EN 17444 on doping prevention: the first European standard to guarantee a safe sports nutrition market

It is the first European standard to prevent the presence of prohibited substances in food intended for sports people and food supplements.

Doping prevention is based on various targeted actions and one of these actions is ensuring that people participating in sport activities, during training or competition, do not ingest foods contaminated by doping substances through their diet.

Guaranteeing safety for European athletes and sportspeople is crucial. Based on a French initiative, CEN/TC 453 “Dietary supplements and sports food free of doping substances” has established best practices for the good development and manufacturing aimed at preventing the presence of prohibited substances in food intended for sportspeople and food supplements.

In the absence of specific European regulations, the voluntary standard EN 17444 describes several processes that companies applying the standard must put in place to reduce the risk of the presence of prohibited substances, banned by anti-doping regulations and organisations, such as the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Based on food safety approaches, the best practices for development and manufacture encompass various aspects, such as the selection of ingredients and suppliers, competence of personnel, premises and production tools, composition and formulation of products, document control, and management system of non-conformities.

This new CEN standard will harmonize the development and manufacturing practices to guarantee safe European sports nutrition and a safe food supplements market and provide consumers with the ability to identify products that comply with the standard, through relevant labelling information. The publication of this first-ever European standard on doping is a key milestone to improve consumer’s information on doping in sports nutrition across Europe and respond to athletes’ demand for reliable nutritional products.