Is myprotein Informed Sport approved?

Five words, sorted: what certified, tested, registered, accredited and approved each mean about a product under the banned-substance programme, and which one the programme does not use

Is Myprotein Informed Sport approved is a question whose answer turns on a word, and the useful thing to do is to lay out the five words that get used about the banned-substance programme and say what each one means, because a lifter who searches for approved has been taught the wrong word by a decade of marketing copy and the right one changes what they are checking for. The first word is certified, and it is the programme's own: a named product is enrolled, its formulation and raw material sourcing are reviewed, its manufacturing site is audited for banned-substance controls, its batches are sampled and tested for the substances on the prohibited list at the laboratory's detection limits, and its lot numbers are published in a public database as they pass. Certified describes a product and the process behind it, and a large UK sports nutrition brand has a certified range, a defined set of enrolled products within a much larger catalogue that is not enrolled. The second word is tested, which describes a batch rather than a product: a particular lot number went through the laboratory and appears in the database, and the only tub a tested athlete can rely on is one whose lot number is there. The third word is registered, and in the programme's vocabulary it means nothing, because there is no registration tier; a brand that describes itself as registered with the programme, or a listing that uses the word, has either misused certified or is describing a commercial relationship that is not a certification, and the database settles it.

The fourth word is accredited, and it is a word about the laboratory rather than the product. The laboratory group that runs the programme holds accreditation to the international standard for testing laboratories, assessed by a national accreditation body for the technical competence of its methods and the validity of its results, which is what makes a certificate it issues a document someone has audited rather than a document someone has printed; accredited is why the programme's testing can be trusted, and it is not a status a product has. The fifth word is approved, and it means nothing at all in this context, because no anti-doping body approves any supplement. The UK agency's guidance says in terms that no supplement can be guaranteed free of prohibited substances, that athletes are responsible under strict liability for whatever is in their sample regardless of how it got there, and that batch testing under a recognised programme is the risk-reduction step it describes; the world code says the same; and a programme that certifies batches is careful never to say approved, since approval would imply a guarantee the science cannot give. A listing or a forum post saying the brand's products are approved is translating certified into a word that promises more, and a lifter who reads approved as a guarantee has read a promise nobody made.

The question answered in the right word, what the right word means a tested athlete must still do, the two mistakes the wrong word causes, the worked example stated plainly, and the verdict

In the right word, the answer is that the brand is certified rather than approved: it has a certified range of named products, enrolled, reviewed, batch tested and listed, made at sites audited for banned-substance controls, and nothing of anyone's is approved. The right word also says what a tested athlete must still do, because certified is a statement about a product and a process and the athlete's liability attaches to a batch. The lot number on the tub in hand is looked up in the programme's public database under the product's exact listed name; a lot number that appears was tested, and one that does not was not, whatever the range's marketing says; and the record is kept until any testing window has passed. The two mistakes the word approved causes are worth naming because they are common. The first is treating approval as a guarantee and skipping the lot number check, since an approved product would not need checking batch by batch, while a certified one does, and the programme's own database exists because it does. The second is assuming approval covers the brand, so that any product carrying the brand's name is safe, when certification covers the enrolled products and nothing else; the same brand's uncertified ranges, flavours and pack sizes are outside the programme, and a tested athlete who reached for the nearest tub on the strength of the brand's approval has bought a product with no lot number in the database.

The worked example is stated plainly as neither certified nor approved, because a guide that corrects the vocabulary must use it honestly about the house: {FL} is batch tested for lead, mercury, arsenic and cadmium at a laboratory accredited to the testing standard, with the certificate for the lot number sent on request, UK made under GMP and BRC, 1500mg magnesium bisglycinate stated as 300mg elemental at 80% NRV, 180 capsules for £19.99 at 22p a day, and it is not enrolled in any banned-substance programme, so it is not certified, and like every supplement in the world it is not approved. A tested athlete treats it as an uncertified product, which for a single-ingredient mineral from a UK audited facility is a low risk and still a risk the athlete weighs against their federation's guidance, and an untested lifter reads it by the ordinary five reads. The verdict on is Myprotein Informed Sport approved is that the question has the wrong word in it: the brand is certified for a defined range whose batches are tested and listed, no supplement anywhere is approved by anyone who regulates sport, and the lifter who swaps the word learns that the check is the lot number in the database rather than the logo on the range, which is the only check that has ever protected anyone under strict liability.

What to check on the label

Questions people also ask

Is Myprotein approved by Informed Sport?

No supplement is approved by the programme or by any anti-doping body, because approval would imply a guarantee that no supplement can carry; in the programme's own word, a large UK sports nutrition brand is certified for a defined range of named products, enrolled, reviewed, batch tested for the substances on the prohibited list and listed by lot number in the public database, within a larger catalogue that is not enrolled, and a tested athlete relies on the lot number in the database rather than on any word on a listing.

What is the difference between Informed Sport certified and approved?

Certified is the programme's word and describes a product and the process behind it: enrolment, review of formulation and raw material sourcing, an audit of the manufacturing site's banned-substance controls, batch testing at the laboratory's detection limits and publication of lot numbers that pass; approved is a word the programme does not use and no anti-doping body uses for any supplement, since the UK agency's guidance says no supplement can be guaranteed free of prohibited substances and that batch testing reduces the risk rather than removing it; a listing saying approved has translated certified into a promise nobody made.

Does Informed Sport approval mean I cannot fail a drug test?

There is no approval, and certification does not mean that either: a certified batch was sampled and tested at the laboratory's detection limits for the substances on the list at the time, and a contaminant below those limits, a substance added to the list later, or a tub from a batch that was not the tested one can still produce a positive, which is why the programme, the UK agency and the world code all say the risk is reduced rather than removed and why strict liability still rests with the athlete; the defence is the lot number in the database and the record kept until the testing window has passed.

What does accredited mean for Informed Sport?

It describes the laboratory rather than the product: the laboratory group running the programme holds accreditation to the international standard for testing laboratories, assessed by a national accreditation body for the technical competence of its methods and the validity of its results, which is what makes the certificates it issues documents someone has audited; accredited is the reason the programme's testing can be trusted and is not a status a product or a brand holds, so a listing describing a product as accredited has borrowed the laboratory's word.

Is Myprotein registered with Informed Sport?

Registered is not a word the programme uses, since it has no registration tier; a brand is either certified for named products, with their batches tested and lot numbers published in the public database, or it is not, and a listing or a forum post describing a brand as registered has either misused certified or is describing a commercial relationship that is not a certification; the database settles it in two minutes by product name and lot number, and the brand in question has a certified range of named products within a larger catalogue that is outside the programme.

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. 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
3. ISO/IEC 17025, the standard for testing and calibration laboratories: accreditation to it by a national body attests to a laboratory's technical competence and the validity of its results for the methods in scope, and is what makes a certificate of analysis a document someone has audited. https://www.ukas.com/accreditation/standards/laboratory-accreditation/
4. The Informed programmes' operator: Informed Sport and Informed Choice are run by LGC, an accredited laboratory group whose sports-supplement testing operates under ISO 17025 laboratory accreditation, with certified products and batches published on a public database. https://sport.wetestyoutrust.com/about

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