Clinical data is building around the role of probiotics to aid athletic performance – from recovery to muscle development to immune defense. We spoke to a leading researcher at Probiota in Amsterdam this month…
Yakult at Probiota 2015: “We want to be clear that before we invest we need to have some dialogue with EFSA...”
Yakult and leading academics expressed frustration at what they see as unfair and opaque scientific requirements around probiotic health claims in the European Union – but how much is industry to blame and could social media be a data-sharing saviour?
The holidays are fast upon us, so let’s put ‘business’ to one side and get into the festive mood. To keep in the spirit of things, we’ve got a ‘gift’ for you – enjoy. Happy Holidays!
The Botanical Adulterants Program is “raising the bar of awareness of this growing problem among industry stakeholders and is trying to bring various remedies to the table,” program director Mark Blumenthal said at the SupplySide West trade show in Las...
The dietary supplement business has gone from fighting for its life to enjoying the fruits of an open, dynamic marketplace, and it’s all because of DSHEA, according to Loren Isrealsen, president of the United Natural Products Alliance.
Michael McGuffin, president of the American Herbal Products Association, has a unique perspective on the 20th anniversary of DSHEA having started in the herbal products industry in 1974, twenty years before the law was passed. The law, as he sees it,...
A unique collaboration of experts worked together to identify an adulterant in the chondroitin supply and the industry took note, but still some suppliers are not using the right methods and that’s a concern, says the president of Synutra International.
The 20th anniversary of the Dietary Supplements Health and Education Act (DSHEA) is ‘monumental’, says Steve Mister from the CRN, but the industry shouldn’t rest on its laurels too long. ‘The important thing is to figure out what change is necessary to...
Despite ongoing vacancies in the main office of the Division of Dietary Supplements, companies must continue to build relationships with FDA’s district offices to ensure ongoing GMP compliance, says Dr Daniel Fabricant, CEO of the Natural Products Association.
Ingredient supplier Compound Solutions has introduced a nature identical version of theacrine branded as TeaCrine. The ingredient offers benefits over caffeine, the mainstay of energy formulations, the company says.
Reporting adverse events is something all dietary supplement companies must prepared to do to be in compliance with the law. But beyond that basic requirement, companies that fully embrace an AER system can use it to provide valuable market data, an...
Nutraceuticals and dietary supplements are attracting a lot of private equity attention, and it’s not surprising, says George Pontiakos, given that ‘it’s a growing market that historically provides efficacy and value to consumers’.
Tom Tolworthy worked to restructure Twinlab from the time he took over the iconic brand in 2010. The final deal, which closed in early October, turned out better than orignially envisaged and will put the company on the path to ‘reauthenticate’ the brand...
Beverages continue to be one of the hot beds for innovation when it comes to nutrient fortification, with insoluble fiber, nutritional oils, and (of course) protein all catching the eye.
The Global Organization for EPA and DHA Omega-3s’ campaign to promote positive messages about omega-3s has finally launched, but more funds needs to be raised to allow a national roll-out, said GOED’s Adam Ismail.
Consumers are looking for individual and integrated strategies to optimize their health and wellness, but no company has yet put all the pieces together, says BrandHive’s Jeff Hilton.
Cargill has weathered a potential media storm concerning its functional ingredient Trehalose. The ingredient, a glucose dissaccharide, was one of the potentially ‘scary’ food ingredients seized upon for its use by a well known fast food chain.
The GRAS process as it stands in the United States is vulnerable to criticism based on possible conflicts of interest and low-quality safety work, said Claire Kruger, PhD, president of Spherix Consulting, a division of ChromaDex.
The submissions of New Dietary Ingredient notifications seems as fraught as ever, and part of the issue is that regulators are not as communicative as they could be, according to Alex Schauss, senior director of AIBMR Life Sciences.
Consumer awareness of the importance of immune health throughout the year is driving significant growth in that category, and there are still plenty of opportunities in the category, says the CEO of Biothera.
Recent pathogen outbreaks in raw chia powder and concerns over whether some psyllium is actually food grade highlight the ongoing importance of selecting suppliers wisely, says the CEO of BI Nutraceuticals.
Women, protein blends, and the ‘anti-wasting’ market are all areas of significant opportunity in sports nutrition, says Jeff Hilton, co-founder and CMO of BrandHive.
Botanical adulteration, like doping in sports, is a problem that can be controlled but never totally resolved, but what is being done about it? Here the world’s biggest botanical players debate their attacks on the problem.
A polyphenol-rich supplement containing broccoli, green tea, tumeric, and pomegranete - a combination known as pomi-t - could have significant clinical benefits for men with prostate cancer, according to new data.
Carotenoids like lutein are well-documented to boost eye health yet the approach of the medical fraternity and some regulators lacks vision when it comes to prevention, says a leading professor in the area.
The natural vs synthetic astaxanthin debate centers on the fact that the products are not strictly analogous. “We are not saying that natural is necessarily better. We are saying it’s different,” said Efrat Kat, director of marketing and sales for Algatechnologies.
There is much talk about sustainability in the dietary supplement ingredients marketplace, but what does it mean exactly? Consultant Chris Kilham, known as The Medicine Hunter, makes a strong case for using the term to mean a marketplace in which all...
Vital Solutions Swiss will publish in vitro research that shows its mango powder Careless mimics caloric restriction but the company is keen to invest in human trials, its CEO says.
Strong growth in the Americas and Asia is helping the probiotics industry to strong success, while the European market recovers from regulatory challenges by focusing on blends and 'piggybacking claims', say probiotics business experts.
Joerg Gruenwald, a longtime natural products industry consultant, said the advent of DSHEA was a huge event in Europe as well as America. It helped give European dietary supplement companies secure access to the biggest market in the world.
Mid-last year the chief of Norwegian omega-3 player EPAX told us, “We are the last of the big omega-3 independents.” Soon after US agri-food company FMC had snapped it up for $350m. Here FMC Nutraceuticals general manager Daniel H. Rosenbaum talks through...
Contamination concerns mean most athletic and sporting federations advise against them despite near-ubiquitous use among top athletes and sportspeople. Busted doped athletes continue to finger them. But sports nutrition products are in a better place...
In 2012 there were over 577 million people aged over 65 globally, but there remains a 7-year gap between life expectancy and healthy life expectancy, according to a Euromonitor analyst.
The huge amounts of food and agricultural produce that end up as waste could be used to feed insects and produce high-quality animal protein that is better for environment, according to Professor Arnold van Huis.
What is the future of food? Simple communication of complex advances will be crucial, as well as picking up the pace amid a global population boom to feed the world nutritiously and sustainably, according to FoodNavigator and NutraIngredients senior editors.
The use of mobile technologies and social media to connect with real consumers can help manufacturers gain better innovation insights for today and tomorrow, says Chris Cornyn.
The term ‘probiotic’ may be banned in the European Union – along with its cousin ‘prebiotic’ – but sales remain steady, and the global picture is buoyant, says leading analyst, Euromonitor International.
Follow on ingredients that rely on the safety halo provided by New Dietary Ingredient notifications filed by competitors continues to be a serious problem in the marketplace, according to a prominent attorney.
Irish dairy ingredients specialist Glanbia Nutritionals once filled its sights almost exclusively with the sports nutrition sector, but the explosion of interest in protein means the ‘ordinary’ mainstream food industry is a bigger and bigger target.
As dietary supplement firms prepare for their initial (or follow up) GMP compliance inspections, it pays to have the advice of a consultant and/or a lawyer up front. Fixing problems on the back end is inevitably more expensive, said attorney Ivan Wasserman.
Adverse event reporting, amphetamine-like substances showing up in products and NDI notifications are all prominent blips on FDA’s radar, said Loren Israelsen, president of the United Natural Products Alliance.
Buoyed by recent investment from DSM, the CEO of Chromadex says the company is not scared to spend big to develop ingredients that stand up to increased scientific scrutiny and resonate with the market.
Despite tightening supply chains and increasing prices for many natural products, there exist opportunities to increase efficiency and ultimately cut costs for manufacturers, says George Pontiakos, CEO of BI Nutraceuticals.
Knowing what identity tests to perform and knowing how to perform is more important than ever for botanical product manufacturers, said Roy Upton, executive director of the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia.
Dietary supplement use isn’t just about health; certain supplement regimens can be shown to deliver significant cost savings, said Steve Mister, president of the Council for Responsible Nutrition.
Nestlé may have canned Jenny Craig, and regulators clamped down on the sector's claim-making, but weight management products are booming globally, especially in increasingly image driven emerging economies like India and Brazil. It has pushed beyond...
