It’s not uncommon to consider price when comparing supplement options for purchase. Yet without also evaluating the quality of the ingredients and formulation, as well as the standards set for testing and safety, we might be missing the bigger picture of how the supplement is going to behave in our bodies.
Both the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have regulatory authority over the dietary supplement industry — with the FDA, in particular, having strict guidelines and regulations that manufacturers are required to follow — but in part because there is no pre-market “approval” required, regulation is often reactive. This means it may not be known that a company isn’t compliant until they’re caught. (Learn more: “Are Dietary Supplements Unregulated?”)
“The supplement industry has grown so much that there are many companies out there that the FDA can’t get to,” explains Paul Kriegler, RD, CPT, senior director of nutritional product development at Life Time. “There are enough gaps in regulatory oversight and opportunities for companies to favor speed over correctness that it’s super concerning when someone says, ‘I’m bargain shopping for supplements.’
“Most supplement companies aren’t actually supplement companies — they’re marketing ventures that happen to sell supplements,” continues Kriegler. “At Life Time, we’re not a supplement company or a marketing venture — we’re a health company that operates healthy way of life destinations and provides healthy-living services and products, including LTH, our own line of nutritional supplements designed to support good health. For us, consumer safety is No. 1.”
LTH has many steps in its process to ensure its standard for supplements is maintained, including having products certified by NSF. In this Q&A, we talked with Kriegler about the specifics of NSF certification.
Life Time | What is NSF?
Paul Kriegler | NSF is an independent, accredited organization aimed at protecting consumer health and safety. They do this through testing, auditing, and certification. They’ve been around since 1944 and provide services in 180 countries, with sectors for all types of industries: food and beverage, water systems, life sciences, nutrition and wellness, and transportation. The health-science certification arm of NSF deals with dietary supplements, as well as with over-the-counter drugs and cosmetics.
NSF helped to facilitate the development of the only American National Standard for dietary supplements, NSF/ANSI 173, and has tested and certified products to this standard since 2004.
Essentially, NSF interfaces between the industry and consumers to make sure what reaches the consumer is safe. Certified products earn the NSF mark, which is widely recognized as the “gold standard” for quality in such areas as water systems, food safety, and health sciences, including dietary supplements.
LT | If a dietary supplement is certified by NSF, what does that tell us?
PK | There are three different tiers for certification options for dietary supplements, with each level building on the others.
1. GMP (Good Manufacturing Process) certification. The manufacturing facility is audited to ensure they’re following the federal regulations the United States government (or whichever country’s governing body they’re inspecting under) has in place. It’s similar to what would be looked at if the FDA were to show up and do a surprise audit, but you’re doing it proactively and voluntarily.
They look at everything — from how employees are trained to how clean the floors are to the testing record for finished goods — and don’t leave any stone unturned, so it’s really a badge of honor in the industry. They look at every aspect of the physical operation, as well as how the manufacturer conducts business with their raw suppliers. Basically, it’s a 50,000-foot view of where the product originates, all the hands that touch it, and the records of that process taking place.
This audit is done annually. You’ll see this marked as “NSF GMP Certified” on a label. All LTH nutritional products are made in facilities with the NSF GMP certification.
2. Product certification. There are two components of product certification. The first is verifying that what’s on the label is what’s in the product. For example, if they’re looking at LTH Chill Magnesium, which it says on the label contains 300 mg of di-magnesium malate, NSF is verifying that is indeed the form and amount of magnesium in the product.
The second is screening for more than 100 different industrial or agricultural chemical residues — things like mold, bacteria, and heavy metals — to ensure there are no harmful levels of contaminants. We link to our NSF test report on our product pages so consumers can see the full list of what’s screened if they wish (it’s a really exhaustive list).
This is also done on an annual basis. You’ll see this marked as “Contents Certified NSF” or “NSF Contents & Claims Certified” on a label. Nearly every LTH adult supplement formula is already NSF Contents Certified; some newer products are in the middle of the process for the first time, while others are entering their third year of NSF certification. The LTH kids’ supplement formulas are produced in an NSF GMP Certified facility and are soon entering the product certification lifecycle.
3. Certified for Sport®. This involves additional screening to test for nearly 300 substances banned by the World Anti-Doping Association (WADA), U.S. Anti-Doping Association (USADA), and professional sports leagues. This certification is of most interest for competitive athletes and coaches.
This screening is done on every single lot of product produced. You’ll see this marked as “NSF Certified Sport” on a label.
There are certain LTH nutritional products that are Certified for Sport®, including LTH Hydrate, LTH Power Creatine Monohydrate, LTH Rally Amino Recovery, LTH Pump Pre-Workout, LTH Flex Whey Protein Isolate, LTH Glow Omega-3 Fish Oil, and LTH Armor Vitamin D3+K2.
(Note: Because the packaging on the LTH nutritional line is currently being updated, it is possible you may have a supplement that has product and/or sport certification but not the mark on the label. You can always check the product listing on lth.shop or NSF’s Certified Product Listing to verify.)
LT | Why would a company choose to go the extra step of certifying through NSF?
PK | This is a voluntary, elected expense that a company chooses to do. It’s also a lengthy and costly process to engage with.
For Life Time, it’s because we’ve stayed true to the words of our founder and CEO, Bahram Akradi, since he started the supplement arm of the company in the early 2000s: Science and safety are the most important checkpoints.
There are other options outside of NSF, and you can maintain testing records of your products with other third-party labs that offer similar testing methods or hold similar standards. The advantage of NSF is that it is 100 percent standardized with multiple layers of checks and balances within the NSF organization. NSF not only offers a comprehensive review, but they also have two auditors go through every single product to ensure there’s no human error in the auditing process.
Life Time chooses to do both other third-party testing and NSF testing as an additional checkpoint for its LTH supplement line. Because we use different manufacturers for different delivery formats and they use different labs to do testing on these formats — for example, if it’s a soft gel versus a powder versus a capsule — NSF provides an added layer in our safety steps. Even though we have certificates of analysis from those other third parties, NSF offers a single seal that we can place on all products to make it more easily visible for the consumer.
There are other companies that use NSF — it’s not something Life Time has special access to — but it is something we’re proud to say we do for our products because you don’t have to. And not everyone does.
(For more on the full testing process LTH supplements go through, read: “Good Ingredients, Effective Formulas, Rigorous Quality Controls: A Look at the Standard Set for Life Time’s Nutritional Supplements.”)
LT | Is it important to still look at the ingredients and product formulation of a supplement, even if it’s certified through NSF?
PK | Absolutely. There are NSF certified products, for example, that have artificial dyes and flavors in them. NSF is not scrutinizing that because those are permitted ingredients by the code of federal regulations. But we also know artificial dyes and flavors are best avoided because they can be harmful to health.
Or for another example, there could be an NSF certified product that contains 400 mg of beta-alanine. NSF tests to determine if the product contains the 400 mg of beta-alanine that the label claims — even though the actual effective amount of beta-alanine is eight times that amount.
There’s a wide variety of vitamin and mineral forms to choose from: Some are cheap, synthetic, or poorly absorbed; others cost more but deliver better absorbability and/or more nutritional impact. There are also unnecessary ingredients some manufacturers add in for things like taste or appearance.
Life Time formulates with nutrient forms and sources that are shown to best support the desired effects. We use only natural flavors and sweeteners, and we never use potentially detrimental binders, fillers, excipients, or coatings.
LT | What would Life Time do if they heard there was a suspected issue with one of the LTH products?
PK | We trust the manufacturing partners we work with and have worked with many of them for more than a decade. They have never once received a deficiency letter from the FDA. But continuing to verify on a regular basis is the best way for us to put our money where our mouth is for consumer safety.
Occasionally, a consumer may say something like, “I only got 22 servings out of my 30-serving jar.” If there is any case of product quality or consumer safety concern, we immediately open an investigation with the manufacturer. They’ll then pull product retains (which they’re required to keep on hand) and all the notes and records from the production staff — this is also always kept by redundant people, so someone from production and someone who oversees them. We’ll do a full investigation to learn what the issue was and what the root cause of that issue was, and then create a resolution path so the issue never happens again. Of course, we also make it right with the consumer. We treat any concerns very seriously.
There’s also a number on our packages that people can call into if they have a symptom or reaction. This directs them to an external service that collects and documents the information and sends it to us. We would then determine if it’s a product quality issue, potential safety concern, or adverse event, and then appropriately investigate and/or file a report.
In the last five years, we’ve had 142 calls to this number. Eighty-one percent of those calls were simple questions like, “Is the product gluten-free?” Twenty-five of the calls were suspected adverse events, with two being reportable events.
As I mentioned, science and safety are, hands down, the two most important factors to us. We are really proud of and confident in the suppliers and manufacturers we partner with, and the checks we have in place to ensure product quality and safety. Our record of suspected issues shows that in action. If something were to arise, however, our consumers can be assured that the complaint will directly reach us, it will be taken seriously, and it will be appropriately addressed.
