NADA joins hands with FSSAI to check food supplements

Sabi Hussain

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 5

The National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) has collaborated with the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to curb the availability of contaminated nutritional food supplements in the open market. 

The FSSAI would label both the foreign and national brands of food supplements ‘dope-free’ only after testing them at its own laboratory and ensuring the products don’t contain harmful proteins, minerals or vitamins. Only the FSSAI-approved food products would be made available to the national campers. 

The NADA is also contemplating joining hands with the Medical Council of India (MCI) for the same purpose.

“There is a plethora of nutritional food supplements available in the open market and all claim to be contamination-free. This is because they are not fully checked. Some of them still have traces of banned substances. The dealer of these products wouldn’t disclose all the ingredients and it’s the athletes who eventually suffer. The athletes would argue that the dealer told them of it being drug-free,” a NADA official said.

“But, with the FSSAI coming on board, those arguments would no longer hold any value. The athletes would be encouraged to use only the FSSAI-approved products. If they continue using other food supplements, the athletes would be solely responsible for their future,” the official added.  

The NADA had been concerned about the rising cases of doping among athletes owing to the contamination in food supplements. In some cases, athletes caught using banned performance enhancing drugs often argued about the quality of the food supplements on offer in the open market.