Informed Sport vs NSF Certified for Sport: what each one means

What each programme tests

NSF Certified for Sport is run by NSF. Its own description of the mark has three parts: "The contents of the supplement actually match what is printed on the label", "There are no unsafe levels of contaminants in the tested products", and "Products do not contain any of 290 substances banned by major athletic organizations".¹ The manufacturing site must be certified to good manufacturing practice and is "audited annually, or bi-annually based on grade"; production lots are tested for banned substances, "Lots tested will be listed online", and there is "Ongoing annual testing of product for compliance".²

Informed Sport is run by LGC, whose anti-doping laboratory in the UK does the testing.⁴ Before a product is admitted, "A minimum of three finished product samples are sent to the LGC supplement testing labs" and must show no contamination with prohibited substances. After that, each batch is tested "before the product can be released into the marketplace", using "LGC's ISO 17025 accredited prohibited substances supplement screen", and "The blind testing schedule starts at between one and four blinds per year".⁵ The programme screens for more than 285 substances prohibited in sport.⁵

Batch testing and certification are not the same thing

A certification is a status a product earns and keeps. Batch testing is the work that sits underneath it: checking the actual production run that ends up in a bag or a bottle. The difference matters because contamination happens in a batch, not in a brand.

Informed Sport makes batch testing the centre of its programme: no batch goes on sale until it has been tested. Its sister programme, Informed Choice, is built differently: "The key difference between Informed Sport and Informed Choice is the frequency of testing", with routine monthly testing of products bought without the brand knowing in place of testing every batch.⁶ NSF Certified for Sport combines a certification of the product and the factory with testing of production lots, and lists the lots it has tested.²

A brand's own certificate of analysis is a third thing again: one sample, chosen by the brand, tested for whatever the brand asked for. It is useful, and it is not a banned-substance screen.

How athletes and dietitians check a product

1. Search the certifier, not the label. NSF's database searches "by name, keyword or lot number", and NSF has a Certified for Sport app.³ Informed Sport's supplement search covers brand, product name and batch number, and the programme says: "We always recommend verifying a product's batch number by performing a quick search on our website."⁶⁷
2. Match the batch or lot. The number printed on your container should appear in the listing.
3. Check what your body accepts. The US Anti-Doping Agency runs Supplement Connect, its resource for athletes on dietary supplements and certification.⁹
4. Ask. Your team dietitian, team doctor or anti-doping body knows which marks your sport recognises.

What certification does not promise

Both programmes are clear that they reduce risk rather than remove it. Informed Sport's own answer: "no supplement testing programme can test for all substances which would be considered prohibited in sport."⁶ The International Olympic Committee's consensus statement: "There can be no absolute guarantee that any product is entirely safe, but these schemes do help the athlete to manage the risk."¹⁰

The responsibility stays with the athlete. In USADA's words: "Athletes subject to anti-doping rules are strictly liable for any substance found in their blood or urine."¹¹

CBD: what each body says

• Informed Sport: "Informed Sport currently does not allow any cannabinoid containing products onto the Informed Sport programme." It says it keeps this position under review.⁶
• NSF: NSF's hemp and CBD certification page lists NSF 306, the Certified for Sport standard, among the standards it certifies hemp and CBD products to, and says finished products must also meet that standard's THC requirements.⁸ The NSF Certified for Sport site itself advises athletes that "Some governing organizations prohibit the use of hemp or CBD".³
• WADA: cannabidiol is listed as an exception in the cannabinoids section of the 2026 Prohibited List.¹² The 2027 List, which enters into force on 1 January 2027, revises that section with new examples.¹³
• USADA: "Cannabidiol is not prohibited, but if you purchase a CBD product that also contains THC (which is not always listed on the label), there is a risk of testing positive."¹⁴

WADA and NCAA context

Most international and Olympic sport tests under the World Anti-Doping Code, which is why both programmes build their screens around WADA's Prohibited List. That list is revised every year; the 2027 version was approved by WADA's Executive Committee on 10 September 2026.¹³

College sport in the US follows its own list. The NCAA says its "banned drug classes align with the World Anti-Doping Agency's list of prohibited classes (with the exception of the glucocorticoid and cannabinoid classes)".¹⁵ In June 2024 the Division I Council "voted to remove cannabinoids from the banned drug class for championships and postseason participation in football, effective immediately."¹⁶ Schools and conferences can still test under their own policies, so a college athlete's athletic department is the place to ask.

Where we stand

ATLAUA is not certified by either programme. None of our products has been through NSF Certified for Sport or Informed Sport, so we do not describe any of them as tested for banned substances. What we do publish is on our COA page.

Change log

• 21 October 2026. Published. Every programme description checked against the programme's own pages on this date.