At this year's SupplySide West, Shaheen Majeed, Sami-Sabinsa CEO and managing director, told NutraIngredients-USA that the legacy of his father, Sabinsa founder Dr. Muhammed Majeed, includes a strong foundation in quality and science. Dr. Majeed passed away earlier this year, but it is those principles that continue to ensure that the company weathers global impacts.
Shaheen discussed how the expansion of Sami-Sabinsa’s manufacturing facilities was an offshoot of the pandemic, a driving force for the company to help delineate and help with easing supply chain challenges.
"We learned that products would ultimately suffer if they do not reach its destination—not just consumers but even our own warehouses," Shaheen said. "So we started our eighth largest manufacturing facility to help bring those products in much larger supply so that the consumers would not be left without product, and we're just about to finish the second phase of that manufacturing facility, but it doesn't stop there."
Sami-Sabinsa has additional projects in the pipeline, including contract manufacturing for India and the Indian domestic team, in a marketplace that Shaheen describes as "huge" and "happening."
As for the commodification of ingredients, he said companies may get into a habit of paying farmers lower prices, which forces farmers to switch out their crops. This leads to an inconsistent supply of ingredients.
"If you have an established commitment to them and they know their repeated history of business with you, they'll commit to you," Shaheen said. "But if you don't have that commitment and you have a commodity mentality, they'll switch out to something else and then turmeric will suffer, for example."
Postbiotics
The Sami-Sabinsa Group is leaning into postbiotics with the launch PoZibio, a product aimed to prevent leaky gut. Although its primary use will be within the medical food industry, Shaheen said that PoZibio also has applications in the dietary supplement side.
“The simple explanation is that you have this mucus lining in your stomach—you got these foreign invaders, you've got these bad actors that come in there and spoil the mood, and they break open through that gut barrier,” Shaheen said. “You’ve got a leaky gut, so PoZibio helps to remedy that… If there's a healthful, beneficial product out there, get it to the consumers. And that's something that that I want to expand more on.”
He added: “I have about 60 to 70 patents, more than half of them in the gut microbiome space. So [this product] just made sense to me, and it made sense ultimately to Sabinsa to carry it forward.”
At SupplySide West, Majeed also received the Excellence in Leadership Award from the United Natural Products Alliance at its member meeting and accepted the organization’s Lifetime Achievement Award in Science & Innovation on behalf of his father.
