ASA ruling: a creatine ad that strayed from the authorised claims

Key takeaway: You can reword an authorised health claim, but the meaning and the limits have to survive. If the claim only applies to a specific group or a specific type of exercise, leaving that out turns it into an unauthorised claim.

In the week of 8–14 October 2026, the ASA published one ruling on health claims for food supplements or food and drink. It concerns creatine, one of the few sports ingredients with authorised claims on the GB nutrition and health claims register.

A creatine supplement and a muscle-strength promise

The claim: A sports supplement brand advertised a creatine monohydrate powder in a paid Facebook image ad. The ad said the product was clinically supported for muscle strength. It also suggested that creatine builds muscle protein alone cannot, and used a before-and-after drawing and a label about muscle definition to imply a shapelier, more defined body. According to the ruling, the product provided 3.5 g of creatine per serving.

The rule: CAP Code rules 15.1, 15.1.1 and 15.7. Specific health claims for food, including food supplements, must be authorised on the GB register and must meet that claim’s conditions of use. Wording can be adapted, but only if it means the same thing as the authorised claim and does not exaggerate it.

Why it failed: The advertiser said its wording was adapted from the authorised claims, that the product met the 3 g daily intake condition, and that its verb was softer than the one in the authorised claim. The ASA accepted that some flexibility in wording is allowed, but not here. The strength claim dropped both limits: it said nothing about the over-55 group or about short, high-intensity exercise, so readers would take it as a general muscle-strength benefit for anyone. That is a different and broader claim.

The muscle-building and body-shape messages went further. Read together with the before-and-after image, they told people the product would build muscle and change how their body looks. Neither authorised claim mentions building muscle, body shape or muscle definition, or compares creatine with protein.

A compliant alternative: For a creatine product aimed at people who train hard, the closest authorised claim is:

“Creatine increases physical performance in successive bursts of short-term, high intensity exercise”

Conditions of use: the claim may only be used for food that provides a daily intake of 3 g of creatine; the consumer must be told that the beneficial effect is obtained with a daily intake of 3 g of creatine; and the claim may only be used for foods targeting adults performing high intensity exercise.

The muscle-strength claim, “Daily creatine consumption can enhance the effect of resistance training on muscle strength in adults over the age of 55.”, is only an option for a product aimed at adults over 55 who do regular resistance training.

Conditions of use: the consumer must be told that the claim targets adults over the age of 55 who do regular resistance training, and that the beneficial effect is obtained with a daily intake of 3 g of creatine together with resistance training at least three times per week for several weeks, at an intensity of at least 65 % - 75 % of one repetition maximum load.

For building muscle, muscle definition or changing body shape, there is no authorised claim for this; the safe option is to drop it.

Source: ASA ruling

What to check in your own ads

• Keep the qualifiers. Age groups, exercise types and daily amounts in the conditions of use are part of the claim, not small print you can leave out.
• Read the ad as a whole. Images, labels and headlines are judged together. A before-and-after picture can turn a careful claim into a body-shape promise.
• Softer verbs do not fix a broader claim. The problem was what the claim covered, not how strong the verb was.
• Withdrawing the ad is not a defence. The advertiser had already withdrawn parts of it; the ruling was still upheld.

See our example report, or check yours.

Check your own ads before they go live – claimbob.co.uk

This is not legal advice.