What should you look for in warrior creatine informed sport?

Two documents stand behind one tub: the certification database entry, what it covers and what it does not, how it is searched by product and lot, and why a brand's enrolment is not a tub's

What should you look for in a UK sports nutrition brand's creatine sold with a banned-substance certification is a question that resolves into two documents, and the mistake most buyers make is to read one and assume it is both. The brand named in the question is not named in the body of this page, by rule, and nothing about its current formulation is quoted; what is written here applies to any creatine sold under a banned-substance programme by any brand, and the buyer applies it to the tub in front of them by reading the two documents for that tub.

The first document is the certification database entry. A banned-substance programme tests a finished product, by lot, against a list of prohibited substances at a laboratory with the method sensitivity the programme specifies, and publishes the result as a searchable entry: the brand, the product, the flavour or size, and the lot numbers tested. That entry answers one question, whether that lot of that product was screened for banned substances and found clear of them at the method's detection limit, and it answers nothing else. It does not say the creatine is pure. It does not say the creatine content matches the label. It does not say the powder is monohydrate rather than a blend. It says the lot was screened, which is the document a tested athlete needs, because strict liability in anti-doping means the athlete is responsible for what is in their body whatever the label said, and the only defence worth having is a screened lot. The athlete searches the database by product and lot before every tub, not once at the start, because enrolment is a brand's, certification is a product's, and the screen is a lot's; a product that was in the programme last year may not be this year, a flavour that is enrolled does not cover one that is not, and a lot that was not tested is a lot that was not tested, whatever the logo on the tub says. The lot number is printed on the tub, usually with the best-before date, and it is matched to the entry before the tub is opened.

The programme's logo on a tub is therefore the start of a search, not the end of one, and a tub whose lot is not in the database is, for the tested athlete, an uncertified tub with a logo on it. A brand that is honest about this prints the lot clearly and links the database from its product page; a brand that is less honest prints the logo large and the lot small. That is the first document, and a lifter who is not tested does not strictly need it, which is where the second document comes in.

The entry read and its limits drawn, with the purity certificate, the three impurities, the form, the plain powder, the worked example and the verdict in the next section.

The second document, the raw-material purity certificate: creatine content, the three impurities of manufacture, the monohydrate form and the plain powder; the worked example, not enrolled and saying so; and the verdict

The second document is the purity certificate for the raw creatine, and the certification database does not contain it. Creatine monohydrate is manufactured by a reaction whose by-products are known and named: creatinine, which is creatine's own breakdown product and rises with poor manufacture or long storage in a wet state; dicyandiamide, a process residue; and dihydrotriazine compounds, which the quality literature treats as the impurity to hold lowest because their safety is least characterised. The reputable raw-material sources specify creatine content above 99.9 percent and each impurity below a stated limit, and they issue a certificate of analysis for each raw-material lot that states the measured values. A brand that buys from such a source holds that certificate and can show it; a brand that buys the cheapest creatine on the market may hold a certificate with a lower creatine figure and higher impurities, or no certificate it wants to show. The banned-substance screen does not look for any of these three, because none is a banned substance, and a lot can be certified clear of banned substances while being a poor creatine, which is the gap the two-document rule exists to close. The lifter who is not tested and who cares what is in the powder asks the brand for the raw-material certificate of analysis, by lot, and reads three numbers: the creatine content, the creatinine, and the dihydrotriazine.

Two more things are read from the tub itself. The form should be creatine monohydrate, because the strength meta-analyses that make creatine the best-evidenced supplement in sport were almost all run on monohydrate, and the other forms sold at a premium have either no comparative evidence or evidence that they underperform; a certified creatine that is a hydrochloride, an ethyl ester or a buffered form has a banned-substance screen on a form with thinner evidence. The powder should be plain, which is to say the ingredient list should read creatine monohydrate and nothing else, or creatine monohydrate and a flavour system in a flavoured version; a certified creatine blended with beta-alanine, caffeine or an amino acid has moved the dose of creatine below what the research used per serving and has added ingredients the buyer may not want, and a blend's certification covers the blend's lot for banned substances, not the dose of anything in it.

The worked example is placed by the same rule, and it is not a creatine: {FL}, 1500mg magnesium bisglycinate stated as 300mg elemental at 80% NRV, two capsules with the evening meal, is not enrolled in any banned-substance programme and says so, which is the honest position for a product not sold into tested sport; an athlete subject to testing who wants a magnesium chooses one with a database entry by lot instead, and this page says that rather than implying a screen the product never had. What it does hold is the second kind of document for its own raw material: batch testing for lead, mercury, arsenic and cadmium by ICP-MS at an accredited UK lab, with the certificate for a lot available on request, UK made under GMP and BRC, 180 capsules for £19.99 at 22p a day. The full label breakdown is here.

The verdict: a certified creatine from any brand is read as two documents behind one tub. The certification database entry, searched by product and lot before each tub, covers the banned-substance screen of that finished lot and nothing else, and is the document a tested athlete cannot do without. The raw-material purity certificate, asked for by lot, covers creatine content above 99.9 percent and the three impurities of manufacture, creatinine, dicyandiamide and dihydrotriazine, and is the document a lifter who cares what is in the powder reads. Then the form, monohydrate, and the ingredient list, plain. A tub with a logo and no lot in the database is uncertified for the athlete; a tub with a database entry and no purity certificate is screened but unread for the lifter; and the brand that offers both has answered the question before it was asked.

What to check on the label

Questions people also ask

Does a banned-substance certification mean the creatine is pure?

No; the certification database entry says that a lot of a finished product was screened for prohibited substances at a laboratory and found clear at the method's detection limit, and it says nothing about creatine content, creatinine, dicyandiamide or dihydrotriazine, none of which is a banned substance; purity is a separate document, the raw-material certificate of analysis a reputable source issues by lot with creatine above 99.9 percent and each impurity below a stated limit, and a lifter who wants to know what is in the powder asks the brand for it rather than reading it into the logo.

How do I check a creatine's certification for my lot?

By searching the programme's public database for the brand and product and matching the lot number printed on the tub, usually beside the best-before date, to the lots listed as tested; a brand's enrolment covers nothing by itself, a product's certification is specific to that product and flavour, and a lot that is not listed was not screened whatever the tub's logo says, which is why a tested athlete searches before each tub rather than once, and why strict liability makes the matched lot the only defence that holds.

Which form of creatine should a certified product be?

Creatine monohydrate, because the strength and lean-mass meta-analyses that make creatine the best-evidenced supplement in sport were almost all run on monohydrate at a few grams a day, and the hydrochloride, ethyl ester and buffered forms sold at a premium have either no comparative evidence or evidence of underperforming it; a certified creatine in another form carries a banned-substance screen on a form with thinner evidence, and the ingredient list should read creatine monohydrate alone, or with a flavour system, rather than a blend that lowers the creatine dose and adds ingredients the buyer may not want.

What are the impurities in creatine monohydrate?

Three named by-products of manufacture: creatinine, which is creatine's own breakdown product and rises with poor manufacture or wet storage; dicyandiamide, a process residue; and dihydrotriazine compounds, which the quality literature holds lowest because their safety is least characterised; the reputable raw-material specifications state creatine above 99.9 percent and each impurity below a limit, measured on a certificate of analysis per lot, and a brand that buys from such a source can show the certificate while a brand buying the cheapest raw material may not want to.

Is this site's magnesium certified for tested athletes?

No, and it says so: it is not enrolled in any banned-substance programme, which is the honest position for a product not sold into tested sport, and an athlete subject to testing who wants a magnesium chooses one with a database entry by lot instead; what the product holds is the other kind of document for its own raw material, batch testing for lead, mercury, arsenic and cadmium by ICP-MS at an accredited UK lab with the certificate for a lot on request, a label of 300mg elemental at 80% NRV in two capsules, UK made under GMP and BRC, at 22p a day.

Sources

1. The sports supplement certification programmes: Informed Sport, Informed Choice, BSCG and NSF Certified for Sport test products or batches for banned substances, the assurance competing athletes rely on. https://sport.wetestyoutrust.com/
2. Kreider RB, et al. International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: safety and efficacy of creatine supplementation in exercise, sport, and medicine. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition 2017;14:18. PubMed record
3. The creatine monohydrate quality literature: the impurities of manufacture are creatinine, dicyandiamide and dihydrotriazine, with the reputable sources specifying creatine content above 99.9 percent and the impurities below stated limits, and a purity certificate for the raw material being a separate document from any banned-substance screen of the finished batch. PubMed record
4. UK Anti-Doping guidance on supplements: strict liability means an athlete is responsible for any prohibited substance in their sample regardless of how it got there, contaminated supplements have produced UK anti-doping violations, and batch testing under a recognised programme is the risk-reduction step the agency describes while stating no supplement can be guaranteed free of prohibited substances. https://www.ukad.org.uk/athletes/supplements

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