Is your stable free from Naturally Occurring Hazardous Substances?

Have you heard of BETA NOPS?

NOPS stands for Naturally Occurring Prohibited Substances and refers to substances that are naturally present within materials or occur due to inadvertent cross-contamination during processing.

We asked our friends at Bedmax to tell us more. 

A prohibited substance is defined as “any substance that can exert an effect on your horse”.

A naturally occurring prohibited substance (NOPS) can be naturally found in certain ingredients or can occur due to accidental cross contamination whilst being processed before it reaches the bedding manufacturer.

Developed by the British Equestrian Trade Association (BETA), the NOPS Code for Feed was set up in 2009 in response to an increased incidence of positive doping tests in racehorses. Following its successful growth, in January 2020 BETA launched the NOPS Code for Equine Bedding products.

BEDMAX is the first horse bedding manufacturer to become BETA NOPS Accredited and thus recognised as conforming to the current best practice in minimising the risk of contamination by NOPS across all our bedding products, including Strawmax, Littlemax, Bedmax and Stockmax. 

As in human sport, doping performance horses is illegal. However, it’s not enough for trainers and riders just to not knowingly administer prohibited substances. This is where NOPS comes in. NOPS offers reassurance against inadvertently exposing horses to prohibited substances via cross contamination from external sources.

You may be wondering how your horse bedding plays a part in this. How can the product you use on the stable floor put horses at risk of exposure to prohibited substances? Bedding is easily ingested by horses either directly or indirectly, through hay on the floor for example. Bedding containing NOPS can cause cross contamination without you even being aware. NOPS may be present in the raw bedding material itself or in a chemical treatment used during manufacture. However, it occurs, the buck stops with you so it’s important to reduce possible sources.

Some everyday sources of NOPS include: Caffeine Chocolate Soft Drinks Chilli Medicines Tobacco

Additionally, carrying the NOPS logo also gives our customers confidence that we are marketing our products fairly and legally which is something we take great pride in. It gives us the evidence to support our claims.

It also offers our customers peace of mind that our shavings receive the same amount of scrutiny for the risk of prohibited substances as their feed.