Doping- and additive-free products for athletes

Doping- and additive-free products for athletes

The Informed-Sport under the control of WADA and there are products that meet Olympic standards, which elite athletes can use with peace of mind.

Hammer Nutrition is a Informed-Sport offers a wide range of products approved/verified by the program for athletes and professional sports teams. The products in the product range can be used by all athletes with peace of mind, as they do not contain prohibited and/or contaminated substances.

The Informed-Sport program certifies that all dietary supplements and ingredients bearing the Informed-Sport logo are free of all prohibited substances. Hammer Nutrition products are checked by LGC Sports Science ( All American Pharmaceutial ) leading anti-doping laboratory.

From 2020, you can find the list of products directly tested by Informed-Sport here!

About Informed-Sport

We value your reputation as much as our own. One in ten dietary supplements can be contaminated with ingredients and compounds banned in sports, which is why, to ensure that our certified products are safe for athletes and people tested for drugs/doping, we test each batch for banned substances before it is released.

Research has shown that some dietary supplement products are contaminated at low levels with substances banned by WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) and other sports bodies. The aim of Informed-Sport is to work closely with dietary supplement manufacturers and suppliers, reviewing the quality assurance systems operating in the manufacturing plant, as well as providing high-quality analytical tests on products and ingredients in order to minimize the occurrence of prohibited pollutants in sport.

In addition, the program also aims to provide athletes with an effective risk management service in order to choose products that have passed the quality control tests required in elite sports.

The Informed-Sport (2008) certification program is provided by one of the world's leading sports doping control laboratories, HFL Sport Science created by what we now know as LGC. Although LGC has been testing supplements since 2002, it became clear that there was a need for a comprehensive certification program that not only tests for banned substances, but also ensures that the products are manufactured to the highest quality.

The Informed-Sport certification is a voluntary program for those already a reputable dietary supplement for companies who want to register some or all of their products and place the Informed-Sport trademark on their products. Athletes, when they see the Informed-Sport logo on a product, can be assured that it has gone through rigorous inspections and tests to ensure it is free of banned substances and safe to use.

Details about Informed-Sport and our testing process

Although there is no 100% guarantee that a particular dietary supplement is free of all prohibited substances, Informed-Sport provides an effective risk management service to athletes, enabling them to make informed decisions when choosing a product.

Over the past two decades, LGC has analyzed tens of thousands of dietary supplement and ingredient samples, and experience has shown that the incidence of contamination among high-quality products that are regularly tested for banned substances is significantly lower (better than 1 out of 5,000), compared to products that do not undergo prohibited substance testing, which thus they may have a one in ten risk .

Informed-Sport its certification process requires both an inspection of its production and quality assurance system , as well as testing during the pre-registration of the product. Quality assurance systems, raw materials and the supply chain are thoroughly reviewed to ensure there is little risk of contamination in the finished product. This includes, but is not limited to:

1. Product evaluation , including the preparation, the description on the label, the labeling of the nutritional composition, the examination of pollutants...etc.
2. Raw material evaluation at the production sites
3. A review of accreditations such as Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) in the manufacturing and packaging plant
4. Review of the quality assurance system and standard operating procedure (SOP) a for storing and handling raw materials regarding, review of the standard operating regulations required for production and packaging, equipment cleaning, staff training, product traceability...etc.
5. Raw material suppliers evaluation
6. Storage and distribution of finished goods evaluation
   
   

Testing of the product pending certification is also required before admission to the Informed-Sport program. This includes testing 5 samples from different production runs to establish testing history.

The given product can only receive the Informed-Sport label and registration in the program if it passes the inspection and the product did not show contamination problems during testing.

After the product receives the certificate, we take regular blind samples and tests in order to ensure that the products on the market are still safe for athletes to use. All tested product lines are listed on the website. These can be found in on the "qualified products" page or simply enter the name of the nutritional supplement you are looking for in the search bar.

Overview of the certification process

Informed Sport is a certification program for sports nutritional supplements that assures athletes that products bearing the Informed Sport label are regularly tested for substances prohibited in sport. In addition, Informed Sport always makes sure that the products are manufactured in accordance with high quality standards. Responsible sports nutrition supplement manufacturers have made Informed Sport part of their existing quality assurance system in order to make their products safer for athletes.

First stage: Manufacturing process review
Second stage: Continuous testing (each lot with an additional plus blank sample)
Third stage: Use of logo

Research has shown that continuous testing has proven to be a highly effective method of preventing batch-to-batch contamination. Informed Sport is the only program that requires continuous testing, which is why products with the Informed Sport logo have won the trust of athletes.

When athletes see the Informed Sport logo on a product, they can be sure that the product has undergone rigorous inspections and tests to ensure it is safe to use.

The certification process

Companies can request that their finished products be labeled with the Informed-Sport certificate. The program allows companies to display the Informed-Sport logo on their certified products, thereby assuring consumers and athletes alike that their products they are regularly tested for substances prohibited in sports .

Details of the certification process can be seen below. Production sites and raw material handling facilities can also be certified with the Informed-Sport certificate.

The certification of the finished product and the ingredient consists of three stages:

Section 1: Carrying out a complete review of the quality assurance systems operating in the manufacturing plant.

•        Product/ingredient evaluation
•        Evaluation of raw material at each manufacturing/packing site
•        Raw material supplier evaluation procedure
•        Certification and SOP (Standing Instruction) overview for all production/packaging/storage areas
•        Third Party Manufacturer (TPM)
  
  

Section 2: Pre-qualification sampling

Before we certify a product/ingredient with the Informed-Sport certificate, five pre-qualification samples of the product are tested against the LGC Prohibited Substances Additional Indicator. These samples must show no evidence of contamination with prohibited substances.

Samples must be taken from at least 3 production runs/lots. This testing is done in parallel with the product/ingredient evaluation (Stage 1). The time of the analysis is usually 7-10 working days from receipt in the laboratory, and the results are reported via the certificate of analysis.

Section 3: Post-certification requirements

Once Stages 1 and 2 are completed and Informed-Sport requirements are met, the product will be certified by Informed-Sport. We will then provide you with a license agreement allowing the new member company to use the Informed-Sport logo on the certified product/ingredient. The certified product is listed on the Informed-Sport website. This includes details of all items tested and a link to the member company's website is added.