A tub of whey with a few added vitamins can be two different products in Australia. Sold one way, it is a sports food under the Food Standards Code. Sold another way, the same formula reads as a medicine that will likely need AUST L listing. The difference is not the powder. It is one standard, Standard 2.9.4 – Formulated supplementary sports foods, and whether your product is the kind of product it describes.
This guide reads Standard 2.9.4 in plain words, then walks one invented product through Regulave's free Food or Medicine Checker, row by row, from the Code's own tables.
What Standard 2.9.4 covers
The standard defines its product in one sentence. A formulated supplementary sports food "means a product that is specifically formulated to assist sports people in achieving specific nutritional or performance goals" (section 2.9.4—2).
Two things follow from that sentence.
- It is about purpose. A protein powder is not a sports food because it contains protein. It is a sports food if it is specifically formulated for sports people and their nutritional or performance goals. That is a fact about how you make and sell it, which is why the checker asks you rather than guessing.
- Its amounts are per day. The standard measures its limits in a "one-day quantity", which it defines as "the amount of that food which is to be consumed in one day in accordance with directions specified in the label". Your label's directions set the day.
What a sports food may contain
Section 2.9.4—3 sets out what may be added. For vitamins and minerals, three conditions must all hold:
- the vitamin or mineral is "listed in the table to section S29—16";
- it is added in a permitted form, from section S17—2 or S17—3 of Schedule 17, or section S29—17 of Schedule 29;
- the amount in the food is no more than the maximum amount, if any, that the table sets for it.
The same section also permits certain amino acids and other nutritive substances from their own tables, and sets ceilings for the whole product: in a one-day quantity, a sports food must not contain more than 70 mmol sodium, 95 mmol potassium, or 200 mg caffeine in total from any source.
The table that decides it: S29—16
Schedule 29's table to section S29—16 is the list for sports foods. It has three columns, headed in the Code's own words Vitamin or mineral, Maximum amount and Maximum claim, per one-day quantity. Two of its rows, exactly as held:
| Vitamin or mineral | Maximum amount | Maximum claim |
|---|---|---|
| Vitamin A | 375 μg | 375 μg |
| Vitamin C | 80 mg |
The empty cell is the Code's, not ours: the table sets no maximum amount for vitamin C in a sports food, only the most you may claim on the label.
What the label must say
Section 2.9.4—4 lists the statements a sports food's label must carry. Among them:
- "a statement to the effect that the food is not a sole source of nutrition and should be consumed in conjunction with a nutritious diet";
- "a statement to the effect that the food should be used in conjunction with an appropriate physical training or exercise program";
- directions for the amount and frequency of intake, the recommended consumption in one day, and a nutrition information panel.
A sports food without caffeine also carries the warning statement ‘Not suitable for children under 15 years of age or pregnant women: Should only be used under medical or dietetic supervision’.
What the label must not say
This is where sports foods most often go wrong. Section 2.9.4—7 says that, unless Division 3 of the standard gives specific permission, the label "must not include an express or implied representation that relates any property or proposed use of the food to enhanced athletic performance or beneficial physiological effects".
Claims about the vitamins themselves are limited too. Under section 2.9.4—6, the label may claim a vitamin or mineral's presence only within the rules of that section, and the amount claimed may be no more than the table's Maximum claim.
A worked example: Stridewell Whey Sports Powder
Take an invented product, Stridewell Whey Sports Powder: a powder for muscle growth, presented for gaining muscle and preparing for a workout, made with whey protein isolate, vitamin A and ascorbic acid. Here is how the checker reads it.
First, it asks the questions only you can answer. The vitamins are what bring the special purpose food standards into play: the tables of both Standard 2.9.3 and Standard 2.9.4 list them, so the checker asks each standard's purpose question in the standard's own words. For Standard 2.9.4, that is whether your product is specifically formulated to assist sports people in achieving specific nutritional or performance goals.
Answer yes to the sports question (and no to the other), and it reads food. The checker says: your product can be sold as a food — no AUST L listing needed. It reads the sports food's own table, names the class as your answer, and quotes the rows:
- Vitamin A — you named the vitamin itself, so the checker tells you to add it in a permitted form, and lists them from Schedule 17: retinol, retinyl acetate, retinyl palmitate, retinyl propionate, beta-apo-8′-carotenal and synthetic beta-carotene. The row: «Vitamin A | 375 μg | 375 μg».
- Vitamin C — you added it as ascorbic acid, which Schedule 17 lists as a permitted form of vitamin C. The row: «Vitamin C | — | 80 mg».
- The Poisons Standard has an entry for vitamin A, and its line sits at 3000 micrograms retinol equivalents per daily dose. At the Code's own limit of 375 μg, a sports food stays under that line, and the checker says so.
Give your daily amount beside each vitamin and the checker compares it with the row: within the maximum, over it, or, for vitamin C, within or above the most you may claim.
Answer no, and it reads AUST L likely. If Stridewell is not formulated for sports people, no food permission reaches its vitamin A and vitamin C as described, so the checker says your product will likely need AUST L listing and names the way back: make it without the vitamins, or fit a kind of food the Code permits them in.
When a product fits more than one class
Standard 2.9.3 covers formulated meal replacements and formulated supplementary foods. Its table for supplementary foods (S29—14) sets its own amounts, per serving. A product can honestly answer yes to both definitions. The checker then asks which one it is sold as, and reads that class's table alone.
There is a third door as well: «Neither — it is sold as a general food». That reads the Code's general table (Schedule 17, section S17—4), which lists the kinds of everyday food vitamins and minerals may be added to. A whey powder is not one of them, so for Stridewell sold as a general food the checker says the vitamins have no general-food permission, and names both routes that follow: reformulate without them, or AUST L listing.
Sports food or supplement: the short version
- Formulated for sports people, sold as such, vitamins within S29—16? A sports food under Standard 2.9.4, with its labelling duties and its limits on what the label may claim.
- Not formulated for sports people, with added vitamins? Those vitamins need a food permission they may not have, and the product will likely need AUST L listing.
- In capsules? The checker reads the same formula in a capsule as a unit dose: a whey capsule with vitamin A and vitamin C, answered no to the sports question, reads AUST L likely.
For the wider picture of food versus medicine, read Do I need AUST L listing for my supplement? The five-minute answer.
Check your own product
Your answer to the sports question, your forms and your daily amounts decide it. The Food or Medicine Checker asks for exactly those, walks the steps above and quotes every row it relied on.
Check your product with the Food or Medicine Checker →
This article is general information built from the legal instruments Regulave holds, current when it was written. It is not legal advice. The products named in it are invented for illustration. Before you sell, confirm your own product's position against the current instruments, or with a regulatory professional.