HFL Supplement Testing in Muscle & Fitness - Informed-Sport

PART OF OUR EXCLUSIVE “HOW SUPPLEMENTS
ARE MADE” SERIES: AN IN-DEPTH, BEHIND-THE-
HFL
SCENES LOOK AT SPORTS NUTRITION PRODUCTS
BY NICOLA JOYCE
SUPPLEMENT
TESTING
PHOTOS BY TAUSEEF ASRI
Loading supplement samples
ready for solvent extraction
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Samples of supplements
are accurately weighed,
ready for analysis
EVEN A 1 MICROGRAM DOSE OF
A BANNED SUBSTANCE COULD
CAUSE AN ATHLETE TO FAIL A
DRUG TEST.IT’S A MINISCULE
AMOUNT, AND ONE WHICH IS
UNLIKELY TO GIVE ANY
PERFORMANCE BENEFITS,
BUT IT COULD STILL SEE
THEM FACING A BAN
concoctions of protein, amino acids and
more. But what exactly are they taking,
and if they are a tested athlete, how can
they be sure its doesn’t contain anything
listed as prohibited on the World
Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) list?
Sports supplementation is safe. That’s
the point, and it’s what the people at the
HFL Sport Science laboratories in
Cambridgeshire work so hard on a daily
basis to ensure. For their clients, who
supply supplements to elite athletes and
GB teams, the safety of their products
and processing methods is paramount.
After all, those athletes and teams will
be subjected to stringent drug tests and
can’t take any risks when choosing their
supplementation partners. And, for the
supplement companies who target the
more casual athlete, this promise of
safety monitoring is still important.
Only 5% of the population takes any
form of sport supplementation. The
industry is working hard to give the
other 95% confidence that supplements
can have their safety proven at laboratory-level.
Since 2002, HFL (one of the world’s
leading sports doping control and
research labs) has been testing supplements
from big-name manufacturers.
It all started with Maximuscle, and
now HFL tests over 5,000 samples every
year from more than 160 supplement
companies across 16 different countries.
Their testing methods are accepted as
the benchmark for quality control for
any ingestible supplement used by elite
athletes. The detail is staggering: HFL’s
tests can identify banned substances in
a ratio which equates to approximately
10 teaspoons of water in an Olympic
swimming pool. “We have to test for
such minute levels, “ explains Catherine
Judkins, Business Development
Manager, “because even a 1 microgram
dose of a banned substance could cause
an athlete to fail a drug test. It’s a
miniscule amount, and one which is
unlikely to give any performance
benefits, but it could still see them
facing a ban.”
There is no legal obligation for
supplement manufacturers to take part
Supplement samples are
first extracted into a solvent
Samples are then extracted using
solid phase extraction techniques to
concentrate and ‘clean up’ the samples
Concentrated samples
in test tubes - ready for
the next analysis step
You’re settling down to a
healthy dinner, which has
been perfectly balanced to
hit your macronutrient needs
after your second tough training session
of the day. As you relax and lift your
fork, the doorbell rings. It’s a drug-testing
officer asking for a urine sample.
You don’t raise an eyebrow; this, after
all, is the life of an elite athlete.
With the 2012 Olympic Games just
around the corner, this scenario will be
a common occurrence for every athlete
on Team GB. At elite level, the use of
banned substances is taken seriously
and every measure is used to weed out
drug cheats, both on the day of competition
and in the most unremarkable
moments of daily life in the years,
months and weeks leading up to
international competition. Elite athletes
can expect drug-testing officers at their
door any time and any day.
So how is the sports nutrition
industry, which supplies elite and
amateur athletes with everything from
ready-to-drink protein and electrolyte
drinks through carb and protein bars to
protein powders and creatines, as well
as a vast array of other supplements,
taking responsibility for their end of the
deal? Some manufacturers are doing all
they can to improve the safety, and the
image, of sport supplementation. And
the incentive is clear: over the past
20 years, use of sports supplements has
skyrocketed. Just a couple of decades
ago, nutritional supplementation use
was limited and grossly misunderstood,
even amongst elite sportspeople and the
coaches who helped shape their careers.
Protein powders tasted bad, mixed
poorly, research into efficacy was
minimal, and a general air of suspicion
hung over the use of anything which
came in pill or powder form.
How times have changed. These
days, it is not just elite athletes who
rely heavily on those pills and powders
for everything from immune system
support to the calories they need to do
their job. Enter any gym in any town,
and you will see men and women of all
ages with shaker bottles, knocking back
Adding solvent to the
concentrated samples,
ready for the liquid-liquid
extraction stage.
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Samples awaiting analysis by liquid
chromatography-mass spectrometry (LCMS)
in this kind of testing, but many choose
to do so, ploughing part of their profits
into the batch-testing of their products
and raw ingredients, or the auditing of
their processing facilities. These brands
are becoming visible ambassadors for
a safe, clean and trustworthy sports
nutrition industry. And the testing
process they sign up to is no lighthearted
nod to compliance. It’s a
highly-scientific, formal process which
shows the dedication of these companies
to the safety of the products they
sell. “The two most common sources of
contamination are use of contaminated
raw materials and cross-contamination
at the manufacturing facility,” explains
Paul Brown, who heads up HFL’s
analytical testing for sport supplements.
“Many supplement companies opt to
have HFL audit their facilities, or
choose to use facilities which have
already been audited and pronounced
compliant. They really do demonstrate
responsibility across the entire supply
chain.”
The testing process is as in-depth as
anything used by the pharmaceutical
industry. Behind the doors of the HFL
lab lies a world which illustrates just
what a serious business supplement
batch-testing has become. Multi-million
pound equipment and highly qualified
chemists and biochemists work quietly
and diligently to test the samples of
liquids, powders, gels, bars, tablets
and capsules which arrive daily from
supplement manufacturers before they
hit the supply chain. “From the actual
product which arrives at our door, we’ll
test a small sub-sample,” explains Paul
Brown. “Using scientific extraction and
separation techniques we process the
sample until we have a concentrated
extract. We then use analytical techniques
called liquid (or gas) chromatog-
The purified, concentrated supplement
sample is now ready for analysis
One of the instruments used
for supplement analysis:
liquid chromatography with
mass spectrometry (LCMS)
raphy coupled with mass spectrometry
to test the samples for prohibited
substances or masking agents. Our
testing process is so sensitive, it will
return results as minute as 10 ng/g for
steroids and 100 ng/g for stimulants,
and even lower in some cases.” B-samples
of products can also be securely
stored by HFL for the shelf-life of the
product.
In 2008, HFL launched Informed-
Sport, a supplement certification
programme supported by a number of
anti-doping authorities. It enables
manufacturers to put a recognised logo
on the packaging of their batch-tested
products. The Informed-Sport symbol
functions as a kite-mark for sports
supplements, making it simple to see
which have been safety-tested in line
with WADA practices. For manufacturers
signed up to Informed-Sport, every
single batch of registered product that
comes out of their manufacturing
Samples awaiting analysis by gas
chromatography-mass spectrometry (GCMS)
Loading a purified, concentrated
supplement sample onto the GCMS
instrument, ready for analysis
facilities will be tested. It’s a huge
commitment, and an impressive one.
The Informed-Sport advisory panel
includes heavyweight names from
academia, industry and anti-doping
associations. Alongside its testing
services, Informed-Sport works with
sports teams, sport’s national governing
bodies and athlete training camps to
educate dietitians, coaches, advisors
and the athletes themselves on the
importance of safe sport supplementation.
“We work closely with sports
anti-doping authorities and very much
support the messaging of UK Anti-Doping:
that tested athletes should assess
the need and assess the risks when
choosing a supplement product”, says
Catherine. “For elite, tested athletes,
Informed-Sport helps reduce the risks
involved in taking sports supplements,
to provide transparency and to help
those involved in sport put together a
strong risk management programme.”
The WADA list of banned substances
is updated every year in January. HFL
itself is audited annually by external
authorities to maintain its compliance
with international analytical standards.
Additional audits are also carried out
throughout the year and all equipment
used is checked and monitored on a
Chromatograph obtained from
supplement sample analysis
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Carrying out out additional LCMSMS
analysis on supplement samples.
routine basis. “Our testing methods are
very tightly regulated,” says Paul. “Our
testing service has to be fit for purpose,
and we have to have the highest level of
expertise on site and ensure we are
testing at the correct sensitivities to
keep up to date with WADA testing.”
Like the anti-doping industry as a
whole, the scientists at HFL are trying
to stay ahead of the curve in the run-up
to the 2012 Olympic Games. “Biological
threats and designer steroids will
always present a problem for everyone
on the front line of anti-doping,” says
Paul. “We have to make sure we have the
capabilities to stay abreast of developments,
and that we have methodologies
to test for new threats. We work with
lots of agencies and keep up with what
is becoming available through channels
such as the Internet. We are constantly
investing in new items of lab kit. And of
course the other end of the process is
important, too: sharing intelligence and
our findings with others committed to
making sports supplementation safer.”
The level of testing being carried out
at HFL’s laboratories, and the commitment
shown by supplement manufacturers
signed up to its certification
programmes, Informed-Sport and
Informed-Choice, demonstrate a level
of due diligence never seen before in
sports supplementation. It’s reassuring
for athletes, and a confidence boost for
those of us preparing to watch them
compete in this summer’s stellar line-up
of elite sporting events.
The results of the tests leaving HFL’s
Cambridgeshire laboratories have a
massive impact on elite athletes, but are
meaningful for anyone who uses sports
supplements at the gym or in their own
sporting endeavours. They give a
measurable, traceable boost of confidence,
illustrating just how far the
industry is going in its efforts to make
supplements safer. Across any sport and
in any gym, we can all now choose to
take supplements which have been
scientifically tested and pronounced
safer for use by elite athletes who must
comply with world anti-doping
regulations. M&F
For other articles in the How Supplements are
Made series, please see our story on Glanbia
(Good Manufacturing Practices, Quality Control)
www.muscle-fitness.co.uk/glanbia and Reflex Nutrition
(product development and more on GMP and QC in their
own factory) www.muscle-fitness.co.uk/reflex
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