NSF / Informed Sport Ready

Clean. Compliant. Competitive.

V5 for NSF & Informed Sport – Trusted Compliance for Certified Supplements

V5 from SG Systems Global for NSF & Informed Sport helps sports nutrition and supplement manufacturers meet the rigorous demands of NSF Certified for Sport® and Informed Sport certification. With V5, clean-label production, banned substance control, and end-to-end digital traceability become enforceable, auditable, and real time—no paper clean-up after the fact. Tested. Trusted. Certified.

Certification programs exist to protect athletes and consumers from contamination and mislabeling. NSF’s program is recognized by major professional leagues and anti-doping bodies, and it publishes a live directory of certified products, while Informed Sport provides a globally recognized testing and certification framework for brands and contract manufacturers. V5 operationalizes those expectations into your day-to-day manufacturing, linking master data, execution steps, QA holds, and warehouse movements into one defendable record. For a focused view of V5’s approach to certified supplement operations, see V5 for NSF-Certified Plants and our broader Dietary Supplements Manufacturing solution.

“V5 gave us the confidence to go for NSF and Informed Sport certification. Our traceability went from paper-based to audit-ready overnight.”
— Operations Director, Sports Nutrition Brand

Why Certification Demands More Than SOPs

Both NSF and Informed Sport expect you to prove, not merely assert, that each batch was produced on qualified equipment with released materials, under validated conditions, using approved formulations—free from banned substances and with accurate labels. Paper systems struggle here. A strong electronic backbone—MES, QMS, and WMS—must enforce every gate, capture contemporaneous evidence, and present it clearly at audit. V5 delivers this with electronic batch record systems and eBR/eBMR that assemble the truth as you manufacture—no retyping later.

Certified Batch Integrity: Built Into Execution

V5 converts your approved masters into enforceable, step-by-step execution with digital signatures and tamper-evident audit trails. That means certified batch integrity is designed in, not inspected in. Core capabilities include:

  • Genealogy from Receipt to Dispatch: Lot-level and, where applicable, unit-level links across materials, intermediates, and finished goods. See the big picture in Global Batch Traceability and definitions in Batch Records & Traceability.
  • Line Clearance & Cleaning Verification: Digitally enforced clearance, clean-to-dirty workflows, and cleaning sign-offs before each run.
  • Electronic Batch Records (eBR/eBMR): Time-stamped, role-based sign-offs with reason-for-signature, exception routing, and attachments; see Electronic Batch Record Software and eBMR.
  • Deviation & CAPA Control: Inline deviation capture with escalation into QMS CAPA and effectiveness checks via V5 QMS.
  • COA Linkage: Certificates of Analysis at intake and batch release are stored against lots and surfaced at review-by-exception.

These controls align with what certification bodies ultimately verify: that what’s on the label matches what’s in the product, and that contamination controls are robust. See NSF’s explanation of the Certified for Sport® mark and Informed Sport’s program overview at informed-sport.com.

Banned Substance Control: Design for Zero Tolerance

Contamination risks rise with shared equipment, complex formulations, and frequent changeovers. V5 reduces risk by combining warehouse zoning, cleaning enforcement, and execution interlocks:

  • Material Segregation & Quarantine: Risk-tiered zones, quarantine status, and supplier/lot approval workflows in V5 WMS. If a lot isn’t released, it can’t be issued.
  • Cleaning Enforcement & Proof: Checklists with e-signatures, optional photos, and timer-based holds before a batch can begin.
  • Calibration/Qualification Interlocks: Out-of-tolerance or unqualified assets cannot run production; see Asset Management that Protects Production.
  • Allergen & Cross-Contact Controls: Zoning, scan-verified picks, and label checks reduce mislabel/cross-contact risk; see Allergen Control Program, Allergen Control Systems, and FSMA/GFSI Allergen Compliance.
  • Lab/LIMS Results In-Line: Pull test reports directly into release decisions with LIMS Integration and present them within eBR context.

Because every material, person, and asset action is logged, you have a defensible who/what/when/where trail for certification audits and random inspections. If you’re targeting both NSF and Informed Sport, V5 strengthens the same fundamentals—clean execution and complete, provable records—across both schemes. See the certification ecosystem at nsfsport.com and informed-sport.com.

Digital Enforcement of Clean Label Production

Label misstatement is fatal to trust. V5 protects claims and declarations by gating formulation, enforcing weighing, validating labels, and reconciling packaging assets:

  • Recipe/Formulation Control: Approved formulations, substitutions via controlled change, and precise weighing with scan-verification in V5 Recipe & Formulation.
  • Weigh & Dispense: Tare enforcement and tolerance checks recorded into the eBR/eBMR; material identity verified by barcode.
  • Mass Balance & Yields: Transparent batch math and reconciliation; concepts carried over from Mass Balance.
  • Packaging & Label Control: Controlled label issue, print counts, and reconciliation inside the same batch record; fundamentals in eBR Software.
  • Review-by-Exception: QA focuses on outliers, not retyping; see eBR Explained.

Every claim on your certified label can be backed by contemporaneous, sealed data. If an auditor asks for the basis of a claim, you can show the exact lot genealogy, weights, results, and sign-offs in minutes, not days.

From MMR/BPR to eBMR/eBR: No-Excuses Documentation

NSF and Informed Sport will treat your masters and batch records as the source of truth. V5 makes sure they are the truth—built as the work happens. If your plant still mixes paper and spreadsheets, read Digital vs. Paper Batch Records in Supplement Manufacturing and the master/batch/device record comparison in BMR vs. MMR vs. eBR vs. eDHR.

  • Sequenced Steps with Interlocks: Operators can’t skip instructions or use wrong lots; deviations route to QA.
  • Electronic Signatures & Trails: Signature meaning, user identity, and timestamps recorded; audit trails show create/modify/void events.
  • Attachments in Context: COAs, test reports, and photos stay attached to the batch step where they matter.
  • Training-Gated Access: Roles are tied to current training; expired training automatically removes permissions; see Training & Certification.

“Auditors asked how we managed so many SKUs with such tight tolerances—we showed them V5.”
— QA Lead, Certified Supplement Manufacturer

Warehouse, ERP & LIMS: No Silos, No Re-keying

Certification depends on data integrity between systems. V5 integrates ERP, LIMS, and shop-floor devices so batch records reflect reality without manual copying:

  • ERP Handshake: Keep items, lots, and inventory status in sync; overview in Supercharge Your ERP with V5 and integration details in V5 Connect API.
  • LIMS Results: Pull test data into release-by-exception within eBR using LIMS Integration.
  • Warehouse Execution: Scan-verified picks, FEFO/expiry control, allergen zoning, and ship verification in V5 WMS.

When your data landscape is connected, QA and operations resolve issues faster and present cleaner evidence at audit. Less admin, more assurance.

Preparing for Certification: Practical Playbook

Here’s a pragmatic rollout plan that V5 supports end-to-end:

  1. Map Requirements to Controls: Identify NSF/Informed Sport expectations and map them to V5 controls (zoning, cleaning, label control, eBR).
  2. Harden Receiving: Enforce supplier approval, COA capture, sampling, and quarantine release gates with WMS.
  3. Train & Gate Roles: Use Training & Certification so only qualified people execute critical steps.
  4. Validate Processes Electronically: Build and test eBMR/eBR workflows; see eBMR and eBR.
  5. Prove Clean Label Discipline: Lock formulation, weighing tolerances, and label issuance in Recipe & Formulation and eBR.
  6. Run Pilot, Then Scale: Execute pilot SKUs end-to-end and audit them internally; refine holds, checklists, and exception routing.
  7. Use Live Certification Resources: Track benchmarks against the NSF Certified Products directory and Informed Sport guidance at informed-sport.com.

Reducing Findings & Cost of Poor Quality

Certification audits often surface the same issues: undocumented changeovers, poor reconciliation, label drift, training gaps, and missing evidence. V5 closes these gaps with hard-gated workflows and review-by-exception. If you’re still debating digital vs. paper for supplements, read this field analysis to quantify risk and cycle-time savings.

  • Finding-Proof Steps: Gated changeovers, scan-verified picks, and label reconciliation reduce 483-style findings.
  • Faster QA: With exceptions surfaced in real time, QA spends time on what matters—not binders.
  • Clear Audit Trails: Every create/modify/void is captured; signatures carry meaning and timestamps in eBR/eBMR.

Go Deeper: Guidance & Modules

Explore focused resources to round out your certification program:

Final Word: Certification as a Competitive Advantage

NSF and Informed Sport aren’t just logos—they’re signals that your brand takes athlete safety and product integrity seriously. With V5, certification becomes repeatable: same controls, same evidence, same confidence—across every product and line. If you want a guided walkthrough of a certified run (receiving → cleaning → batching → packaging → reconciliation → QA release) with interlocks, holds, and review-by-exception, start with NSF & Informed Sport Compliance and explore NSF’s certified directory as the benchmark for where you’re headed.

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