A new report from Sport Integrity Australia (SIA) has revealed alarming findings about the safety of sports supplements sold online in Australia. Published in the journal Drug Testing and Analysis, the study shows that many products marketed to athletes may contain banned substances that are not listed on their labels—posing a major risk for those subject to anti-doping rules.
In 2022, SIA commissioned Human and Supplement Testing Australia (HASTA) to purchase and test 200 sports supplements that were available through online Australian retailers. The goal was to determine how likely it is that an athlete could unknowingly consume a product that contains substances banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
The results were troubling. About 35%—more than one in three—of the supplements tested were found to contain at least one WADA-prohibited substance. Even more concerning, 57% of these contaminated products didn’t list any banned ingredients on their labels or websites, meaning athletes had no way of knowing what they were really consuming.
Dr. Naomi Speers, SIA’s Director of Research and co-author of the report, said these findings strongly support the agency’s long-standing warnings: using supplements always carries some risk.
“More than 1 in 3 non-batch tested supplements purchased online in Australia contain prohibited substances. And most of those substances were not even listed on the label,” Dr. Speers said.
The study found that the highest-risk products were those marketed as pre-workouts, fat burners, or muscle builders. Some of the banned substances detected were naturally occurring compounds, while only two of the products contained high levels of synthetic stimulants.
Regardless of the source, these compounds can still lead to a positive doping test—and under anti-doping rules, athletes are fully responsible for any substance found in their system, even if they didn’t know it was there.
Dr. Speers explained that the wide availability of these products can create a false sense of security among athletes, leading them to believe the supplements are safe simply because they’re easy to find. But issues like cross-contamination during manufacturing or undeclared ingredients mean the risk of unintentional doping remains high.
To reduce this risk, SIA strongly recommends that athletes only use batch-tested supplements—products that have been screened by independent labs like HASTA or Informed Sport. Batch testing helps ensure a product doesn’t contain prohibited substances before it reaches the consumer, although no supplement can be guaranteed 100% safe.
The free Sport Integrity app, developed by SIA, is one way athletes can protect themselves. The app allows users to search a database of more than 12,000 batch-tested products sold in Australia and to verify whether a supplement they’re considering—or already using—has passed independent screening.
More than 100,000 Australians have downloaded the app, with nearly 7,000 supplement checks taking place each month.
SIA’s Acting Director of Education, Gavin Whitehouse, says the app and education efforts have already made a difference. In 2016, there were 17 doping cases linked to supplements. That number dropped to zero in both 2022 and 2023, with just one case reported in 2024.
“This shows athletes and sports have taken the supplement threat seriously, but this new survey proves we cannot become complacent,” Whitehouse said.
SIA is urging athletes to remain cautious and informed when choosing supplements. Avoiding risky products and using tools like the Sport Integrity app can help protect their health, performance, and careers.
If you care about nutrition, please read studies about the best time to take vitamins to prevent heart disease, and vitamin D supplements strongly reduce cancer death.
For more information about nutrition, please see recent studies about plant nutrient that could help reduce high blood pressure, and these antioxidants could help reduce dementia risk.
The research findings can be found in Drug Testing and Analysis.
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