Whitehouse Communications supports the European Specialist Sports Nutrition Alliance (ESSNA) in delivering an EU-wide campaign to identify, tackle and remove non-compliant sports nutrition products from the market. Since its inception, the campaign has tackled more than 500 non-compliant products. Cases are resolved either through direct engagement with the offending company or escalated to national enforcement authorities, including the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA), the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the Italian Competition Authority (AGCM), the Portuguese Economic and Food Safety Authority (ASAE) and the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA).
The challenge
The European Specialist Sports Nutrition Alliance (ESSNA) is an established pan-European trade association, representing the responsible voice of the sports nutrition industry in Europe.
Over time, ESSNA members increasingly identified problematic sports nutrition products being sold across the EU market. These products posed risks to consumer health, damaged the reputation of an otherwise responsible industry, and created unfair commercial conditions in which uninformed consumers gravitated towards illegal products on the basis of misleading claims. Policing the sector, removing non-compliant products and rebuilding consumer trust became a strategic priority, in order to protect the industry’s integrity, expand its dialogue with policymakers and regulators, and improve business prospects for compliant operators.
Our approach
Whitehouse Communications supports ESSNA in designing and delivering a two-track compliance campaign that combines industry intelligence, direct engagement with offending operators, consumer-facing education, and structured cooperation with national enforcement authorities across the EU.
The work focuses on:
- Operating an intelligence pipeline through which ESSNA members, wider businesses and the public can flag suspicious products directly to ESSNA, including anonymously via a dedicated form on the ESSNA website and a dedicated Facebook page for reporting potentially illegal products for sale on the platform.
- Contacting the companies responsible for non-compliant products directly, securing commitments to relabel or reformulate products in line with EU law or, where necessary, to withdraw them from the market entirely.
- Running a public-facing educational campaign through traditional media, a consumer-facing website, category-specific consumer how-to guides, social media, and joint work with UK Anti-Doping, the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA), warning against illegal products sold through unrecognised e-commerce channels.
- Producing a dedicated ESSNA Trademark for use on member products, so consumers can identify products that abide by ESSNA’s strict Code of Practice.
- Sharing intelligence and providing advice to EU and national enforcement authorities, and escalating cases to bodies including the Italian Competition Authority (AGCM), the Portuguese Economic and Food Safety Authority (ASAE) and the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA), building working relationships in which authorities now proactively seek ESSNA’s support on a range of issues.
The outcome
The campaign has tackled more than 500 non-compliant products since its inception, with many resolved informally as a direct result of ESSNA contacting the offending company, resulting in the company committing to relabel, reformulate or completely withdraw the product, and others escalated to national enforcement authorities. Remaining alerts are being processed.
ESSNA has moved beyond the traditional remit of a trade association to act as the representative of a responsible industry, sharing intelligence, providing advice and giving national enforcement bodies back the time and resources that are scarcely available to them. The alliance has cultivated ongoing working relationships with EU and national enforcement officials who now regularly and proactively seek ESSNA’s support on a range of issues affecting the sports nutrition sector.
