Levels of creatine, organic contaminants and heavy metals in creatine dietary supplements
Food Chemistry. Volume 126, Issue 3, 1 June 2011, Pages 1232–1238
Abstract
High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) has been optimised for the analysis of the creatine content and possible organic contaminants in 33 samples of creatine supplements from the market. Creatinine resulted to be the major organic contaminant (44% of the samples over 100 mg/kg). About 15% of the samples had dihydro-1,3,5-triazine concentrations exceeding the detection limit of 4.5 mg/kg (maximum 8.0 mg/kg) and a dicyandiamide concentration over 50 mg/kg, while none of the samples were contaminated with thiourea. The heavy metals (arsenic, cadmium, mercury and lead) content was also assessed by means of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Only mercury was present in detectable amounts (at levels lower than 1 mg/kg).
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Research highlights
• A survey on quality of creatine supplements commercialised in Italy has been carried out.
• Creatinine resulted to be the major organic contaminant (44% of the samples over 100 mg/kg).
• 50% of the products exceeded the maximum level recommended by EFSA for organic contaminants.
• Among heavy metals, only mercury was present in detectable amounts (<1 mg/kg)
Full Paper, which is not free, is HERE
What’s In Your Creatine Part I HERE and part II HERE
Will Brink is the owner of the Brinkzone Blog. Will has over 30 years experience as a respected author, columnist and consultant, to the supplement, fitness, bodybuilding, and weight loss industry and has been extensively published. Will graduated from Harvard University with a concentration in the natural sciences, and is a consultant to major supplement, dairy, and pharmaceutical companies.
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Will,
On your recommended list you have Creatine by LEF which I purchased about a year ago and it was good. Just as a FYI, they no longer carry it. They told me it was not really selling so they discontinued carrrying it. You can only get it in pills and/or in their combo mixture, creatine, glutamine whey protein powder.
As you say, they do carry it, just not the powder sadly. Capsules and the whet/glut/Cr blend is what they have now. For powder alone, people will have to use another brand that uses CreaPure as their source of creatine.
Will,
Are you able to recommend another company that sells quality creatine now that LEF no longer makes the powder?
Joe, I make clear to simply use any company that uses CreaPure as their source for creatine monohydrate.