What We’ve Learnt About Changes (Or Lack Thereof) To The Australian Sports Supplement Industry

Last month, we filled you in on the state of play with the Australian sports supplement industry.

Quick recap: The country’s government is proposing to change the categorization of sport supplements to help them get unsafe products off the shelves faster.

Athletes like Kara Saunders and James Newbury threw their support behind the ‘Save Aussie Supplements’ campaign to delay the process, fearing their favorite products would be taken off the shelves while the review takes place.

What’s the latest: The deadline for submissions has passed and the government body conducting the review received an overwhelming 15 thousand submissions, three quarters from the Save Aussie Supplements campaign alone.

• The government now says it’ll conduct “targeted consultation” with industry – a big win for the campaign – who wanted more say on any proposed changes.
• The review panel has also vowed no changes will be made until a “regulation impact statement (RIS)” has been prepared and reviewed. In plain English, athletes won’t see any products disappear suddenly without careful consultation.
• In fact: “If the RIS indicates that if a regulatory change is warranted, and this is agreed by Government, there will be a transition period of at least 2 years.” So even if the laws change, they won’t take effect before 2020.

Key takeaways: Australian-made companies like ATP Science – sponsoring Kara Saunders and James Newbury – feared their products would be out-of-action during the review.

If you’re to take the government at its word, all this was a storm in a tea-cup, with little to worry about from a consumer perspective during the review of the laws.