Last week’s big news included the return of Sharon Leite as the CEO of The Vitamin Shoppe, industry experts jumping to defend the safety of taurine, and the winners of the 2025 NutraIngredients Awards.
Leite returns to The Vitamin Shoppe
The Vitamin Shoppe announced that Sharon Leite has returned to serve as CEO after the company was acquired by Kingswood Capital Management and Performance Investment Partners.
Leite served as The Vitamin Shoppe’s CEO from 2018 to 2023 before leaving to take on the role as CEO at Ideal Image, a chain of med spas. She later became CEO of Omni Retail Enterprises, the parent company of brands operating e-commerce including Bodybuilding.com.
“After an incredibly rewarding and successful four and a half years in the business, I am thrilled to return to The Vitamin Shoppe,” Leite said.
“We are primed for an exciting new era of expansion. I look forward to collaborating with the board, management team, vendor partners and our dedicated health enthusiasts as we build a world-class health and wellness platform that delivers an unparalleled experience to our customers.”
In defense of taurine
Media outlets are reporting on a new preclinical study linking taurine to leukemia tumor growth, but dietary supplement industry stakeholders say that sensationalist media headlines misrepresent the findings.
Conducted by researchers from University of Rochester Medical Center and published in the journal Nature on May 14, the study was quickly picked up by local and national news sources.
Although not aligned with the study findings, headlines included “Common Energy Drink Ingredient Linked to Blood Cancer” and “Could Your Energy Drink Be Feeding Cancer? What Scientists Just Discovered.”
The U.S. industry was quick to challenge the headlines, with Daniel Fabricant, PhD, president and CEO at the Natural Products Association (NPA) stating: “While the media and the authors are unabashedly and irresponsibly positioning the study that dietary intake of taurine leads to leukemia, nothing could be further from the truth.”
Jeff Ventura, vice president of communications at the Council for Responsible Nutrition, said the problem is that media coverage of the study has been sensationalized by making it sound like taurine is dangerous to the general public.
“In reality, this research looked at a very specific and rare type of leukemia in mice, using genetic tools and lab models that don’t reflect how taurine is used in everyday life,” he noted.
“The study doesn’t say anything about the safety of taurine for healthy people or suggest that normal dietary or supplement use is harmful. You have to consider that taurine has a long track record of benefits for heart, brain and overall health. Suggesting that taurine is broadly dangerous based on this study is a big headline-grabbing leap.”
The winners of the 2025 NutraIngredients-Europe Awards
NutraIngredients celebrated its 11th annual industry awards, announcing the winners of this year’s competition at a ceremony held last week in Barcelona.
“We had a wonderful night celebrating another brilliant year of awards, in a beautiful location, with some of the brightest stars in our industry,” said Olivia Haslam, deputy editor of NutraIngredients.com.
“Whether it’s a commercial success, pioneering research, an innovative product, or a compelling initiative, winning an NI Award sets a company apart from the competition.
“The judging process is strict and thorough, so a massive congratulations to all our finalists and winners, this is a huge triumph in an extremely competitive space.”
The 16 awards were announced during a party hosted at the beach club and restaurant Agua Barcelona following a busy second day at the Vitafoods trade show.
The full list of winners can be found HERE
