As senior populations continue to grow, the market for healthy aging is ripe. With US seniors eventually expected to outnumber children in the US, nutrition and dietary supplement manufacturers are increasing their R&D in the healthy aging category to support this rapidly expanding demographic.
IFF Health recently announced a strategic partnership for R&D of anti-aging ingredients with By-Health, a maker of dietary supplements and raw materials.
Together, the two Chinese companies are researching the production and international development of science-based anti-aging ingredient formulations.
Botanicals and their synergies will be explored
Maider Gutierrez, Director of Marketing & Product Management at IFF Health, told NutraIngredients-USA that the team is currently evaluating several botanical ingredients to explore anti-aging potential. “Some of these ingredients had already proprietary science supporting their activity, but now new research is being done specifically on the potential beneficial effects against cellular oxidative stress, intracellular health telomerase activity.”
The formulations will focus on fighting cellular oxidative stress, support of intracellular health such as of the mitochondria, and telomerase research. Telomeres are the repetitive nucleotide sequences that cap chromosomes and protect them from deterioration or from fusing with neighboring chromosomes and preventing healthy cell replication and turnover. They have been identified as being key factors in the process of aging.
"Committed to and driven by science"
The IFF Healthand BY-HEALTH teams said they are committed to science-backed research, and they look forward to investigating ingredient synergies that will be highly efficacious and healthy.
“Our purpose at IFF Health demands more than just being a healthy ingredients company,” says Raimund Hoenes, PhD, General Manager IFF Health. “This requires a committed partner to put uncommon sense to work in order to reinvent and refocus our industry. But more than giving consumers new products to support their healthy lifestyle, it’s also about how we deliver that capacity. BY-HEALTH’s focus on innovative research and development matches our commitment to quality, safety, science, and innovation. We’re honored to partner with BY-HEALTH and look forward to a fruitful collaboration.”
There is no official launch date, however Gutierrez told us, “The selected ingredients will be incorporated by By-Health into anti-aging formulations in a very near future.”