Conferences

Gelita has launched what it is calling a first-of-its kind protein designed for endurance athletes, called PeptEndure. Research by the company showed that supplementation with the collagen protein ingredient at 15 grams per day (in conjunction with cardio and strength training) was able to significantly improve running performance during a one hour time trial. In that study, men were able to run for 660 more meters compared to control, and women were able to run for 330 more meters compared to control.

So, why is this unique from other sports nutrition products on the market that tout endurance? Well, Martin Walter, category manager, Healthy Aging and Sports Nutrition for Gelita, explained to 

that many of those products target short term energy supply with carbohydrates and electrolytes which is important to keep your energy level up during the race. What PeptEndure does, says Walter, is maximize your training effects for the long-term. PeptEndure is promoting adaptive changes in the muscle where preclinical investigations have shown that it can increase the number of mitochondria in your muscle. Mitochondria are the cells' power plants that produce energy.

Mitochondria burn oxygen to produce energy.

 The mitochondria consume oxygen to burn carbon intermediates such as glucose to create energy in a process called cellular respiration.

 During endurance exercise, such as running, when the body can’t keep up with the supply of oxygen needed for your muscles to produce energy, the body resorts to lactic acid production, which creates muscle pain and soreness.

 This can make recovery difficult and during competition, can cause athletes to hit a wall. With PeptEndure, athletes may not hit that wall as fast, and may also recover faster from training. 

While protein is typically understood as beneficial for muscle building, PeptEndure is a protein that can be positioned more uniquely to support muscle health and endurance without necessarily building muscle. This attracts a different subset of athletes as well as the casual fitness minded consumers. Obviously, long-distance marathon runners will benefit from PeptEndure, supporting their ability to run longer and reducing muscle soreness. For the casual fitness minded athlete, protein is a well-recognized and trusted ingredient, but not everyone is interested in bulking. PeptEndure can therefore be positioned as a muscle-supporting protein that doesn’t build muscle mass. This could be particularly attractive to women who want to stay in shape, but are not looking for an overly muscular physique.

 November, 6, 2019. Accessed November 14, 2023. 

https://www.mpg.de/14102743/1106-balt-110438-oxygen-deficiency-rewires-mitochondria#:~:text=Mitochondria%20burn%20oxygen%20and%20provide,under%20depleted%20oxygen%20and%20nutrients

Muoio, D.M. Metabolic Inflexibility: When Mitochondrial Indecision Leads to Metabolic Gridlock. 

Yusuf, S. Why Do We Accumulate Lactic Acid In Our Muscles When We Exercise? 

. October 2, 2021. Accessed November 16, 2023. 

https://www.scienceabc.com/pure-sciences/why-do-we-accumulate-lactic-acid-in-our-muscles-when-we-exercise.html

Articles

Research by the company showed that supplementation with the collagen protein ingredient at 15 grams per day (in conjunction with cardio and strength training) was able to significantly improve running performance during a one hour time trial. 

Gelita’s new PeptEndure is a protein ingredient for the endurance athlete: 2023 SupplySide West Report

Nils Hoem of Aker BioMarine explains the connection between liver and heart health

 spoke with Aker BioMarine’s chief scientist Nils Hoem about the connection between liver health and heart health, and how krill oil fits into this relationship. The key to this connection is lipids. It is well understood that high levels of cholesterol, specifically low-density lipoprotein (LDL), can lead to a higher risk of heart disease and stroke, building up in the walls of your blood vessels. By contrast, so-called good cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL), absorbs cholesterol in the blood and carries it back to the liver where it is flushed from the body.

“It's the liver that is taking care of the packaging of the lipid particles,” says Hoem. “The liver is also particular in that it stores fat in its own cells in what are called hepatocytes. Every other storage of fat happens within specialized cells called adipocytes, so the liver is really a factory where lipids are taken care of and where the lipids that it sends out to the rest of the body are taken care of and [ensures] the lipid particles have the right composition.”

An unhealthy liver can negatively impact cardiovascular health. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, which is a buildup of too much fat in the liver common in overweight or obese people, affects about 25% of the world’s population, and about 100 million people in the U.S.

 Hoem explains that non-alcoholic fatty liver disease significantly increases one’s risk of developing metabolic syndrome, which is a cluster of conditions such as high blood pressures, high blood sugar, excess body fat, and high cholesterol or triglyceride levels that increase your risk of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes.

Changing the course of one’s non-alcoholic fatty liver disease can be done through dietary means if caught early enough, and one way to do so, says Hoem, is to increase one’s intake of phospholipids and long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, namely EPA and DHA. Krill oil is the phospholipid form of EPA and DHA, that is also rich in phosphatidylcholine, which is a source of choline found naturally in the body.

“Choline has a direct effect on how much lipids are stored within the adipocytes,” says Hoem. “The body will have opportunities for storing fat either in the liver or out in the adipocytes, so there needs to be a balance.” Poor levels of choline in the diet can increase one’s risk of developing non-alcoholic fatty liver disease because phosphatidylcholine carries fat away from the liver, and not enough choline can lead to too much fat being stored in the liver.

LDL and HDL Cholesterol: “Bad” and “Good” Cholesterol. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.May 16, 2023. Accessed November 14, 2023. 

https://www.cdc.gov/cholesterol/ldl_hdl.htm#:~:text=High%20levels%20of%20LDL%20cholesterol,flushes%20it%20from%20the%20body

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Mayo Clinic. October 6, 2023. Accessed November 14, 2023. 

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/nonalcoholic-fatty-liver-disease/symptoms-causes/syc-20354567

Metabolic syndrome. Mayo Clinic. May 6, 2021. Accessed November 14, 2023. 

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/metabolic-syndrome/symptoms-causes/syc-20351916

The Nutrition Source: Choline. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. March 2023. Accessed November 14, 2023. 

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/choline/#:~:text=There%20is%20a%20link%20between,to%20store%20too%20much%20fat

Videos

At this year’s SupplySide West, Nutritional Outlook spoke with Aker BioMarine’s chief scientist Nils Hoem about the connection between liver health and heart health, and how krill oil fits into this relationship. 

The connection between liver and heart health, and the importance of phospholipids: 2023 SupplySide West report

It’s safe to say that artificial intelligence (AI) will have a significant impact on the future of new product development. A variety of startups are already utilizing machine learning platforms to find and research new active ingredients and using this knowledge to formulate innovative new products. The major benefit of leveraging AI in this way is the speed at which new ingredients can be discovered and manufactured, compared to traditional research and development. This therefore creates a lot of enthusiasm around AI, but there is also a good amount of trepidation.

Beyond the science fiction-induced fear of sentience, more practical concerns about AI have also been proposed. Much like automation in manufacturing, will AI take away work from people? This fear is being felt particularly in content creation, and has been a major point of contention during the recent writers’ strikes in Hollywood. However, the implications of AI are far-reaching across professional fields. For example, will AI learning models replace scientists or at the very least cause companies to downsize their R&D departments?

Alina Slotnik, vice president of bioactives at Brightseed (San Francisco, CA), which utilizes a machine learning platform called Forager to discover plant bioactives and develop new products from that discovery, emphasizes that AI is a tool, and that people are still a crucial component of the process. 

“I don't think of AI as a panacea or one sided. I think that people’s caution and their curiosity is really well placed and what I would say about our Brightseed approach to AI is that AI and our platform technology, Forager, is really intended to be an enabler and not a replacer of science,” Slotnik explains. “It is basically taking what scientists do and equipping them to be more focused and effective in those activities and around research as opposed to having those activities no longer be needed.”

Essentially, AI facilitates efficiency in the process of research and development. “In today's supplement world, a lot of the unique bioactives that are found are found one at a time and very iteratively,” Slotnik continues. “So, a plant source is discovered, and then that plant source is screened, and then there's a bit of a trial-and-error process to identify which health benefits that plant source has and those bioactives have the ability to affect. What Forager really does is reverse engineer that process and enables those R&D scientists to have more visibility, more transparency and more accuracy in their work, and to be able to do more compounds at a time. There will still be, I think, a critical need outside of Forager, which really identifies bioactives and delivers predictions about their value to then take that and make that real…Really, it's taking the enablement the Forager allows and using real science and real human beings to validate that in clinical trials; all of that still needs to be done by really high-quality scientists and we don't expect that Forager will replace those activities.”

Speed is one important factor, but volume is another. AI not only facilitates ingredient discovery faster, but also more ingredients at a time. At the moment, this requires companies to really narrow their energy and focus in order to not be overwhelmed.

“One of the amazing benefits but also the challenges of Forager is we humans sleep, Forager does not,” says Slotnik. “So we have a constantly expanding and multiplying source of potential bioactives for us to pursue in development. But we know that as a company we have specific resources and capabilities that need to marry up with that. We've chosen to focus our internal efforts on three specific health benefit areas around gut health, around metabolic health and weight management and around mind health, which includes sleep and cognitive benefits. We think those are three core biological health systems that underpin a lot of today's health issues and health concerns for consumers.”

Other health areas, says Slotnik, are not going unaddressed, however. Brightseed has developed partnership, and will continue to develop partnerships to complement the work it does internally. For example, recent partnerships include 

To give you an idea of the scale of data AI can create, Andrew Franklyn-Miller, Chief Medical Officer of Nuritas, a company that leverages AI to develop new cell signaling peptides as dietary supplements from plants, explains that the company has built a library of 6 million peptides from plants over the last seven years. 

“So, with our platform, we've taken multiple plant sources [of peptides], we've dried, milled and enzymatically digested them, hydrolyzed them, put them through mass spectroscopy. [Then] we've identified the exact sequences of peptides, and married them to 200,000,000 biological experiments showing up or down regulation,” says Miller. “We know that the peptides have a function and whether they work with a positive or a negative. We've also then added in layers of what would normally be preclinical work. So, are they stable? Can they survive the gut? Do they penetrate our cells? How long do they last?”

Identifying a new ingredient through Nurita’s AI platform, Magnifier, takes about 24 months, from start to finish, says Miller. Throughout this process, Nuritas has to continually refine the results. For example, they will ask Magnifier to give them a peptide that affects specific pathways in the body. The results may be over 10,000 peptides. “We can then add layers of search criteria in terms of stability, dosage size, survivability, and then we narrow the plot,” explains Miller. “Then we need to do some biological assays of those peptides that we can manufacture initially synthetically to test various functions, mainly dose and effect size on multiple pathways and check safety. [After that] we can identify them in a plant source from our library which is proprietary to Nuritas. Then we can speed up that process and select them, test their biology activity, and then [conduct] human clinicals.”

Nuritas’ goal is to develop two ingredients per year, 15 over the next 5 years, with three ingredients currently on the market. Of course, once the peptide is chosen and an ingredient is developed, the work doesn’t stop. “What we've learned in terms of scaling – we use third-party manufacturers to manufacture our products – is that refining the manufacturing process can both improve the cost of goods and also accelerate the process of accuracy and the function,” says Miller. “Furthermore, we've been able to identify new sources, via our prospecting process [which] is looking continuously at new plant sources as well as some upcycled products, We also need to do formulation work to show to our customers the versatility of the ingredients and how the clinical claims can benefit their market share."

It almost feels like AI has become real overnight, but it has been years in the making. Now that it has become feasible, the learning models will only get better and more efficient. That said, AI is still being held back by some factors.

“There is a wealth of startups in AI; all offering a large language model or a ChatGPT spin-off. The limitation is in the data” says Miller. “AI needs a training set of data in order to learn. You can create synthetic datasets which are pretend so that you can effectively bootstrap your data and get large volumes, but it's ultimately hard data that sets us apart. There are a number of publicly available data sets, and we use those to support and add to our learning, but the uniqueness of Nuritas [are the] 6,000,000 peptides that have been cataloged on 200,000,000 biological experiments. That takes time and it's progressive, so you need to have the answer to experiment one before you can proceed to experiment two. So, there's a limitation in training data because it's difficult and costly to create that data set.”

It has taken years for companies like Brightseed and Nuritas to compile and build out their libraries of bioactives and peptides to effectively harness AI and develop effective ingredients. For Nuritas, says Miller, the growth potential outweighs the development costs. Society’s problems are outpacing our ability to solve them, he explains: “Food and health is a $10 trillion industry with a $7 trillion negative each year. Malnutrition, ill health, and hospitalization costs the industry and new ingredients are very hard to find. They're very expensive and take 70 or 100 years to come into the market space. Lots of what we see today are small iterative changes of existing ingredients.”

AI changes that. The ability to quickly find new actives as well as identify multiple plant sources to find the ideal or most cost-effective source really shifts the paradigm. “Our success rate is 64% in discovering a new peptide within a four-month period, which translates to 80% clinical trial success,” says Miller.

More and more companies will certainly follow, but it may still take a while before we see widespread utilization of AI in research and development.

The promise and limitations of harnessing AI in new product development.

Harnessing AI to develop new dietary supplement ingredients: 2023 SupplySide West report

Jennifer Grebow is the editor-in-chief of 

, an award-winning media-content provider in the dietary supplement and natural products market. 

, an MJH Life Sciences brand, provides insights and industry updates critical to manufacturers of dietary supplements, healthy foods, and nutritious beverages. 

 keeps industry abreast of current market trends, research updates, news, and regulatory developments. 

goes beyond the 24-hour news cycle and provides in-depth analysis to help industry players navigate the challenges and changes in the near- and long-term. 

, the largest privately held, independent, full-service medical media company in North America, dedicated to delivering trusted health care news across multiple channels.

Unique supplement delivery forms were a main focus for PhytoGaia (Malaysia) at the SupplySide West trade show in Las Vegas in October. The company supplies its TocoGaia full-spectrum tocotrienol/tocopherol complex, CaroGaia palm-mixed carotene complex, and STGaia squalene with tocotrienol/tocopherol complex.

The first innovative delivery format the company showcased was konjac jelly, whose appeal “lies in its capacity to offer a low-calorie, high-nutrient alternative to traditional gummies, making it an excellent choice for those seeking a delicious and nutritious supplement for children’s diets or beauty routines,” the firm’s press release states.

The second innovative delivery format was an orally dissolving film technology, which offers versatile applications in the oral and beauty product market.

These formats include konjac jelly and orally dissolving film technology.

Novel delivery formats are a focus for PhytoGaia: 2023 SupplySide West Report

Multifunctional benefits are the name of today’s supplement game. Consumers are now looking to supplements to support not just one but a host of health concerns. A single ingredient supplier with a portfolio of numerous, market-leading, clinically proven ingredients can help its customers develop supplements to this end.

During October’s SupplySide West trade show in Las Vegas, representatives from Lonza Capsules & Health Ingredients (Morristown, NJ) discussed how the company’s flagship ingredients allow it to help customers develop multifunctional products. “So if you want to take one pill for your hair, skin, stress—we could build that pill for you, and we could take it to market with you,” said Alka Vallabh, marketing director, at SupplySide West. “The way that the nutrition market is going today is that people need a multifaceted solution. That’s what our customers are looking for.”

Lonza’s advantage comes not only from being able to offer longstanding, clinically studied ingredients like its UC-II undenatured type II collagen but from the fact that the company also specializes in advanced capsule technologies. Vallabh commented on the firm’s capabilities, stating, “In North America alone, we are the market leader in the world for capsules…but we also have a very strong ingredients portfolio that’s positioned for forward-looking trends in the nutrition market.”

By marrying the company’s innovative capsules with its market-leading ingredients, Lonza helps customers “build the form 

 the function,” Vallabh said. “That includes our value services around our technical capabilities, our strength in manufacturing, and our strength in marketing, bringing that full solution to market.”

Anne Hoffman, director, global service and product marketing at Lonza, added that the company’s ingredient portfolio is “all backed by our R&D team and the efficacy, claims, and studies we do.” UC-II, for instance, has more research backing it than any other undenatured type II collagen ingredient on the market, she said.

“We’re not just big, but we stand by the quality,” she added. “I like to think of us as a pharma company for the nutra industry. You get all the benefits, the efficacy, the GMP facilities, but in an ingredient business where we can be fast and nimble and do what the customer needs in terms of form and function.”

Lonza also helps its customers identify emerging market opportunities. For instance, Vallabh said, with UC-II, which got its start as a joint health ingredient, “now we’re pivoting based on the trends of where the consumers are going, into more of the active-lifestyle conversation.” As younger consumers look for preventative health support, including for their joints, “that’s where you’re going to start seeing us position that product, and we’re continuing to do even more research to support this,” she said.

Balchem Corp. (New Hampton, NY) also discussed how it is helping customers find multifunctional-product opportunities within its own ingredient portfolio and capabilities. Last year, Balchem acquired branded-ingredient companies Kappa Bioscience AS, including its K2Vital brand of vitamin K2, and Bergstrom Nutrition with its OptiMSM methylsulfonylmethane (MSM) ingredient.

These leading market ingredients can now be paired with Balchem’s other flagship ingredients such as its VitaCholine and Albion mineral ingredients. “It’s really giving us an opportunity, having K2Vital and OptiMSM now in the Balchem portfolio with VitaCholine and Albion, to support that longevity, performance, and beauty-from-within story,” for instance, said Lauren Eisen, strategic marketing manager, Balchem Corp., at SupplySide West.

The company is now focusing on educating supplement makers about the important synergies and health benefits of combining ingredients like choline and DHA; choline and magnesium; or vitamin D and K2 with other ingredients for bone health like calcium and magnesium. “It’s bringing it back to basics,” Eisen said. “When we talk about choline and DHA, or calcium and K2 and D3, when you see these at face value, you say, ‘Well, shouldn’t everyone know this?’…We’re making sure that everyone is aware of the importance of these ingredients. That’s where we’re going to focus a lot of our attention on this year.”

At SupplySide West, the company handed out product samples of prototypes combining its ingredients, including food formats. Tom Druke, marketing director, Balchem Corp., added, “We really think beverage is going to be an area [of growth], particularly occasion-based, convenient, fortified beverages.”

In 2024, cognition, performance (both athletic and healthy aging), and beauty from within will be key focus areas for Balchem, Druke said.

“We’re trying to find ways to really bundle opportunities where you can combine ingredients that will actually have a higher benefit,” he said, adding, “I think we’re being a lot more focused in terms of the areas where we see growth. All the areas I mentioned—longevity, beauty from within, cognition—are all growing in the high single digits. So, knowing that’s what the consumer wants and finding ways to communicate in a much more relatable way…So we’re looking at a lot of those different areas and saying, ‘How do we get something that’s going to appeal to a consumer and really make them want to pick an item off the shelf?’”

He concluded: “We’re really excited about 2024 as we come out of our year of integration. What we’re focusing on is figuring out how, from the start of formulation all the way up until the moment a finished good is done, we’re helping customers. We’ve actually done test concepts and done all this. Those capabilities are something in-house that we’ve really beefed up and we’re proud of.”

Companies discussed how their branded-ingredient portfolios help customers address multiple in-demand need states.

The power of ingredient portfolios: 2023 SupplySide West Report

Within the dietary supplement industry, fungi-based products represent a growing category with a number of promising applications. According to data from SPINS, the 52 weeks ending October 30, 2022, mushrooms were among the top 25 best-selling ingredients in the natural channel, growing 15% compared to the previous year. While there are extracts derived from specific mushrooms on the market, our knowledge of mushrooms and other fungi-based products is really in its infancy.

“We barely scratched the surface in understanding fungi. It's a huge kingdom. We really only understand 5-10% of all fungi that exist in the world,” says Lisa Wetstone vice president, marketing, innovation and strategy at MycoTechnology (Aurora, CO). “So, when you think about how much we've achieved with plants…the fungi kingdom has even more potential than that. And yet, right now, all we kind of think about are, you know, mushroom powders or the mushrooms you see at the grocery store.”

Looking ahead at the potential for innovation and product development, mushroom ingredient supplier, Sempera Organics, has signed three memorandums of understanding with different firms to help drive this innovation. Namely, the company has partnered with 

 to develop fungi-based bioactive formulations, and 

 to accelerate and scale fungi-based food production.

“No one company can do it all. And there are a lot of specialists out there. And we'd like to partner to get to our final goals fast,” says Nirmal Nair, CEO of Sempera Organics. In the case of its MOU with Sinoveda Canada, for example, Nair explains: “[Sinoveda is in] the business of figuring out how these various bioactives found in nature can work together to address a particular need. They have several patents that they already filed for other ingredients and other spaces, but not in mushrooms. So, they are looking forward to working with us because we are creating all these [products from] various species of mushrooms, and ingredient blends. We want to truly understand what is the exact bioactive from each of those that can interact together. And they bring years of that knowledge and actual practice of having done bioactive-based drug discovery.”

We attribute so many health benefits to various fungi species but our understanding of the underlying mechanisms behind these benefits is rather small, and there is so much potential for discovering exciting new benefits from fungi. Commenting on the potential health benefits for bioactives derived from fungi, Nair emphasizes the importance of immunity. While it seems like well-trodden territory, the COVID-19 pandemic woke us up to just how vulnerable we are to new diseases, reinforcing the need to novel ways to defend ourselves. There is also the potential for stress and other brain health benefits, as well as physical performance, aging, and skincare.

“I actually feel that there's a lot more out there that has not been discovered yet,” says Nair. Specifically, he looks to the potential of fungi to help our bodies heal and defend themselves. “That’s a lot of what fungi do, as opposed to a drug which can go and attack a virus by itself, [fungi] really tells the body how to defend itself and change itself,” Nair explained.

One brand unlocking the potential of fungi is Nammex, which launched two fungi-based whole food ingredients at SupplySide West: ErgoGold and MycoD2. ErgoGold is an extract of golden oyster mushrooms that delivers a high concentration of ergothioneine which is an amino acid and antioxidant commonly found in mushrooms.

“We found this specific strain of golden oyster that has high levels of ergothioneine. Ergothioneine is present throughout the body and all of our cells and current research is showing that as we age, there is a decrease in our ergothioneine levels,” explains Skye Chilton, CEO of Nammex. “In fact, some researchers have stated that ergothioneine is potentially a longevity vitamin. Research is still ongoing, but certainly to get a beneficial amount of ergothioneine, you need to eat mushrooms. We don’t get a lot from our diets normally, so a fungal based mushroom extract like ErgoGold is an excellent supplemental source.”

Chilton explains that the ingredient is made by grinding the oyster mushroom into a powder, doing a hot water extraction that produces a spray dried powder. After that, Nammex analyzes the ergothioneine content to make sure it meets its standards. “Because it’s a whole food, it still contains all the mushroom components,” says Chilton. “You’re getting things like beta glucans, ergosterol, and a lot of the other mushroom compounds that are still present, as opposed to a pure isolated ingredient.”

The company’s MycoD2 is a plant-based vitamin D derived from maitake mushrooms. Chilton explains that mushrooms contain ergosterol and that when mushrooms are exposed to UV light, ergosterol converts to ergocalciferol, which is vitamin D2. Specifically, the company uses a special high pulse UV light technology. Chilton says that Nammex can guarantee 10,000 IU per gram of vitamin D2 and hopes to increase this number in the near future. Most vitamin D comes from lanolin in sheep’s wool, so having a plant-based option is of value to consumers, especially since many are deficient of the vitamin, adds Chilton.

Some manufacturers are using fungi to transform other ingredients. Mycotechnology, for example, is using mycelia to ferment plant proteins to improve their nutrition and organoleptic properties. “We like to refer back to the centuries of history of fermentation. It's essentially just the process of transforming or breaking down a substrate to change, transform, make it better. And there's lots of different microbes that could perform that type of process, and for us the magic is really just the enzymatic capabilities of mushrooms or fungi,” explains Mycotechnology's Wetstone. She goes on to explain that mycelia, the part of the fungi that grows underground, has over 500 times the number of digestive enzymes than the human body. “There's a lot of activity that's happening. Mushrooms are secreting things to break down food, to defend themselves underground, to reproduce. And so we're essentially tapping into all of those biological processes.”

For example, for MycoTechnology’s FermentIQ line of proteins, the company uses mycelia to ferment pea and rice protein in order to improve the taste, texture, aroma of the proteins, as well as improve digestibility. “You start with a teeny little bit of mushroom mycelia. You put it on a plate, then you put it in a larger flask, and you grow and grow and grow. Then you mix the mycelia with our plant protein inputs – and this is where the fermentation process happens,” explains Wetstone. “We're tailoring the conditions to make it achieve a desired outcome. So, for example, we discovered a strain of mushroom that secretes molecules that act as a bitter blocker and flavor clarifier, and we use them in teeny, tiny parts per million to try to eliminate off notes such as bitterness associated with plant proteins and [alternative] sweeteners [in the case of MycoTechnology’s ClearIQ flavor ingredients].”

An ingredient Mycotechnology has in the pipeline is a sweetener made from honey truffle. According to Wetstone, the company is using precision fermentation to isolate a protein in this unique truffle that gives it a sweet taste. Some of the advantages of this new sweetener are clean label (honey truffle sweetener on the ingredient deck), a clean flavor profile, and high potency, meaning it will have a low cost of use for Mycotechnology’s customers.

Given the growing popularity of fungi-based products, industry stakeholders have been advocating for updating the regulations for the labeling of fungi-based products. The Natural Products Association (NPA; Washington, D.C.) submitted a 

 to FDA, asking the agency to “amend 21 C.F.R. § 101 to incorporate the following labeling aspects, primarily based on the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) labeling guidelines/guidance, for mushrooms and/or (2) commit to exercise enforcement discretion until the Agency provides guidance or publishes a regulation concerning a standard of identity for ingredients and supplements derived from any multicellular fungal species, along with the terms ‘mushroom,’ ‘mycelia,’ and ‘fruiting bodies,’ and their combinations and associated constituents.”

 to FDA, asking the agency “to address the mislabeling of dietary supplements and functional foods as ‘mushroom’ or containing ‘mushrooms’ when they contain other fungal parts, and do not contain ‘mushrooms’ as claimed, or fail to disclose added grain ingredients.”

For example, Nammex argues that while FDA’s current labeling guide acknowledges the distinction between mushrooms and mycelium, it is not sufficiently clear or transparent to consumers what is in the product when companies use the term “mushroom mycelium.” Instead, the company advocates for manufacturers identifying the specific fungi the mycelium comes from, such as “shiitake mycelium” or “reishi mycelium.”

 from a diverse group of stakeholders from the mushroom industry were critical of the letter. “Our collective use of ‘mushroom mycelium’ is scientifically accurate, just as the use of ‘mushroom spores’, ‘mushroom fruit bodies’ are descriptively accurate,” states the letter,” the letter states. “The word ‘mushroom’ describes the organism itself, whereas terms like ‘mycelium’ and ‘fruit body’ refer to distinct parts of the mushroom organism. This is perfectly parallel to saying ‘plant roots’, ‘plant seeds/spores’, and ‘plant flowers’. Both sets of terminologies describe the parts of the organism. To propose the elimination of the word ‘mushroom’ (again, the name of the organism), results in confusion; for example, ‘mycelium’ on its own would not distinguish mold mycelium from mushroom mycelium.”

“One thing that's quite basic is that a mushroom is comprised of the mycelia and the fruiting body,” says Wetstone. “Mycelia is actually the bulk of the mushroom. If we're talking about a button mushroom, most of that organism is the mycelia underground, and the button mushroom itself is the sporulating organism or fruiting body; that's what’s reproducing. In either case, it's all part of the mushroom organism.”

While scientifically this may be accurate, Chilton argues that in practice, when marketing a product, consumers don’t understand the distinction [between fruiting body and mycelium]. “Basically, right now there’s a lot of products in the marketplace that will just use the term mushroom to be the entire organism, and we feel that that is just incorrect,” explains Chilton. “People know what a mushroom is. When people go to the grocery store to buy mushrooms, they’re not buying mycelium, they’re buying mushrooms.”

Chilton pointed to a lot of marketing material at SupplySide West that contained imagery of mushrooms as people understand them, but weren’t necessarily made with mushrooms. He argues that this is inherently misleading. Additionally, when it comes to mycelial products, he explains that many are grown on grain substrates which are ground up with the mycelium and included in the final product without full disclosure.

“It's true, really often products made using mycelia are grown on sorghum or oats, and your end product doesn't have that much mushroom in there, and that's a 100% valid criticism,” acknowledges Wetstone. For its part, MycoTechnology only grows mycelia using liquid-state fermentation. She also agrees that it’s important to be specific about the strain of fungi a manufacturer is using. Ultimately, transparency is the best practice, and as consumers become more educated about fungi, it may pay off for manufacturers to be more nuanced about the way they label and market fungi products.

Current innovations and building a future for fungi ingredients.

Tapping into fungi’s potential: 2023 SupplySide West Report

Active nutrition ingredients aren’t chasing the status quo. During October’s SupplySide West trade show in Las Vegas, ingredient suppliers discussed their latest and greatest efforts in active and performance nutrition, ranging from a new gut-muscle-axis ingredient to a landmark study in female athletes.

FrieslandCampina Ingredients (Amersfoort, The Netherlands) discussed the company’s new 

 ingredient, which made its North American debut at this year’s SupplySide West show.

Biotis Fermentis is a microbiome-supporting ingredient combining whey protein, probiotic cultures, and FrieslandCampina’s Biotis GOS galacto-oligosaccharides prebiotic ingredient. “We ferment [those ingredients] together…and what you’re left with is a fermented whey protein with metabolites—or 

 is another word for those,” said Vicky Davies, director of marketing for performance, active, and medical nutrition for FrieslandCampina Ingredients, at SupplySide West.

Davies called Biotis Fermentis a “first-of-its-kind innovation in the sports nutrition market” because it targets the gut-muscle axis. By supporting the gut microbiome, Biotis Fermentis can help reduce gut discomfort in athletes and active individuals who often experience digestive issues stemming from stress caused to the body from regular, high-intensity exercise. Davies estimated that up to 86% of athletes who regularly or heavily exercise experience some level of gut discomfort. She said clinical and consumer research on Biotis Fermentis showed that the ingredient not only improved symptoms of gut discomfort but also improved energy levels and muscle health. A new clinical study on Biotis Fermentis in athletes is set to publish soon, she added.

The gut-muscle axis is a newer area of research in active nutrition. Davies explained the concept: “The gut is connected to a lot of the other systems in the body, so when you look at how the gut can digest and metabolize food well, but also then utilize protein to deliver that to the muscles, that’s showing the connection between the gut-muscle axis. The microbiome can also produce, believe it or not, small proteins, and that as well can influence muscle health, brain health, cardio health, and all different parts of the body.”

At SupplySide West, Bartek Ingredients (Stoney Creek, ON, Canada), the leading producer of malic and fumaric acid, introduced Refortify, its new range of electrolyte and fortification salts. Three Refortify ingredients debuted at the show: magnesium malate, mono sodium malate, and mono potassium malate. Said the company, “These ingredients address the crucial electrolyte and mineral supplement needs of consumers with products that are emerging as new solutions in this fast-growing area.”

Notably, the Refortify ingredients are suited for a wide range of product applications, including ready-to-drink beverages and gummies, making them ideal for electrolyte-containing products such as for pre- and postworkout, said Moe Emami, director of marketing and business development for Bartek Ingredients, at SupplySide West.

The Refortify line fills a gap in a market that is plentiful in mineral salts (lactates, citrates, magnesium lactate, magnesium citrate, etc.) but not so in malates, he said. “Bartek is the first company in the industry, not only being the largest producer of malic and fumaric acid but now we’re expanding the product portfolio by producing these derivatives of malic and fumaric acid that have some additional value to the industry, such as electrolytes for fortification,” he said.

Emami anticipated other ingredients being added to the Refortify line down the road. “There will be more products coming out later on under the same brand,” he said. “There are a lot of different mineral salts that you can have as part of malic and fumaric acid.”

The Refortify ingredients offer formulators a host of benefits. For instance, when sodium malate or potassium malate are added to beverages, “they will not only enhance the sodium and potassium content for electrolyte claims but also enhance the taste and flavor attributes,” Emami pointed out.

With magnesium, he said, “Some of the magnesiums that you find in the market as an ingredient to add either as a source of magnesium or just electrolytes have some off-notes that adversely impact your product flavor and taste. Magnesium malate is tasteless, number one. Number two, it’s more bioavailable than 

Finally, Gencor (Austin, TX) discussed a recently published study on its proprietary fenugreek extract for women, called Libifem. The study, which was 

, found that Libifem supplementation resulted in improved exercise performance, including increased leg-press power, and reduction in total fat mass.

It’s part of an ongoing initiative at the company to conduct more research in female subjects, especially related to sports nutrition, said Christopher Bailey, director of scientific affairs, Gencor, at SupplySide West. “There’s a big discrepancy in sports nutrition research for women,” he said. “There’s eight times less research on those ingredients in trials exclusively done on women compared to those done on men. So this study is unique in that it was targeting sports nutrition for women.” Earlier studies on Libifem demonstrated its benefits for female menopausal and sexual health.

As more women use sports supplements, offering an ingredient that was studied in women is a huge boon, he added—and unique in the supplement-ingredients industry. He said he expects the company’s research in females to continue. “We do see applications for Libifem beyond what we’ve done studies on now,” Bailey said. “I see us doing more sports nutrition studies in the future.”

In fact, Gencor’s global innovation manager, Mariko Hill, is a professional cricket player, and stressed the importance of female research. “I think it’s actually more important in the women’s field because you almost need a story to justify why there’s a women’s product, to some degree, and it makes it more trustable and trustworthy,” she said at SupplySide West. “Because if suddenly a brand has a pink label…you almost have to go, ‘Why is it?’”

Female athletes also deal with unique challenges related to menstrual pain, PMS, and different follicular phases, all of which can impact sports performance, she added. Those subcategories are ripe opportunity areas for supplement makers.

There are also unique challenges in designing studies for women, taking into account the impact of things like different types of birth control interventions and what their effects might be, Bailey added, depending on whether the pills are estrogen-based, progesterone-based, or neither. These can change levels of testosterone, for instance, which can skew study outcomes.

“I think in doing research for sports nutrition in women, not only do we need more studies but more studies on different situations, because [how] one birth control works for one woman is not the same for another,” Bailey said. “So to understand how these ingredients work and how exercise programs work, they’re going to have to differentiate based on the birth control used. That’s something that really has to be taken into account with these studies.”

It’s another reminder that sports research isn’t necessarily one-size-fits all. Study outcomes can be more meaningful to some athletes than others, depending on their sport. If leg-press is an important part of a sport’s training, looking for a study in which subjects engaged in leg-press testing is key, whether the sport is for men or for women. “If you’re looking at a very specific type of athlete or goal, you might need to do more studies that are more specific,” Bailey said.

Suppliers discussed their latest and greatest efforts in active and performance nutrition, ranging from a new gut-muscle-axis ingredient to a landmark study in female athletes.

Active nutrition’s new stars: 2023 SupplySide West Report

A lot of the melatonin in sleep supplements today is produced synthetically. And while those products are effective and safe, one company, Nutraland USA Inc. (Irvine, CA), launched another melatonin ingredient option at October’s SupplySide West show: a phytomelatonin ingredient derived from tomatoes called Somato. The company describes Somato as “the first whole food–derived melatonin from tomatoes.”

According to Gene Bruno, MS, MHS, RH(AHG), chief scientific officer for Nutraland USA, all plants produce melatonin as part of their light/dark cycle. For Nutraland, the task was to find a plant from which it would be commercially viable to extract plant-based melatonin. “Some plants have more, some plants have less,” Bruno explained at SupplySide West. “That’s why you have to find the right ones that have a substantial enough amount and are able to extract that in a meaningful way.”

The ingredient is made from whole, dried tomatoes. One of the benefits of phytomelatonin is that it also offers other beneficial compounds from the plants. For instance, said Bruno, Somato contains naturally occurring lycopene.

Somato isn’t Nutraland’s first foray into phytomelatonin. In 2019, the company introduced a phytomelatonin ingredient derived from St. John’s wort called SomNatural. Like other phytomelatonins, SomNatural offers other naturally occurring compounds from the plant which Bruno said “have been shown to have other benefits associated with them.”

 whether natural and synthetic ingredients differ in terms of efficacy or safety. Sometimes, the choice of a natural ingredient comes down to consumer or manufacturer preference. Bruno pointed to an 

 published in 2021 that compared phytomelatonin to synthetic melatonin in terms of their antioxidant benefits and found phytomelatonin “more efficient concerning the antioxidant properties,” the study researchers wrote.

Bruno added that Nutraland is currently funding a 300-subject, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial comparing SomNatural, synthetic melatonin, and placebo.

The price of phytomelatonin is currently higher than synthetic melatonin, but Nutraland’s president Sanying Xu assured that if manufacturers look at the cost of phytomelatonin per dose, the difference in cost between phytomelatonin and synthetic melatonin “is less than 1 cent.”

And, he said, companies using phytomelatonin can claim their products are natural sleep aids. “This is truly natural,” Xu said, “unlike so many brands or supplements claiming that they’re natural sleep aids. Not all melatonins are natural.”

Kukula-Koch, W.; Szwajgier, D.; Gawel-Beben, K.; Strzepek-Gomlka, M.; Glowniak, K.; Meissner, H.O. Is phytomelatonin complex better than synthetic melatonin? The assessment of the antiradical and anti-inflammatory properties. 

At the show, Nutraland USA showcased its new Somato ingredient, which it describes as “the first whole food–derived melatonin from tomatoes.”

Is phytomelatonin the next big thing in sleep supplements? 2023 SupplySide West Report

Lutein and zeaxanthin are legacy eye-health ingredients in the adult-supplements realm, most notably studied in the National Eye Institute’s Age-Related Eye Disease Studies AREDS and AREDS2 on macular degeneration in older adults. But lutein and zeaxanthin have not yet been studied clinically in children—until now.

During October’s SupplySide West trade show, OmniActive Health Technologies (Bridgewater, NJ) discussed a brand new study conducted in children on the company’s Lutemax 2020 ingredient, which blends lutein and zeaxanthin isomers. The study has been submitted for publication, the firm says.

The six-month supplementation study included 60 children aged 5-12 years. Test subjects were given a Lutemax 2020 gummy supplement containing 10 mg of lutein and 2 mg of zeaxanthin isomers. The subjects were children who were exposed to a minimum of four hours of digital device use per day. (Among their benefits, lutein and zeaxanthin have been shown to help filter blue light, thereby helping to mitigate eye strain and eye fatigue resulting from staring at digital screens.)

At SupplySide West, Deshanie Rai, PhD, the company’s vice president of global scientific and regulatory affairs, explained what the researchers found. First, she said, Lutemax 2020 in gummy form was shown to be bioavailable, as the presence of lutein and zeaxanthin could be measured in the blood stream of the children who took the supplement. Secondly, lutein and zeaxanthin were shown to increase directly in the eye, a conclusion drawn by measuring subjects’ macular pigment optical density (MPOD). Thirdly, Lutemax 2020 subjects exhibited less eye strain and eye fatigue following blue light exposure.

Finally, Lutemax 2020 was shown to positively impact children’s brain function. First, visual processing speed increased in supplemented subjects. Visual processing speed indicates how quickly “the optic nerve works with your photoreceptors to perceive information, translate that into an image, and help the individual respond to that image,” Rai explained. The fact that Lutemax 2020 supplement was associated with this improvement “makes perfect sense given the fact that the retina is so closely located to the optic nerve; hence, there’s this tight eye-brain connection. They’re constantly talking to each other. So we were able to demonstrate the phenomenon even in kids,” she said. Secondly, Rai said, the children supplemented with Lutemax 2020 showed increases in focus, concentration, and in visual, spatial, and episodic memory.

In all, she said, “Our data corroborates existing epidemiological data demonstrating the connection between lutein and zeaxanthin levels in the blood with MPOD and indirectly with cognitive performance.”

These vision performance and cognitive health improvements have been shown in Lutemax 2020 studies in adults. But this new study is significant because it’s the first to clinically explore the benefits in children. In fact, said Rai, “It is the very first study we are aware of in the public domain on lutein and zeaxanthin supplementation in children.”

Of note, the dose of Lutemax 2020 in the children’s study (10 mg of lutein, 2 mg of zeaxanthin isomers) is lower than the dose used in Lutemax 2020 adult studies (20 mg of lutein, 4 mg of zeaxanthin isomers). “And there was a good rationale for that,” Rai explained. “We correlated the dose with what children would typically achieve should they be eating the recommended servings of fruit and vegetables per day. Lutein and zeaxanthin are abundant in certain fruits and vegetables. Based on the recommended number of servings of these fruits and vegetables, as per the Institute of Medicine, that comes out to be about 10 to 20 mg of lutein and zeaxanthin in children.”

With this new data in hand, the company is renewing its “Lutein for Every Age” marketing campaign in which the company touts the benefits of lutein and zeaxanthin for a wide range of age groups, from old—and now with this new study—to young.

“The genesis for reinvigorating this campaign now is the kids’ study,” affirmed Sarah Sullivan, head of customer marketing, OmniActive Health Technologies, at SupplySide West. She added that in a consumer survey OmniActive commissioned of 2000 U.S. parents, 6 out of 10 parents ranked eye health as the number-one health concern for their children today given today’s high rates of screen time.

This new study now fills in “the missing gap in terms of clinical relevance in children and teenagers” of Lutemax 2020, Rai said at SupplySide West. It also expands the company’s own knowledge about how to position the ingredient for children.

Said Rai: “I want to give credit to the science and all the academic investigators who invested so much in understanding the relevance of lutein and zeaxanthin, because a lot of that exists already in the public domain in terms of why they are important, not just for adults but even in children…I think what our study did was really come full circle in taking all of that information and putting it into experiential outcomes. It’s not just in writing anymore. It’s now a clinically demonstrated benefit. So yes, I believe our study has pushed that research agenda and given us more confidence in not just the relevance of lutein and zeaxanthin but 

 they should be supplemented with, either through the diet or through supplementation.”

OmniActive Health Technologies is now touting this new study on its Lutemax 2020 ingredient in its renewed “Lutein for Every Age” campaign.

First children’s study on lutein, zeaxanthin for eye health: 2023 SupplySide West Report

Women’s health is gaining attention in the health, wellness, and supplements space. Menopause is a key segment of that market, and nutraceutical suppliers are ramping up research to explore how their ingredients can help women handle the effects of menopause and its symptoms.

Increasingly, probiotics are emerging as a promising class of natural ingredients for menopause support. During October’s SupplySide West trade show, two companies explained how they are strengthening their probiotics portfolios for the menopause market.

Kaneka Probiotics (Pasadena, TX), also a major shareholder of probiotic developer AB-Biotics (Barcelona), promoted an exploratory study in menopausal women on the companies’ new proprietary probiotic blend targeting menopause support. According to Jordi Riera, chief business officer and head of the probiotics division at Kaneka Americas Holding Inc., this study, which has been submitted for publication, makes Kaneka Probiotics/AB-Biotics the only companies with a “probiotic that has [study] results in menopausal women specifically.”

The exploratory study was conducted in 100 subjects and examined the effect of the strain blend on hormone levels, Riera said at SupplySide West. He explained the mechanism of action of how this strain blend supports menopause.

During menopause, the body’s production of estrogen declines. The gastrointestinal tract also continues its process of eliminating estrogens in urine or feces. At the same time, certain microbiota can help regulate estrogen levels by secreting an enzyme called beta-glucuronidase. This enzyme can help deconjugate estrogens into their active form. According to Kaneka Probiotics/AB-Biotics, their new blend of bacteria over-expresses beta-glucuronidase. By supporting beta-glucuronidase and therefore estrogen levels in this way, the ingredient can help “flatten the slope” severity in terms of the negative physiological effects women experience as estrogen levels decline. As Riera noted, “All symptoms associated with menopause are connected to this decline of estrogens.”

According to Riera, the companies screened over 1000 bacterial strains to identify the three bacterial strains that over-express beta-glucuronidase.

Importantly, the exploratory study was conducted in menopausal women. This sets this probiotic ingredient apart in the menopause supplements market. Riera pointed out that rather than focusing only on alleviating negative menopause symptoms, this new bacterial blend focuses on the cause of symptoms, the balance of estrogens. “To our knowledge, so far there is no probiotic that has been applied to that estrogen-balance application,” he said. “We are really the first to market in that, and the advantage of this product is that probiotics are really safe and natural."

This new exploratory study also helps the companies explain why this ingredient blend addresses estrogen levels “to the level of the most basic science,” he added.

The fact that the companies continue planning to study the ingredient in menopausal women is also key, as ingredient studies in this population are generally lacking. Riera expressed the importance of ramping up clinical trial research in women, especially those experiencing menopause. “The gender bias in science is a hot topic and subject to revision and discussion, to be thought about by the scientific and medical community,” he said. It’s something “we all need to get better at,” he added, if the supplements industry wants to create better products for women’s health. “It’s difficult for me to understand why there are products that are promised to be women’s health products that are not tested in women primarily,” he said.

He concluded: “We’re the only company with a probiotic that has results in menopausal women specifically. Right now, the focus for the past couple of years has been women’s health. I think that connects to a market interest but also connects to the fact that for historical reasons, women’s health was something that was a little bit left behind in science. That’s something we detected years ago,” adding that the companies started its probiotic-menopause research “five years ago when nobody was taking much care about that.”

The ingredient will also help expand the scope of probiotics as an ingredient class in the menopause market, which currently is mainly dominated by ingredients like sterol-related ingredients or botanical combinations to address menopausal symptoms.

IFF (New York City) also had menopause health in sight at SupplySide West. The company highlighted its 

 with GenM, a UK-based group that has created a “menopause-friendly” icon that companies can add to their packaging to indicate that a product supports menopause health and to help shoppers identify menopause-supporting products on-shelf in stores. 

At SupplySide West, Mark Rohde, global dietary supplement leader for IFF Health (Ridgefield, NJ), called the company’s partnership with GenM “exciting.”

IFF is now letting its customers know that they can develop menopause-friendly products and label them with the GenM icon. IFF is steering companies through this market by creating new product concepts that companies can consider using if they want to enter the menopause-products market. “We’re showcasing those and talking to customers about how GenM can further differentiate those concepts to the consumer,” Rohde said.

These product concepts—nine in all—feature combinations of IFF’s ingredients and can address multiple health concerns women face when dealing with menopause. “We’re trying to address the most high-level need states that a woman might have—so hot flashes, brain fog, mood, weight management, cognitive support, urinary health, vaginal health—spanning every way in which menopause may present itself,” said Rohde.

Many of the ingredient combinations blend probiotic and botanical ingredients, he said. “There are 48 different symptoms of menopause,” he added, “including weight management, urinary health, vaginal health, and gut-brain as well as stress management. So we’ve taken a look at those symptoms of menopause, and we have a vaginal-health probiotic combination. We have a weight-management probiotic. We have a probiotic for perceived stress as well. So we’re trying to take those benefit areas and direct them in menopause-specific concepts.”

Probiotics for menopause were a key focus for companies at SupplySide West.