The Supp Digest | Sport Certifications - The Gold Standard for Athletes
Welcome to The Digest, your guide to key insights and updates across the SuppCo community.
In this series, we dig into the fascinating (and anonymous) trends SuppCo sees from our unique vantage point to help you make sense of supplements.
The supplement space is massive, as evidenced by SuppCo's continually growing database of over 230,000 products. With so many products to choose from, third-party certifications can be a helpful indicator of quality and thoughtful ingredient selection.
Our Product Research Hub makes it easy to filter and sort products across 8 leading certifications:
NSF Certified for Sport
Informed Sport
Informed Choice
Non-GMO Certified
USDA Organic
Vegan Action Certified
GFCO Certified (Gluten-Free)
USP Verified
Over the next few installments of The Digest, we'll be diving into each of these certifications in detail, sharing insights on how these certifications are showing up across the SuppCo community.
Today, we're focusing on the two leading sports certifications: NSF Certified for Sport and Informed Sport.
Supplements for Athletes: The Certifications
Picture this: You're a professional athlete. One supplement mistake—one contaminated product slipping past your guard—and your career could be over. Not just for a season. Forever.
This nightmare scenario can be all too real for athletes who are increasingly turning to supplements for performance and recovery. The problem? Segments of the supplement industry have been known to produce products that sometimes contain banned substances, whether intentionally or through sloppy manufacturing.
Enter the heroes of our story: NSF Certified for Sport and Informed Sport. Founded in 2005 and 2008 respectively, these certification programs have emerged to solve what can be a career-ending problem for athletes.
Through rigorous, independent testing of supplements for over 200 banned substances and adulterants, NSF Certified for Sport and Informed Sport certifications have become guiding beacons for athletes and other regular supplement users when choosing which supplements to trust.
The Product View
As part of the TrustScore process, SuppCo verifies if a product is either NSF Certified for Sport or Informed Sport Certified. With TrustScore now available on over 23,000 products, we can dive into the trends around these certifications.
When looking at the data, the biggest observation is that these sports-focused certifications aren’t easy to come by. A mere 507 products with a completed TrustScore are either NSF Certified for Sport or Informed Sport Certified. That's just over 2% of TrustScored products.
Looking at the breakdown between the two certifications, NSF Certified for Sport is slightly more common with 58% of sports-certified products containing the NSF certification versus 49% having the Informed Sport certification. For those of you crunching the numbers, that means 7% of these products have not just one, but both, certifications.
These two certifications appear across a diverse range of products with 45 different product categories represented. Perhaps not unexpectedly, the categories with the highest number of sports-certifications include whey protein, creatine, and electrolytes.
The concentration makes sense—these are the bread and butter supplements for serious athletes looking to fuel performance, build muscle, and recover effectively.
The Community View
While only 507 products in the SuppCo database are either NSF Certified for Sport or Informed Sport Certified, over 46,500 SuppCo stacks contain at least one of these products. That's roughly 20% of SuppCo users that have a sports-certified product in their stack.
The most popular sports-certified products? We've got the top 3 ready for you:
Thorne Creatine, which is NSF Certified for Sport and is stacked by over 8,400 users
Vital Proteins Collagen Peptides, which is NSF Certified for Sport and stacked by just shy of 4,000 users
BiOptimizers Magnesium Breakthrough Capsules, which are Informed Sport certified and stacked by 3,400 users
What's fascinating is that these aren't just products for elite athletes. Our data shows that everyday fitness enthusiasts are increasingly choosing sports-certified products as a quality indicator, even if they're not competing professionally.
The Takeaway
Sports certifications represent some of the most rigorous testing standards in the supplement industry. While they make up just 2% of products, their presence in 20% of user stacks shows that quality-conscious consumers recognize their value—whether they're training for the Olympics or just trying to optimize their morning workout.
SuppCo is making it easier than ever to find and compare supplements that have these certifications. From any product search page in our Product Research Hub, you can use the Product Certifications filter to quickly see products containing the NSF Certified for Sport or Informed Sport seals of approval.
Curious if the products in your stack are sports-certified? We’ve got you covered. For any products in your stack with a completed TrustScore, you can check for NSF Certified for Sport and Informed Sport certifications in the Product Certifications section of the TrustScore.
And rest assured, if sports certifications aren't your focus area, our upcoming issues of The Digest will cover data on certifications for organic, non-GMO, vegan and gluten-free products. No matter where your supplement questions may arise, SuppCo is here to help you make sense of them.
Call for Topics
Do you have topics or trends you'd like to see covered in this newsletter? Drop us a note at support@supp.co
Fresh Additions
Here are a few brands we've added TrustScores for recently that have NSF for Sport or Informed Sport certified products:
Community
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