Creatine Quality, Purity and EU Compliance
A quality creatine monohydrate spec is defined by four things: HPLC assay, impurity limits, heavy metals, and the documentation trail that proves them per lot. This page sets out what Indock verifies before material reaches you, and the EU rules that apply once it does.
The spec that matters
| Parameter | What good looks like |
|---|---|
| HPLC assay | 99.5 percent minimum, premium lots 99.9 percent |
| Creatinine | 100 ppm ceiling, premium lots well below |
| Dicyandiamide (DCD) | Low ppm, ideally not detectable |
| Dihydrotriazine (DHT) | Not detectable |
| Heavy metals | Lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury each at low fractional ppm limits |
| Identity | Creatine monohydrate, CAS 6020-87-7, vegan synthetic route |
| Particle size | Stated mesh with laser-diffraction distribution for fine grades |
Every lot we supply ships with a CoA covering these plus moisture and microbiology, matched to a full specification sheet. Verify it yourself first via samples and CoA.
Certifications buyers should expect
Baseline for the category: ISO 9001, ISO 22000 or FSSC 22000, HACCP, GMP production, with Halal and Kosher widely available. Sports-channel brands often add doping-safety programs such as Informed Sport or the Cologne List for finished products. Ask any supplier, including us, to show which of these apply to a specific lot rather than to a brochure.
EU compliance for creatine
- Authorized claims only. The physical performance claim (3 g per day, Regulation (EU) 432/2012) and the 55+ muscle strength claim (Regulation (EU) 2017/672) are the two that exist. Anything stronger, including absorption claims for fine mesh, is not authorized.
- Food business obligations. Traders and brands are food business operators under EU law: registration with the competent authority and HACCP-based procedures apply even to pure B2B distribution.
- Per-country notification. Food supplement notification rules differ by member state, so the same product can need different paperwork in different markets. We flag destination-country requirements as part of supply.
- Origin transparency. We declare country of origin and EU warehousing openly, because a trust claim you cannot verify is worthless.
For how this compares across suppliers, see the creatine supplier comparison, and for choosing on more than the CoA, how to choose a creatine supplier.
Frequently asked questions
Three above all: creatinine (a degradation product, commonly capped at 100 ppm with premium lots well below that), dicyandiamide or DCD (a synthesis residue that EFSA-referenced guidance caps at low ppm levels), and dihydrotriazine or DHT (which should be not detectable). A CoA that only shows the assay number and skips these is incomplete.
Creatine monohydrate, CAS number 6020-87-7, is a synthetic ingredient produced from sarcosinate and cyanamide. It is vegan by production route: no animal inputs are involved.
Two authorized claims exist. Under Regulation (EU) 432/2012: creatine increases physical performance in successive bursts of short-term, high intensity exercise, conditional on a 3 g daily intake. Under Regulation (EU) 2017/672: a muscle strength claim for adults over 55 in combination with regular resistance training. Wording must follow the register exactly, and no absorption or bioavailability claims are authorized for particle size.
For serious volumes, buyers increasingly verify DCD and DHT with independent third-party testing rather than relying on the supplier CoA alone. We support that: it is your product and your recall risk, and material that is genuinely clean has nothing to hide.
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