In January 2012 the Assistant Secretary for Health Affairs requested a DoD-wide educational campaign on dietary supplements. In response to this request, the DoD Dietary Supplement Subcommittee (DSSC), the U.S. Army Public Health Command, and the Consortium for Health and Military Performance (CHAMP) at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) began developing a DoD-wide educational campaign—Operation Supplement Safety, or OPSS—to increase awareness within the DoD community about potential health risks and how to choose safe dietary supplements.

In March 2022, DoD issued the Department of Defense Instruction (DoDI) 6130.06, Use of Dietary Supplements in the DoD, in which DoD establishes OPSS as the “go-to” program for dietary supplements. It states that OPSS will maintain the official DoD Prohibited Dietary Supplement Ingredient list, and provide educational training on the topic of dietary supplements.

OPSS’s mission is to provide the best evidence-based information about dietary supplements to Service Members, their families, healthcare providers, and leaders to achieve human performance optimization. Many Service Members use dietary supplements—to promote health, improve performance, bodybuilding, lose weight, and more. Unfortunately, some supplements can compromise rather than improve performance. Our goal is to provide the tools and resources to help users make informed decisions about dietary supplements to optimize their health, performance, and careers.