What Software Do Sports Dietitians Use for Supplements?

Supplement tracking tools at a glance

What does supplement management need to cover?

Supplement management means knowing what each athlete takes, whether it was checked, and who approved it. It sounds simple. The hard part is doing it for a whole roster, all year.

The 2026 position statement from the National Athletic Trainers' Association (NATA) gives a useful list. It asks staff to screen athletes for the supplements they take, with brand names and doses. It asks athletes to keep the packaging or record the lot number of every product. A lot (or batch) is one production run.

It also says that when several health professionals work with the same athlete, they should follow one shared supplement policy. Our guide to the NATA supplement guidelines explains the full statement.

Put together, a department needs four things from its tools:

1. A record of each athlete's products, with brand, dose and lot.
2. A label check for banned ingredients.
3. A certification check that the exact product was tested by a banned substance testing program.
4. A shared view, so every staff member works from the same list and the same approvals.

Why the label is not enough: the NCAA warns that supplements "may be contaminated with banned substances not listed on the label". Contaminated means something got in that should not be there.

Spreadsheets and paper forms

This is the simplest place to start. A spreadsheet or a paper intake form costs nothing extra, and everyone knows how to use one.

A good sheet can hold the fields the NATA statement names: brand, dose and lot. It works best when one person owns it and keeps it current.

What it does not do on its own:

• It does not check whether a product is certified. Someone has to look that up and type it in.
• It only knows what athletes report. Products bought outside the department reach it only when an athlete says so.
• It holds one copy of the truth only if everyone edits the same file.

Athlete management systems like Teamworks

Teamworks is a broad platform for running a sports program. It describes Hub as "a single source of truth for rosters, calendars, messages, travel, files, and more".

Its Nutrition platform covers meal plans, nutrient analysis, food logging with photos and barcodes, team recipes and grocery lists. It also helps dietitians and performance kitchens work together.

That breadth is the point of a system like this. Supplements are one narrow part of it. Our post on how Varsity Stack and Teamworks fit together explains how a supplement tool can sit beside it.

Drug Free Sport AXIS

Drug Free Sport AXIS is a subscription service for athletes and athletic department staff. You confidentially ask about a supplement or medication, and AXIS answers with a risk level.

The answer covers banned ingredients, marketing claims and known facts such as recent FDA recalls. AXIS says its experts research supplement labels every 24 hours during the business week.

For NCAA schools, it has a special place. The NCAA says it "subscribes only to Drug Free Sport AXIS for authoritative review of label ingredients". Our guide on what Drug Free Sport AXIS is explains what a label review covers.

AXIS reviews the label, not the product inside. So it works best alongside third party testing and the department's own records.

The NSF Certified for Sport app

NSF's Certified for Sport app helps you find products in its program. It offers UPC barcode scanning and search "by product type or by goal".

You can save lists of preferred products with one tap. You can also get push notifications about certification updates. NSF says it built the app with input from athletes, coaches, trainers and supplement users.

The app covers products in NSF's program. Our NSF Certified for Sport guide explains what the mark means.

Varsity Stack for teams

We make Varsity Stack, so weigh this part with that in mind. Varsity Stack is supplement management software for a whole roster. The team dashboard is built for sports dietitians, athletic trainers, coaches and the staff who run a program's supplements.

What staff can do:

• See every athlete's stack in one view, with each product's certification status and approvals.
• Approve or reject what athletes buy. Athletes scan the products they buy, and staff review them for the roster.
• Review the certification record and the full ingredient panel for each product. Products are checked against our certification database.
• Keep staff notes in the dashboard.
• Record lot numbers of the products athletes hold, and see which athletes hold a recalled lot.
• Track adherence with reminders and check ins.
• Export team data as CSV or JSON.

It works alongside platforms like Teamworks, so a department does not have to replace the systems it already uses. The athlete app is free.

Varsity Stack does not laboratory test supplements. Certification lowers risk, but it never guarantees a negative drug test.

Which tools cover which job?

This table is our comparison, built from each tool's own page. "Not described" means the page we read does not describe it, not that the tool cannot do it.

No tool on this list makes a supplement NCAA approved. The NCAA says no such product exists.

How should a department choose?

Start from the job, not the tool. Ask these questions:

1. Who records what athletes take? If the answer is one person with a spreadsheet, plan for when that person is away.
2. How do you check a product before an athlete uses it? For NCAA schools, AXIS answers label questions. A certification check covers the product itself.
3. Where do approvals live? The NCAA makes it the athlete's job "to check with the appropriate athletics staff before using any substance". Staff need a record of that answer.
4. Can you answer a recall today? If a lot is recalled, you need to know which athletes hold it.
5. Do your staff share one policy and one list? That is what the NATA statement asks for.

A department can keep its team platform and add tools around it. The goal is one record that every staff member trusts.

Check your roster with Varsity Stack

Athletes can scan a barcode or take a photo of a label in Varsity Stack. The app checks the product against our certification database, then they add it to their stack so staff know what they take.

Download the App

For coaches, sports dietitians and athletic trainers: the team dashboard shows every athlete's stack, certification status and approvals in one place. Staff can approve or reject what athletes buy, record lot numbers and export team data.

Request access for your program

Varsity Stack does not laboratory test supplements, and certification lowers risk without removing it.