reported<\/a> on Nutrafol becoming the first hair growth supplement brand to earn the certification through its partnership with Major League Baseball, highlighting growing industry interest in third-party verification beyond traditional performance nutrition.<\/p>\n\u201cFemale athletes and active women should not have to choose between comprehensive prenatal nutrition and the level of third-party verification they expect from their supplements,\u201d Amanda Frick, ND, LAc, senior vice president of medical, clinical and scientific affairs at Thorne, told NutraIngredients.<\/p>\n
\u201cPerformance does not stop when life changes…we wanted women to have confidence that one of the most important supplements they take meets the same rigorous standards they may already expect from the rest of their nutrition regimen,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Bringing sports certification into prenatal nutrition<\/p>\n
NSF Certified for Sport independently tests dietary supplements to help verify label claims and screen for substances banned by many athletic organizations. While the program has been primarily associated with sports nutrition products, Frick explained that Thorne pursued certification because female athletes and active women \u201cshould not have to choose between comprehensive prenatal nutrition and the level of third-party verification they expect from their supplements.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThe certification complements rather than replaces Thorne\u2019s existing quality standards,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
According to Frick, the company routinely tests every lot of Basic Prenatal for heavy metals, including lead, cadmium, mercury and arsenic, and evaluates each batch against established quality specifications and applicable California Proposition 65 requirements before release.<\/p>\n
While the formulation has not changed, she said NSF Certified for Sport provides \u201can additional level of assurance through testing for banned substances.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bioactive folate and formulation strategy<\/p>\n
The certification also highlights growing interest in ingredient forms within prenatal supplements.<\/p>\n
5-MTHF does not require conversion by the MTHFR enzyme before it can be used by the body.<\/p>\n
Frick emphasized that the company\u2019s formulation approach should not be interpreted as dismissing the evidence supporting folic acid.<\/p>\n
\u201cFolic acid has a substantial evidence base and an important public-health history, particularly in reducing the incidence of neural tube defects,\u201d she said. \u201cWe do not view the conversation as dismissing that evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead, she said Thorne selected 5-MTHF because it is the active form of folate and has been part of the company\u2019s prenatal formulation since 2016.<\/p>\n
Transparency becomes a competitive differentiator<\/p>\n
For Frick, the certification reflects broader changes in how consumers and healthcare practitioners evaluate prenatal supplements.<\/p>\n
\u201cConsumers and healthcare practitioners are increasingly looking beyond the ingredient list of a product,\u201d she said. \u201cConsumers want to understand whether a product contains what the label says it contains, how it is manufactured, what it has been tested for, and whether those standards have been independently verified.\u201d<\/p>\n
She expects credible third-party certification to become \u201can increasingly important differentiator\u201d, alongside responsible formulation and internal quality controls, particularly in the prenatal category where trust and product quality are under heightened scrutiny.<\/p>\n
More broadly, Frick said the convergence of women\u2019s health and sports nutrition is creating opportunities for manufacturers to develop products that support women throughout different life stages rather than focusing solely on athletic performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are seeing the definition of women\u2019s sports nutrition expand well beyond what happens immediately before, during, or after a workout,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe greatest opportunities for innovation will come from designing solutions around women\u2019s real-life experiences rather than treating women\u2019s health and sports nutrition as separate categories.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The company said the certification adds banned substance screening to its existing quality assurance program while leaving the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630333,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[277],"tags":[139491,206749,266320,63691,62893,24411,27125,19417,4944,18,7520,539,39432,110307,266321,15341,525,266322,299,7111,2918,135,132879,9226,20477,789,19,27130,17,127771,60836,3521,27132,27133,32915,89206,10269,508,27134,237,432,266323,261526,2645,266324,14944,21983,94426,228909,144136,266325,384,86071,544,228911,9223,8076],"class_list":["post-630332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-30-34-years","tag-anticipation","tag-beginnings","tag-blonde-hair","tag-cardiovascular-exercise","tag-caucasian","tag-color-image","tag-concentration","tag-determination","tag-eire","tag-energy","tag-exercise","tag-exercise-equipment","tag-exercising","tag-expectant-mother","tag-fit","tag-fitness","tag-focusing","tag-future","tag-growth","tag-gym","tag-health","tag-health-club","tag-healthy-living","tag-hope","tag-horizontal","tag-ie","tag-indoors","tag-ireland","tag-jogging","tag-life-events","tag-lifestyle","tag-mid-adult","tag-mid-adult-women","tag-milestone","tag-motion","tag-new-jersey","tag-nutrition","tag-one-person","tag-people","tag-photography","tag-ponytail","tag-power-walking","tag-pregnancy","tag-prenatal-care","tag-profile","tag-responsibility","tag-serious","tag-side-view","tag-tank-top","tag-towel","tag-united-states","tag-waist-up","tag-walking","tag-west-new-york","tag-woman","tag-working-out"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}