We’re known as global industry leaders through our INFORMED assurance programmes that help hundreds of companies overcome mistrust in the market, build brand loyalty and increase profitability and quality control; all while supporting athletes who believe in clean sport.
We also use our decades of experience and expertise to help a variety of organizations with a wide range of unique challenges. In some cases, custom testing is conducted as a one-off activity to test a product or ingredient, where all testing takes place in our world-class ISO/IEC 17025-accredited laboratory, giving you access to our industry-leading experts, and cutting-edge analytical methods. When concerns are around banned substances, we screen for more than 285 potential contaminants and aim to provide a Certificate of Analysis in 10-15 days from submission of the sample.
In other cases, our solutions involve an investigative approach and involve a wider surveillance programme for internal quality control purposes, skilfully delivered by our knowledgeable experts.
Custom Testing Case Study: NCAA Division 1 Football Team - NIL
Challenge: College athletes are frequently approached by supplement brands to endorse through their products (Name, Image Likeness - NIL), but these lucrative offers can lead to a positive drug test. A supplement brand was pursuing an athlete to endorse their product. The athlete was keen to take advantage of the financial opportunity but agreed with team staff that there was a risk to his eligibility and reputation from taking the product as it hadn’t been tested for banned substances.
Solution: Working with the team sports dietician, we launched a programme that introduced the brand to our lab experts, where we worked directly with the brand to test for banned substances to protect the athlete. The results were shared with the athlete, the team staff, and the brand, allowing all parties to move forward confidently.
Tailored banned substance testing by LGC provides assurance and reputation protection to athletes and teams.
Outcome: Investment in this type of programme saves brands, athletes and teams significant losses in reputational damage and income caused by failed drug tests. We have developed a large number of similar programmes with a variety of elite, professional and collegiate athletes, collaborating directly with the athlete, their team staff, or their agents.
Custom Testing Case Study: Sport Nutrition Manufacturing Facility, Root Cause Investigation
Challenge: The manufacturer had a large shipment rejected by a customer when the batch tested positive for Methylhexanamine.
Solution: Significant production costs were lost by the manufacturer and the brand lost market opportunity due to lack of stock after the product tested positive as part of the brand’s Informed Sport certification testing.
Our team launched a thorough investigation into both the manufacturing process and the ingredient supply chain to find the root cause of the positive test. While the facility didn’t raise concern, by testing each ingredient for banned substances in our lab, we identified that a new supplier to the manufacturer revealed that a branch chain amino acid used in the product caused the screening indication.
Outcome: The manufacturer now sends samples of all ingredients from this raw material provider to us for pre-formulation testing. And, as part of new vendor on-boarding, all new raw materials are pre-screened. In time, having directly experienced the value of prevention, the manufacturer to certified to our Informed Manufacturing programme.
Reach out to schedule a consultation with our experts to find the solution that works for you.