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FSSAI & NADA ink MoU to address substance use in athletes’ supplements
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Saturday, 16 September, 2017, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Our Bureau, New Delhi
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The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), the country’s apex food regulator, and the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) have inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to coordinate on cooperative activities in government agencies to address the issue of the use of doping substances and other adulterants and contaminants in food supplements and nutritional products used by sportspersons.
The key areas of potential cooperation and development of further understandings under this agreement are as follows:
• Guidance on the use of, and labelling/claims for, supplements/products for special dietary purposes meant for sports
• Undertaking surveillance and enforcement activities for both domestically-produced and imported sports nutrition supplements/ products, with a particular focus on the use of any doping substance and other adulterants in such products and on counterfeit products
• Building the capacity of the regulatory staff for effective surveillance and enforcement activities at the ground level
• Building the capacity in FSSAI-notified primary and referral laboratories for the detection of doping substances and adulterants in sports nutrition supplements or products. Five such labs will be identified for this purpose
• Providing educational and awareness support on the safe and judicious use of sports nutrition supplements/products through guidance documents and training and awareness programmes in partnership with other stakeholders
As a part of the MoU, a working group has been set up for more focused work in this direction. The working group will comprise member(s) of FSSAI’s scientific panel on functional foods, nutraceuticals, dietetic products and other similar products along with representatives of NADA.
Representatives of the Sports Authority of India (SAI), Narcotics Control Bureau and others, as and when required, may be co-opted in the Working Group.
The ultimate objective of the agreement is to ensure that safe and dope-free dietary and nutritional supplements are available to athletes (which is imperative in the wake of the rising number of cases of doping among athletes, which are attributable to the contamination of food supplements, of which the varieties and spread are so wide that it is difficult to find traces of banned or adulterated substances in them in the open market.)
While addressing the press conference, Pawan Kumar Agarwal, chief executive officer, FSSAI, shared that this joint effort, backed by an effective regulatory mechanism towards ensuring safety and quality of sports nutrition supplements or food products, would construct a strong mechanism to curb the availability of contaminated nutritional food supplements in the open market.
“This intends to develop and strengthen co-operation in the field of sports nutrition, including healthy nutrition practices that enhance the lifelong health and fitness of competing athletes,” he added.
“This would also ensure that the food safety ecosystem in the field of sports nutrition becomes more robust over the time,” Agarwal said.
Navin Aggarwal, director general and chief executive officer, NADA, said, “This holistic effort aims to provide an ecosystem of safe food for sports professionals across the country.”
“It is one of the significant step for NADA to ensure healthy and safe supplements for competing athletes. Under this initiative, a collaborative programme will be made to disseminate the information on the judicious use of supplements,” he added.
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