer is visited on site again and any changes the site may have undergone are assessed. Informed-Choice has been in existence since 2007 and along with certifying manufacturing facilities, it also certifies raw materials and finished products.

Informed-Choice is administered by LGC, an international life science measurement and testing company. With over 50 years of experience, LGC has doping control laboratories in Lexington, KY and Newmarket, UK that assist in its anti-doping program. Informed-Choice and Informed-Sport programs are the only international testing programs in the sports nutrition industry and have over 600 products certified.