The global fitness and sports nutrition market has expanded dramatically over the past decade. Protein powders and a range of pre-workout and recovery products have become popular among elite athletes and fitness enthusiasts. However, several questions remain about their safety, authenticity, and composition.
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Despite widespread consumer trust, sports supplements are often regulated as foods rather than pharmaceuticals, allowing broad variability in manufacturing quality and labeling accuracy.
Multiple investigations have revealed contamination, adulteration, and undeclared active ingredients, highlighting ongoing gaps in how these products are tested and verified for safety and composition.
Common Components, Claimed Benefits, and Risks
Sports supplements encompass a variety of formulations designed to enhance strength, endurance, or recovery. The most common are protein powders derived from whey, casein, or soy, used to stimulate muscle protein synthesis and help meet daily protein requirements.1
Creatine is another substance valued for its ability to increase short-term power output and lean mass. Pre-workout blends often contain caffeine, beta-alanine, citrulline, and various vitamins or botanical extracts that claim to boost focus and endurance. In contrast, recovery products combine amino acids, electrolytes, and adaptogenic compounds to mitigate fatigue.1,2
When used appropriately, these supplements can provide measurable performance benefits. However, misuse, contamination, or poor manufacturing control can introduce substantial risk to consumers. More importantly, the absence of mandatory pre-market verification has allowed undeclared or illicit additives to enter the marketplace.1,3,4
A 2022 analysis of supplements available in the Australian online marketplace found that a substantial proportion contained undeclared or prohibited substances not listed on their labels, particularly stimulant compounds restricted by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).4,5 Similarly, Clean Label Project’s 2023 Protein Study 2.0 reported that nearly half of the 160 protein powders exceeded limits for heavy metals set in the California Proposition 65 (also known as the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986).6
Additional studies have detected measurable concentrations of arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury in commercial protein powders. While heavy metal exposure via protein powder supplement ingestion did not seem to pose an increased risk to human health, chronic use, high intake volumes, and multi-supplement regimens could increase long-term risk.7
Analytical and Toxicological Testing Methods
Ensuring supplement integrity relies on sensitive, validated analytical methodologies. Liquid and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS and GC-MS) remain the gold standards for quantifying active ingredients and detecting undeclared pharmacologically active compounds.8
Inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) is routinely applied to measure trace heavy metals. At the same time, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and ultra-HPLC (UHPLC) techniques assess amino acid profiles and vitamin stability.7,8
More advanced workflows, such as high-resolution liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (LC-QTOF-MS) and untargeted metabolomics, enable comprehensive profiling of unknown substances. In contrast, isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) assists in verifying ingredient origins and distinguishing between synthetic and natural amino acid sources.9
Recent developments demonstrate how LC-HRMS, coupled with chemometric modeling, can reveal both labeled and unlabeled compounds in complex supplement matrices, substantially improving adulteration detection and data reliability.9
Toxicological interpretation transforms analytical data into health risk insights. Measured concentrations are compared with established reference doses to calculate hazard quotients and cumulative exposure indices. Physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modeling predicts internal tissue concentrations from estimated intake, allowing risk evaluation under realistic use scenarios.7
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Regulatory and Legal Framework
Regulatory definitions and oversight vary globally, but generally assign primary responsibility for safety and labeling to manufacturers, while regulators intervene reactively.3
In the United States, the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA, 1994) classifies supplements as foods rather than drugs. Manufacturers must ensure product safety and truthful labeling before marketing, but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not require pre-market approval. Although companies introducing a new dietary ingredient (NDI) must notify the FDA, compliance remains inconsistent.3
Oversight is mainly post-market, where enforcement actions against adulterated or misbranded products are taken once violations are identified. Independent certifications provide additional quality assurance (e.g., NSF Certified for Sport), though participation is voluntary.
The Food Supplements (England) Regulations 2003 govern composition and labeling in the United Kingdom, but no centralized registration system exists. Similarly, the European Union’s Directive 2002/46/EC and Novel Food Regulation (EU) 2015/2283 set frameworks for vitamins, minerals, and other ingredients, with the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) evaluating safety and health claims. However, enforcement remains inconsistent, and mislabeling and undeclared substances continue to be reported.10,11
These frameworks collectively illustrate a key challenge: Pre-market evaluation is often limited or inconsistent, leaving consumers reliant on manufacturer integrity and voluntary quality programs. In addition, persistent mislabeling and undeclared substances highlight the need for harmonized global oversight and greater transparency in manufacturing and testing.10,11
Emerging Analytical and Policy Trends
Analytical innovation is reshaping supplement quality control. Ambient ionization mass spectrometry (e.g., DESI and DART) enables rapid, in situ screening without complex preparation, while process analytical technology (PAT) allows real-time compositional monitoring during production.8,9
Blockchain-based traceability systems are being explored to document ingredient origins and analytical results across the supply chain. However, these technologies remain in the early stages of adoption within the supplement sector. Artificial-intelligence-assisted spectral interpretation and chemometric modeling can help flag anomalies indicative of adulteration.9,12
Policy reform is evolving alongside these technologies. Regulators are considering mandatory publication of batch-specific Certificates of Analysis (COAs), stricter impurity thresholds, and enhanced post-market surveillance programs combining toxicological and anti-doping datasets.3,5
Advances in predictive toxicology, incorporating metabolomics and transcriptomic profiling, aim to detect subtle biological perturbations before overt adverse effects emerge. These changes point toward a proactive, evidence-based model of quality assurance that could eventually close the regulatory gap between supplements and pharmaceuticals.8,12
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Conclusion
While many nutritional supplements offer tangible physiological benefits, persistent issues of contamination, mislabeling, and variable testing standards raise concerns.
Advanced analytical technologies ranging from high-resolution mass spectrometry to AI-driven risk modeling make it possible to verify supplement composition, but their use across the industry often varies by manufacturer and market.
As demand for protein powders and performance boosters continues to rise, stronger international coordination, transparent publication of analytical data, and independent certification could substantially improve consumer safety.
References
- Djaoudene, O. et al. (2023). A Global Overview of Dietary Supplements: Regulation, Market Trends, Usage during the COVID-19 Pandemic, and Health Effects. Nutrients, 15, 3320. https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/15/15/3320
- Daher, J. et al. (2022). Prevalence of Dietary Supplement Use among Athletes: A Scoping Review. Sports, 10(6), 92. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36235761/
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). (2024). Dietary Supplements Overview (DSHEA Guidance). https://www.fda.gov/food/dietary-supplements
- Barker, L. et al. (2025). Sports Supplement Analysis Survey for the Prevalence of WADA Prohibited Substances in the Australian Online Marketplace. Drug Test Anal, 17, 1857–1864. https://analyticalsciencejournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/dta.3893
- World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). (2025). Prohibited List and Guidance on Dietary Supplement Contamination. https://www.wada-ama.org/en
- Clean Label Project. (2025). Protein Study 2.0. https://cleanlabelproject.org/protein-study-2-0/
- Bandara, S. B., Towle, K. M. & Monnot, A. D. (2020). A Human Health Risk Assessment of Heavy Metal Ingestion among Consumers of Protein Powder Supplements. Toxicol Rep, 7, 1255–1262. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214750020303632
- Rankin-Turner, S., et al. (2023). Applications of Ambient Ionization Mass Spectrometry in 2022. Analytical Methods, 15(5), 1001–1014. https://chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ansa.202300004
- Rizzo, S., et al. (2023). A Multi-Analyte Screening Method for Rapid Detection of Illegally Added Pharmaceutically Active Substances to Dietary Supplements. Molecules, 28(10), 4256. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844023057171
- UK Government. (2024). Food Supplements (England) Regulations 2003. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2003/1387
- European Union. (2024). Directive 2002/46/EC on Food Supplements and Regulation (EU) 2015/2283 on Novel Foods. EUR-Lex. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/homepage.html?locale=en
- Duan, K., et al. (2024). Blockchain’s Integration in Food Safety and Supply Chains. Current Opinion in Food Science, 52, 102223. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666154324003181
Further Reading
Last Updated: Oct 30, 2025