DENVER -- A leader in the supplement industry chafes when he hears sports leaders blame his multibillion-dollar industry for their steroid problems, citing studies that claim large percentages of their products are tainted.
Steve Mister, president of the Council for Responsible Nutrition, said an oft-cited, two-year old study claiming 25 percent of supplements are tainted by steroids is misleading because it sampled fewer than 60 of the thousands of products on the market.
The study, performed by the British company HFL and released in 2007, said it looked specifically for products used by athletes that were "not believed to regularly carry out banned substance screening as part of their routine quality control processes."
The study, originally reported by USA Today and The Associated Press, was mentioned in a speech last week by the CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, who urged a group of attorneys general to use state laws to fill in gaps in what many perceive as lax federal oversight of the supplement industry.
Mister countered that argument Monday, saying federal laws are thorough, while conceding enforcement could be better. He said a Food and Drug Administration regulation, requiring manufacturers to adhere to tougher testing practices, gets expanded to every supplement maker with more than 20 employees beginning Tuesday.
"There aren't enough inspectors to do all the work," Mister said. "You get things like bad peanut butter, pistachios, spinach, and that deflects FDA resources. But the FDA has done a number of inspections and has a pretty robust inspection system in place" for supplements.
Mister conceded his industry is far from perfect, but said it hardly deserves the blame it has received in recent months. The most pointed criticism has come from the new CEO at USA Track and Field, Doug Logan, who said the industry "has been assisting in braiding the noose" that is choking the life out of track and field.
"They have a problem in their industry because they have a lot of athletes who will do anything to win," Mister said. "When they point the finger at our industry, it's a way to deflect criticism away from their athletes and try to put it on someone else."
USADA's CEO, Travis Tygart, has long said the anti-doping industry wishes athletes wouldn't depend on supplements at all, but knows that's unrealistic. USADA has hotlines for athletes to find out which supplements are clean and which contain banned substances.
Other companies, such as NSF International and the National Center for Drug Free Sport, test supplements and give athletes and consumers another resource to ensure the products they take are clean.
Despite these safeguards, Tygart said he sees a $23 billion industry that is not subject to the same regulations as drug manufacturers as needing more oversight, which is why he took the issue to the attorneys general last week.
"We know there's tons of contamination, we know there's tons of mislabeling," Tygart said. "We know there are bad actors in this industry that are intentionally exploiting the law for their own motives."
Mister conceded there are "bad actors" in his industry and also called for them to be punished. But, he said, the supplement business is not dominated by people trying to break the law and ruin sports, as many of its detractors contend.
His advice: Be a savvy customer.
"Take advantage of certification programs, look for seals of approval," Mister said. "Don't buy products that are making claims that sound too good to be true and don't buy products where the models look pumped up on something that's not natural."