UK Sports to work with Informed Choice on approved products for UK athletes

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UK Sport eases position on food supplements

By Shane Starling

7/22/2008- UK Sport has altered its position in regard to the use of food

supplements and now says supplements such as whey, isotonic drinks, creatine and

multivitamin and mineral complexes should be safe in most cases.

UK Sport - the Lotteries-funded agency that advises elite athletes in the UK -

made its announcement last week in conjunction with a new product testing

service being offered by UK-based third party testing service, HFL Sports

Science.

The food supplements industry and sports regulation groups were consulted in

developing the service.

Informed Sport

HFL's service, called Informed Sport, tests products for substances such as

steroids and stimulants that appear on the WADA's List of Prohibited Substances

and Methods.

Food supplements companies are charged between €220 and €315 to have

products tested by HFL.

A similar system exists in the Netherlands where companies can pay a fee of

between €550 and €800 to have their products tested in a Cologne lab set up

to meet WADA requirements.

" The issues around supplements are well known and we continue to see cases

where-by an adverse finding on an athlete may be linked back to a supplement

which contains prohibited substances that didn't appear on the label, " said Andy

Parkinson, acting director of Drug-Free Sport at UK Sport.

Informed Sport's formation reflects the reality that many athletes use

supplements despite the risk of contamination - however small - of the risk

involved.

" Despite the risks we know that many athletes continue to use supplements, "

Parkinson added.

" With that in mind, our role is very much to help them make sensible, informed

decisions to minimise the risk they face of inadvertent doping as, under the

rules of 'strict liability' in sport, they are responsible for any substances

found in their system. Ignorance about the threat of contamination isn't an

excuse. "

A spokesperson for UK-based sports supplements specialist, Maximuscle, said all

its products were tested to International Olympic Committee (IOC) standards as

it sponsored many professional sporting teams whose members were regularly

submitted to WADA testing.

Hickie, regulatory affairs manager at UK-based supplements manufacturer

and retailer, Holland & Barrett, and a vice chair with the European Specialist

Sports Nutrition Alliance (ESSNA), said the retailers offerings would be

unaffected by the move, because WADA testing was unnecessary and too costly for

" the man on the street " that purchased its products.

" But it sends a positive signal about the industry if athletes are safely using

food supplements to help them remain in optimum shape, " she told

NutraIngredients.com.

" But for us test all of our products to WADA standards would be place an unfair

and unnecessary financial burden upon our customers and would not be feasible

across the 1500 products we offer. "

Parkinson said the establishment of HFL's service would help alert athletes to

those companies that were pursuing best practices.

" Part of the process athletes need to go through when thinking about using

supplements is to distinguish between companies that follow quality assurance

procedures to the highest standards and those companies that do not, " he said.

" This is particularly important with so many products readily available via the

internet which may lay claim to being 'drug-free' when there are no guarantees

that this is the case. "

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S. Kalman PhD, RD, CCRC, FACN

Miami Research Associates

Director, Nutrition & Applied Clinical Research

6141 Sunset Drive #301

Miami, FL. 33143

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