Taiyo International is part of a global Indian corporation that manufactures and distributes functional food and ingredients derived from natural sources. It also manages the certification process to ensure legal conformity at local and regional level.
The partnership with Spartan takes the “worry about sourcing and validating formulas” out of the equation, while delivering products with “measurable functional benefits”, says Spartan Nutrition Founder and CEO, Joe De Sena.
“Taiyo provides us with the highest quality ingredients and global regulatory support, ensuring our products are compliant and ready for anything,” he explains.
Quality standards
Spartan Nutrition was launched in 2016 by a team of nutritionists, pharmacists and qualified experts that specialise in high-quality nutritional supplements with the aim “to wipe out the nutritional deficiencies faced by the current generation”.
The company has an established relationship with Taiyo, which manufactures the majority of ingredients used in Spartan products. More recently, the partners have collaborated on the formulation, production, certification, and distribution of sports-focused nutritional supplements.
Together the pair have developed an initial range of six sports supplements, including Spartan Energy, Focus, Hydrate, Immune and Burn, containing key Taiyo ingredients, such as raw coffee powder, Suntheanine, Teavigo, SunCran, and ElderMune.
Prior to launch, products will undergo quality and health checks under the UK ‘Informed’ certification program run by life science firm, LGC.
As such, all end products will have Informed Ingredient and Informed Sport status, according to De Sena, with each batch of ingredients tested to ensure “finished formulations and products are free of contamination and impurities”.
“Taiyo has stepped up to the plate and is going above and beyond what most other brands will do when it comes to testing and quality assurance,” according to LGC Business Development Manager, Paul Klinger.
“Ours is a very thorough process that confirms there is little-to-no risk of cross contamination and/or presence of banned substances. For Spartan Nutrition, we are screening the raw materials themselves as well as how those ingredients are handled by conducting manufacturing audits.”
Product certification
‘Informed’ certification adds certainty to ingredient and end-product integrity. The program screens ingredients for more than 250 banned substances to parts-per-billion accuracy.
LGC chooses random locations throughout the manufacturing process to conduct tests for banned substances and thoroughly reviews operating procedures.
Third-party manufacturers can use the certification to demonstrate high quality control standards and minimal contamination risk to sports nutrition brands.
Taiyo received Informed Ingredient status for Suntheanine and Teavigo last year. Certification provides a clean bill of health for contaminants and banned substances and also serves as a quality benchmark in validating GMP compliance of production facilities.
Meanwhile, Informed Sport certification focuses on the quality of the finished product. Five of the initial Spartan products developed with Taiyo are listed on LGC’s certified products list, along with Sustained Release Balanced and Electrolyte Tablets, but Spartan Hydrate is currently absent.