Supplements: What is NSF Contents Certified?
Do you worry about the contents of the nutritional supplements you take?
Choosing a supplement that is third-party tested and certified gives you peace of mind. That’s why Thorne participates in third-party product certification with NSF to ensure the supplements that we manufacture are NSF Contents Certified.
The NSF certification mark on a supplement’s product label can simplify your decision. Supplements that bear the NSF Contents Certified mark have undergone a rigorous third-party testing and evaluation process.
What is NSF Contents Certified?
How is it different from NSF Certified for Sport®? And why is product certification from a third-party safety organization necessary?
Thorne’s commitment to third-party certification from safety organizations like NSF enables consumers to make the best choices for their health without uncertainty.
About NSF
Founded in 1944, NSF is an independent and accredited non-governmental organization whose mission is to protect and improve global human health, helping people live safer by testing and certifying consumer products – including nutritional supplements.
NSF achieves this by facilitating the development of public health and safety standards and by testing and certifying products and systems to those standards. Deeply rooted in science, NSF is widely recognized as the “gold standard” for quality in such areas as water systems, food safety, and health sciences, including nutritional supplements.
What Is NSF Contents Certified?
NSF Contents Certified is a product certification that delivers peace of mind to everyday consumers looking to improve and enhance their health and wellness.
The NSF Contents Certified program assesses the composition of nutritional supplements for compliance with label claims to verify that what’s in the container matches what’s on the label. NSF Contents Certified also reviews each product for the presence of microorganisms, pesticides, and contaminants that impact health, including toxic elements and heavy metals like lead, mercury, arsenic, and cadmium.
In addition, to be able to manufacture and market NSF Contents Certified supplements, manufacturers must be audited on-site by NSF to ensure they are compliant with FDA’s standards for good manufacturing practices.
To ensure Thorne supplements comply with NSF standards, NSF audits are repeated annually at Thorne’s manufacturing facility in Summerville, South Carolina.
What does NSF’s contents tested certification mean?
There are numerous quality components of the NSF Contents Certified program:
The product is manufactured at a facility that is GMP-registered and is audited annually for quality and safety by NSF to comply with the FDA’s Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) requirements.
Toxicological review of the product label to ensure the ingredients are allowed to be in a nutritional supplement and that the amount of each ingredient does not exceed typical use levels established by NSF.
The label is evaluated and the product is tested to verify product formulation and label claims to ensure that what is on the label is in the product. Finally, chemical and contaminant testing is conducted to ensure there are no potentially harmful levels of contaminants, pesticides, and heavy metals.
What does it take to be NSF Contents Certified?
Companies that pursue NSF’s Contents Certified certification go through these steps:
Step 1 – GMP Registration:
This verifies that the supplement is manufactured, packaged, and stored in a facility that is audited annually for quality and safety in compliance with federal regulations for nutritional supplements GMPs. GMP registration includes:
Audits of the production facilities that manufacture, package, warehouse, or distribute nutritional supplements
Review of quality control testing procedures for raw materials and finished products
Review of maintenance, housekeeping, cleaning, and sanitization procedures
Review of sourcing and traceability procedures
Review of training and qualification programs
Review of internal standard operating procedures
Review of product recall procedures
Step 2 – Contents Tested and Certified Certification:
After step one is complete, NSF experts evaluate the supplement contents and then test the finished product to verify that it contains no unsafe levels of contaminants and meets the claims and contents shown on the product label.
Annual Laboratory Testing/Analysis
Label content verification
Contaminants
Microbiological and heavy metals
Pesticides/herbicides
Protein and caffeine verification
Disintegration testing
Ongoing monitoring
Review of formulation/supplier changes by NSF experts, including documentation and testing if justified
NSF auditor review and confirmation of formulation at future GMP audits
Ongoing annual testing of product for compliance