At this point, nutrition and snack bars are rather ubiquitous. With seven in 10 Americans snacking at least once a day, bars are one of the many ways consumers are satisfying their cravings. According to the International Food Information Council’s (IFIC) 2023 Food and Health Survey, 13% of respondents said they gravitate toward nutrition bars in the morning, ranked fourth after fruits, dairy, and pastries. While bars can be a great vehicle for nutrients such as protein, allowing people to tackle hunger and food cravings on the go, with so many other choices at their disposal, consumers may seek out more indulgent and unhealthy options.

According to the same survey, 61% respondents stated that their mental and emotional well-being has an impact on their food and beverage consumption. Unfortunately, 60% reported feeling stressed, and 51% said that stress negatively impacts their food and beverage choices. Similarly, according to a survey by Mintel, 49% of U.S. consumers report feeling stressed, 38% feel anxiety, 22% feel mental exhaustion, and 20% feel burnout. Another survey of UK consumers by Mintel reports that 71% of respondents manage their stress through exercise and diets, and 62% say daily rituals help lift their mood.

The brand think!, a Glanbia Nutrition company, recently launched a campaign called the #thinkStrong challenge, which leverages consumers’ desire to improve their mental well-being. The six-week challenge, in partnership with wellness expert and 

 bestselling author Gabby Bernstein, is an effort to engage with consumers to promote positive thought and encourage healthy habits.

“We want to empower our consumers to join us in a challenge to harness the power of their thoughts by challenging them to be ‘Stronger Than You think!’ With mental strength, individuals have the power to transform their lives, but like any other muscle, it needs to be trained and nourished,” says Daniel Domzalski, senior brand manager of think!, to 

. “Together with Gabby, think! is helping consumers turn positive thoughts into positive action and tap into the true potential of their thoughts fueled by our delicious high-protein bars.”

Engaging with consumers through platforms like Facebook and Instagram can be a powerful tool for brands. According to IFIC’s 2023 Food and Health Survey, 60% of respondents reported being encouraged via social media to make healthier choices. In response to social media, 51% stated they’ve tried a new recipe, and 42% reported trying a new product.

“We have received an incredible response from our community so far, with our consumers using #thinkStrong tags on social and visiting the landing page that hosts the six-week challenge,” explains Domzalski. “In fact, since our campaign launch, we’ve seen a 287% increase in site traffic on the brand’s website, www.thinkproducts.com. Nearly 120,000 users have visited the Stronger Than You think! campaign landing page.”

Notably, while the campaign is promotional for the brand, the bars are peripheral to the messaging of the challenge. This, and partnering with a respected influencer, lends the campaign and the company credibility and trust.

Want to inject new life into your brand? Make sure you’re connecting with consumers on an emotionally positive level. It’s good for you and good for them.

Articles

A protein bar brand promotes positive thinking, and it may be helping to sell products.

Nutrition bars: Can encouraging positive thinking sell protein bars?

Remember back when probiotics went by the endearing shorthand “good gut bugs”? It wasn’t that long ago, and the vernacular actually fit, considering that the microbes first earned their fame mainly for colonizing the gut and improving conditions there.

But as science reminds us seemingly every time a new study drops, probiotics’ spheres of influence extend well beyond the digestive tract and its goings-on to envelop metabolic health, body mass—even mood.

In light of the toll these health factors take on society when they go south, understanding how probiotics might turn the tide is a matter of genuine urgency, argues Allie Chandler, head of brand and B2B marketing, Novozymes OneHealth North America (Franklinton, NC).

“The pressing nature of poor metabolic health, obesity, and stress is evident both in their prevalence and their economic impact,” she declares. “But addressing these issues isn’t just about reducing healthcare costs; it’s about enhancing quality of life for millions. That’s why leveraging breakthroughs in research, including probiotics’ potential benefits, is absolutely a step in the right direction.”

The direction that metabolic health, weight, and mental health have been taking “isn’t the same today as it was 50 years ago,” Chandler concedes. And as far as she’s concerned, “We’re at a disadvantage from the start in many ways.”

One such way is the extent to which contemporary culture spreads stress into every corner of our days. “Two-thirds of adults aged 18 to 54 report feeling stress,” Chandler notes, “which isn’t a trivial concern, as the ramifications are multifaceted” and include everything from disrupted sleep and fractured concentration to greater risk for anxiety and depression.

And as anyone familiar with “stress eating” knows, when day-to-day pressure meets easy access to highly palatable foods, comfort can look a lot like overindulgence—the results of which are manifest in current rates of overweight and obesity.

In fact, Jordi Riera, chief business officer, Kaneka Probiotics (Pasadena, TX), finds the rising rates of both conditions “alarming,” and points to World Health Organization data indicating a near tripling of their prevalence between 1975 and 2016, with 39% of adults aged 18 and older now qualifying as overweight and 13% meeting the definition of obese.

The knock-on effects of all this extra weight only add to the burden of chronic concerns that, collectively, constitute what we call metabolic syndrome—a cluster of conditions comprising high blood pressure, poor blood-sugar control, excess abdominal fat, abnormal lipid levels, and more, the combined effects of which correlate to higher risks for cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

The associated costs sorely strain the healthcare system, too, with results of a 2009 study showing that subjects with metabolic syndrome incurred average annual healthcare expenses 1.6 times those of subjects without: $5,732 compared to $3,581.

Yet as Steve Prescott, senior vice president, business development/operations, Synbiotic Health (Lincoln, NB), notes, the price of poor metabolic health isn’t denominated in dollars and cents alone, but also in “the difficulties encountered on a daily basis by people affected,” he says, “whether that’s more health appointments and hospital visits or the inability to do activities they enjoy.”

Chipping away at these costs is complicated by the fact that the elements contributing to metabolic disorders—including high body mass and stress—exist in a vicious circle that’s…well, 

As Margherita Patrucco, technical marketing and product development, Probiotical SpA (Novara, Italy), explains, “Excess weight, especially obesity, harms metabolic health by disrupting hormonal regulation and appetite control—thus causing insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, high blood pressure, and inflammation.”

Meanwhile, overweight and obesity can generate stress that in its own right compromises metabolic health by promoting further unhealthy eating, discouraging physical activity, and curtailing high-quality sleep.

The upshot: We wind up in “an insidious feedback loop where stress, weight gain, and poor metabolic health reinforce each other,” Patrucco concludes, “making the cycle challenging to break.”

But a potential point of leverage lies in one of the chain’s key links: the gut microbiota.

As Riera points out, metabolic health “encompasses an intricate interplay of genetic, epigenetic, dietary, and lifestyle factors, as well as microbiome-related factors. Growing evidence indicates that this ‘metabolic dance’ involves a symbiosis between our bodies and the ecosystem of microorganisms that comprise our microbiome.”

The choreographers of that dance are the various “gut-organ axes” that coordinate communication between gut microbes and our bodies’ governing systems—and an axis that’s attracting significant attention for its influence on whole-body health is the gut-brain axis connecting mood, mass, metabolism, and our microbiome in a bidirectional conversation.

The back-and-forth dynamics of this biome-based relationship are complicated in practice but elegant in theory: In short, when our microbial ecosystem is balanced, our moods, metabolic function, and body mass are more likely to maintain their own healthy balance. But when something—say poor diet or stress—tips the microbiome out of whack, “dysbioses” result, with inflammation being a characteristic result.

Consider what happens if a disturbance prevents the gut microbiome from maintaining a strong gut barrier—one of its core functions, Prescott notes. “When these microbes fail to do that job, the barrier can become permeable and allow bacterial components or other substances to leak through, causing systemic inflammation as the immune system reacts to these unwelcome substances in the bloodstream,” he says.

This state of “endotoxemia,” he goes on, underlies the development of obesity and metabolic problems like diabetes, and can even get fuel for its fire from stress, “as the body’s stress-response system, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, links the stress we feel to physiological effects,” he notes.

What’s more, adds Caroline Montelius, department manager, global scientific affairs, Probi (Lund, Sweden), a common denominator linking healthy individuals with garden-variety moderate-to-high stress with those experiencing diagnosed depression and anxiety is the presence of inflammation—which, she emphasizes, “ties back to the gut, as the gut harbors a large proportion of inflammatory cytokine-producing immune cells.”

No wonder studies correlate the lower microbial diversity that typifies industrialized populations with higher incidences of metabolic disorders, says Camille Binachon, product manager, Lallemand Health Solutions (Mirabel, Canada).

“Differences in gut composition due to lifestyle and diet can contribute to obesity, cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease,” she notes—all of which are conditions she describes as “intrinsically linked, as about 60%–70% of obese patients are dyslipidemic, and individuals with type 2 diabetes have a twofold increased risk for cardiovascular disease.”

Those statistics paint an ominous picture. But if an imbalanced microbiome sets us up for a host of ills, might interventions aimed at bringing it back into order—as through probiotic supplementation—bend the curve? Montelius thinks they could.

“Reestablishing a balanced gut microbiota by adding clinically documented probiotic solutions has been shown to modulate the release of inflammatory cytokines, improving both brain function and metabolic health,” she says. And that’s just the start.

Prescott actually wagers that probiotics “might get at the root cause of obesity.” Among the strains that Synbiotic Health has studied and cultivated, “We know that 

 iVS-1 helps strengthen the gut barrier,” he says, “and because the gut barrier is implicated in obesity as mentioned above, this function could lay the groundwork for powerful effects on weight control via the gut.”

Even more-recent research into the strain’s actions indicates that it releases gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), too, he adds, “which helps regulate a number of important gut functions and, through the gut-brain axis, may have inhibitory effects in the brain, potentially resulting in stress reduction and sleep enhancement.”

“When it comes to lipid metabolism,” Riera adds, “a combination of three 

 strains—KABP-011 (CECT 7527), KABP-012 (CECT 7528), and KABP-013 (CECT 7529)—was found to reduce low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, cholesterol and triglyceride levels in blood.”

The mode of action, he proposes, stems from the gut microbiota’s ability to regulate lipid metabolism and encourage cholesterol excretion via its influence on several metabolites, “including bile salts that display bile-salt hydrolase activity.”

More specifically, he explains, the liver synthesizes bile salts from blood cholesterol and then releases those salts into the intestine, where they facilitate fat absorption. Then those bile salts pass back into circulation through intestinal receptor sites and return to the liver for reuse in further bile-salt production.

Meanwhile, Riera continues, “After being converted to bile acids in the liver, only a small percentage of LDL cholesterol is typically eliminated from the body naturally.” Supplementation with the aforementioned combination of strains—which AB-Biotics formulated as its Floradapt Cardio/AB-Life probiotic but which is now sold under the Kaneka brand—appears to de-conjugate bile salts in the liver, preventing cholesterol’s reabsorption and increasing excretion. In other words, Riera says, “The liver has to absorb more blood cholesterol to synthesize de novo bile salts.”

Binachon notes that when Lallemand began exploring probiotic strains to address the triumvirate of body mass, mood, and metabolism, 

 HA-114 caught the company’s eye thanks to studies showing that it not only reduced fat accumulation in an 

, but that it also appeared to reverse neurodegeneration in animal models of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Huntington’s disease through its ability to modify lipid metabolism.

So a recent double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial

 put the strain to the test in 152 overweight, otherwise healthy, adult humans participating in a personalized 500-calorie daily-deficit diet.

The researchers randomized subjects to take either 10 billion CFU/day of 

 HA-114 or a placebo and measured physiological and psychological parameters as well as eating behavior using validated questionnaires at baseline and 12 weeks into the study.

The results showed that while both groups saw significant changes in body-mass index, waist circumference, fat mass, and body mass percentage—with no significant differences between groups—“beneficial changes in eating behaviors 

 observed in the probiotic group,” Binachon points out, “with participants reporting better self-control over hunger and binge-eating, and thus reduced food cravings.”

Moreover, the probiotic group reported that feelings of stress, anxiety, and depression “improved significantly following their diet,” Binachon continues. So by “restoring the balance of eating behaviors through the gut-brain axis,” she postulates, the probiotic “could also facilitate diet compliance.”

Finally, results showed that the strain significantly influenced fasting plasma insulin, homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), and LDL-cholesterol and triglyceride levels during the study, “highlighting the beneficial effects of probiotic interventions on eating behaviors, mental health, and metabolic profile,” Binachon says, “and reinforcing the validity of the gut-brain axis.”

Such results rightly generate excitement—both among industry insiders and consumers…er, 

But prudent observers of this space counsel caution. Kristin Kirkpatrick, MS, RD, LD, a registered dietician and Jetson (Chicago) partner, is one of them.

“Good health depends on many factors,” she says, “including genetics, sleep quality, diet, stress management, environment, physical fitness, and regular adherence to medical care—so there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. However, with the right clinically validated and non-generic strains, probiotics can have a great impact on our overall health when paired with diet and exercise.”

World Health Organization. Obesity and Overweight. Updated June 9, 2021. 

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/obesity-and-overweight

Boudreau, D.M.; Malone, D.C.; Raebel, M.A.; et al. Health care utilization and costs by metabolic syndrome risk factors. 

Bosch, M.; Fuentes, M.C.; Audivert, S.; Bonachera, M.A.; Sara Peiró, S.; Cuñé, J. 

 CECT 7527, 7528 and 7529: probiotic candidates to reduce cholesterol levels. 

Choi, B.S.Y.; Brunelle, L.; Pilon, G.; et al. 

 HA-114 improves eating behaviors and mood-related factors in adults with overweight during weight loss: a randomized controlled trial. 

If the gut-brain axis connects our microbiome and mood, mass, and metabolism, can probiotic supplementation support all three?

Can probiotics manage metabolism, mood, and body mass?

The more you give, the more is expected of you. That’s what contract manufacturers and private-label manufacturers (and white-label manufacturers) are experiencing these days. These companies aren’t complaining, however. Instead, they’re focusing on how to flexibly adapt to their customers’ increasing expectations as well as how to differentiate themselves from their competitors. In fact, the traditional business models—contract manufacturing, private-label manufacturing, and white-label manufacturing—are morphing.

Google the terms. You’ll see varied definitions. Some focus on how many brands a product is sold to, while others focus on the product or service itself. “This is a conversation we’ve had many times with various parties,” says Matevž Ambrožič, marketing and PR director at private-label food supplement developer PharmaLinea (Ljubljana, Slovenia), “and we see that the understanding is quite varied across different markets across different industries across different countries.”

Then there’s the level of product customization that’s historically been associated mainly with traditional contract manufacturing. Is that changing as well?

Of contract manufacturing, private-label manufacturing, and white-label manufacturing today, “we’ve really kind of given up focusing on trying to define which one is which, as we see that people’s understanding is so different that it makes no sense,” Ambrožič says. “For us, the conversation with a brand usually starts with them stating what they need and asking if we provide that. This happens at trade shows, with inquiries that we get through our website, and so forth. In the beginning, there’s always a bit of debate…about what kind of service we exactly provide.”

Definitions don’t matter as much if the customer knows what they’re looking for—and the manufacturer knows what they’re best at providing.

Take Soft Gel Technologies Inc. (STI; Los Angeles), for example. STI has “an established reputation as the contract manufacturer of choice for making softgels containing difficult-to-encapsulate or fragile-to-work-with ingredients,” says Roy Bouskila, STI’s international sales director. It’s a niche that serves the company well. STI manufactures softgel supplements to customers worldwide.

Softgel manufacturing is more complicated than making two-piece hard-shell capsules or tablets, Bouskila contends, the latter two something he considers more of a straightforward process. The reason? “Softgels are more complex to manufacture in that they require a production facility which includes gelatin preparation, material (formula fill) preparation and mixing, gelatin preparation, encapsulation machines, drying tunnels, inspection and polishing, and finishing and packaging. The investment and technical knowledge required is enormous,” he says.

What STI offers today is “what we’ve always offered as a contract manufacturing organization,” Bouskila says. STI’s website references “turnkey custom softgel formulations.” Bouskila explains this is because STI’s “private-label products are what we refer to as ‘turnkey formulas’ in that these products are custom made for a specific customer/marketer/brand. We manufacture these products exclusively for that customer. We offer the option of selling our softgels in bulk or packaged in bottles or blister packs.” On other hand, Bouskila says, “our standard stock products could also be called ‘white label’ in that they are manufactured in bulk and are sold to multiple companies using their own brand names and labels.”

If customers are unsure about which model will work best for them, that’s when communication becomes vital. “What a customer is seeking will determine if they want something that has a lower minimum quantity order and shorter lead time (for certain stock items) or a custom formula that requires higher minimums and longer lead times and that tends to be more expensive, depending on the ingredients,” Bouskila says.

PharmaLinea, too, isn’t hung up on whether its services fit neatly into a defined model. The company positions itself as a private labeler “because we found it to be more recognized within the industry of food supplements and pharmaceuticals [and] nutraceuticals,” Ambrožič explains. The company views 

to mean that “the product is already made or the formulation is ready to go, and there are studies on it as well. A product is then sold exclusively to one brand within a single market. By most definitions, this brings us closer to private label, we believe. However, we get inquiries for white-label services daily, and it turns out to be the exact same product and service,” he says.

From Ambrožič’s perspective, what matters most is what a company can bring to a customer’s table. That includes the flexibility to meet the customer’s needs.

And science. “Our chairman and founder was, let’s say, visionary enough to see that this business model will be something that brand owners will need more and more of in the coming years, and therefore we haven’t really shifted in recent years,” Ambrožič explains. “He believed in the fact that clinical substantiation will become increasingly important in food supplements, not just pharmaceuticals, and that more companies will benefit from the fact that they are able to launch a product under their brand that is already tested in multiple ways—a product that is already scientifically validated and can be launched in a matter of months instead of years.”

That model is working, judging by the recent success of PharmaLinea’s line of iron supplements, which the company calls the >Your< Iron Line. The >Your< Iron Line recently hit a new milestone, with products from the line now being sold in over 30 markets. With many potential reasons for this successful case study, Ambrožič highlights three especially: the supplement’s taste, its significantly diminished chance of side effects, and its clinically proven efficacy supported by no less than its own published human clinical trial.

 Not only that, the product comes in a variety of on-the-go, user-friendly formats that cater to the fast-paced lifestyle of modern consumers.

Although the scientific research, which also includes an animal study published the same year as the human clinical trial

, was conducted on the supplement’s liquid version for children, Ambrožič explains that “our clients are able to utilize the data also on various other dosage formats due to the same liquid product matrix being used in other formulations in the >Your< Iron Line.” He adds that “we currently also have an ongoing clinical trial on multiple other formulations, including for adults.”

Ambrožič further explains that “what this [private-label] model also enables is that we collect the best marketing practices from different launches of the very same product. So, when a company decides on one of our products, they’re not just getting the physical product; they’re also getting lots of intelligence on how different brands launch this very same product in different markets. They can utilize the lessons learned and therefore minimize the investment of doing the guesswork of which kinds of campaigns would work or not. Of course, markets are different, but all this intelligence helps minimize risks and helps shorten the time to get a successful campaign put together.”

Soft Gel Technologies’ Bouskila likewise believes that STI’s ability to offer several branded formulas helps it stand out in a crowded outsourcing marketplace. “These products have an ingredient in which we have exclusivity in softgels with a key supplier, or we have our own clinical research or intellectual property/patents,” he says.

Further, neither company is abandoning its relationship with the customer once the product is produced. “We provide customers with our own marketing collateral and scientific data for these branded products,” Bouskila says. “Customers are able to utilize our trademarked product name under their own-label brand. For example, Injuv is a skin- and joint-health product that we offer that contains a low-molecular-weight hyaluronic acid complex. Many customers purchase this product from us, and some even use the name Injuv, with a trademark agreement in place.” What’s more, he says, STI has “extensive product literature and studies which customers can use for their own marketing purposes.” And, he adds, “We don’t advertise to consumers so that we aren’t competing with our customer base.”

Meanwhile, the customer/contractor relationship doesn’t have to end after the launch. In fact, a successful partnership may very well lead to another.

For his part, Ambrožič says that “we stay in touch with companies that launch our products. We try to support them through the full process.” PharmaLinea also analyzes the marketing campaigns, the messaging, the channels used, the budget, etc., for the benefit of future launches. “When you launch one of our products, you’re not just trying to solve all the questions and do the marketing completely by yourself,” Ambrožič notes. PharmaLinea not only supports clients with scientific data but also, Ambrožič says, “We collect the best practices of these launches and then provide them to new companies that launch our products so you’re not just left alone in the dark. You’re supported all the way with scientific data, best marketing practices data—all the things that private-label manufacturers can collect but unfortunately in most cases don’t.”

Shorter lead times and lower costs are primary reasons some select ready-to-go private- or white-label services. But traditionally, one disadvantage of these services was thought to be a lack of flexibility. In other words, if a brand selected to go to market with a formula from a private-label or white-label company, the formula was provided as-is, end of story. Today, however, private- and white-labelers are flexing to offer customization when and where it makes sense. But are they going so far as to move into traditional contract manufacturing territory?

Ambrožič declares that “we indeed do certain little tweaks and customizations for small matters, like changing the level of a certain vitamin or mineral based on local regulations. For example, if we have a product based on vitamins K2, D3, and C, and zinc, with certain levels of each micronutrient, and we have a client from Saudi Arabia who wants to launch it and their specific market regulation doesn’t allow the same level of vitamin C that we have used, we will, of course, decrease it to the required level.”

However, he advises that larger tweaks would require very complicated development and increase the time required, increase investment, and remove all the previously mentioned benefits of ready-to-market catalogue formulations.

It’s not just blurred lines that are driving changes in the contract manufacturing, private-label, and white-label industries. There are outside forces at play, too.

Anurag Pande, PhD, vice president of scientific affairs for Sabinsa (East Windsor, NJ), says that “contract manufacturing for dietary supplements has seen some significant shifts in recent times.” Sabinsa is known as a raw material supplier and ingredient manufacturer, all of which the company brings to its contract manufacturing services. And if Pande’s worried that private- and white-labelers are encroaching on the territory of contract manufacturers, he’s not saying.

Not that he hasn’t seen changes in private-label business models. He has. For example, he says that the “advent of online sales on Amazon and other platforms definitely increased demands on private-label products to some extent.” However, he adds that “in the customer base we work with, we see the inclination to differ from that set of supplement providers, and we see more demands to innovate”—advantages that have long been associated with traditional contract manufacturing. In fact, Pande says that Sabinsa “offers the contract manufacturing option to customers as it brings innovative product lines from the facility.”

On the other hand, the shifts in the business that he wants to talk about are those challenges presented by forces outside the industry itself—challenges which Pande says Sabinsa has already taken steps to address.

According to Pande, an increase in transparency and traceability is one important change, a movement that can be attributed to multiple reasons, starting with FDA’s increased surveillance of the safety and compliance of products. But it can also be attributed to “consumers’ demand for greater transparency of what they’re ingesting,” he says. Consumers want to know the origin of products, if there are any excipients included, and what the company’s sustainability practices are. “Consumer awareness of ingredient brands is also increasing, including science on the ingredients,” Pande adds.

Sabinsa felt compelled to address this movement. “In order to meet several of these demands in a consistent manner for ingredients we source from external sources, we felt the shift necessitated revamping our processes and relationships related to the supply chain, labeling, and data management and monitoring,” Pande says. At its manufacturing facility in Utah, Sabinsa started “[a] qualification system for suppliers, whether it’s suppliers of dietary supplement ingredients, minerals, enzymes, or probiotics, but also for packing materials, bottles, and labeling.” He adds that “this is in some ways a similar process to qualifying raw herb material even before starting extraction.”

Sabinsa is so confident about the importance of transparency and traceability for its business (and for the industry) that “we increased capacity for testing the incoming material to a great extent,” Pande says. “Sabinsa Utah contract manufacturing has an on-site testing facility as well as another off-site testing lab in New Jersey that is used to test for material consistency or customer concerns.”

All of these checks serve the client well, whether that customer is buying ingredients or contract manufacturing services. “Since our scientific staff is onsite, we always engage the potential customer in a healthy discussion of various possibilities we can offer for launching new formulas. These discussions include testing, including whether we need to develop new testing methods to evaluate the ingredients in multi-ingredient formulations; label compliance; as well as [addressing] the robust supply chain of these ingredients we offer.”

Another example of the outside challenges contract manufacturers and private-/white-label companies face is one of perception. And this one is not a new one. Bouskila starts with this welcome fact: “Gone are the days of people encapsulating supplements on a single machine in their garage.” Yet, he says, “even though the dietary supplement industry has to comply with FDA current Good Manufacturing Practices and is subject to federal audits,” it’s unfortunate that “we still have to overcome the generalized perception that our industry is not regulated.”

Bouskila points to FDA’s regulations for dietary supplements which he advises “ensures that the products available to consumers are safe, effective, and accurately labeled by a dietary supplement manufacturer.” Moreover, “These regulations help serious manufacturers distinguish themselves from smaller would-be manufacturers,” he advises, noting that “Soft Gel has always been in compliance with these requirements.”

Sabinsa, too, prioritizes its regulatory prowess for its contract manufacturing customers. “We have an internal team to assess the label claims and advise the customers accordingly,” Pande says. “In order to satisfy the regulatory demands for compliance and quality assurance, we have third-party certification of GMP compliance as well as the facility qualified to manufacture and export products to countries like Australia and Canada, which have stricter regulations related to supplements.”

Anne Manubens, sales and marketing manager at Herbarom (France), points to another reason why the game may be changing for contract manufacturers and private-/white-label manufacturers: new players in the dietary supplement field. Manubens says that “from our point of view, yes, particularly with the arrival of new entrants to this market, such as the digitally native vertical brands (DNVB) or players in the food, wellness, health/sports sectors in general who have sniffed out the appeal of the food supplement industry and wish to broaden their offering with nutraceutical products,” lines may be blurred even further for outsourcing.

New players learning the business rely on the expertise of manufacturers. “As non-historical experts in this market,” Manubens says, “[these new-to-the-market companies] are not necessarily familiar with [the industry’s] specific features, such as how a food supplement is developed, regulatory aspects, and how the product matches market expectations.” These companies “therefore need experts to support them—experts who not only have expertise in industrialization but who also understand their issues and can provide them insights on the market while offering them finished products adapted to the market that are effective and rapidly available.”

Herbarom’s Phytéo Laboratoire division specializes in developing and custom manufacturing food-supplement products. At this year’s Vitafoods Europe trade show, Phytéo introduced Phyteasy, which it describes as a “turnkey solution” for the food supplement industry. It is available in two formats: Phyteasy Ready to Go and Phyteasy Dev’Up. The former, Phyteasy Ready to Go, relies on the “rigorous selection of ingredients thanks to Herbarom’s unique expertise in plants,” available “from the most classic tablets to liquid formula solutions.” In addition to the product, Phyteasy Ready to Go comes with what the company calls “a complete set of services, including scientific dossier, marketing file, technical and regulatory file, and packaging and design.”

Meanwhile, the second option, Phyteasy Dev’Up, comprises a range of optimized formulations coupled with a la carte services. “The selection of ingredients is already carried out, and the galenics are chosen for their efficiency—with the possibility of adaptation to customer specifications. A range of pick-and-choose services to accompany the launch includes marketing strategy, project-brief support, formulation, pilot, price-positioning strategy, regulatory and scientific services, as well as marketing and sales services,” according to a company press release.

“So, yes, we can easily go from custom-made to turnkey product to a formula ready to be industrialized or adapted, according to the customer’s expectations,” Manubens says.

Although Manubens is not bucketing these services specifically under private or white label, or classic contract manufacturing, it does appear that Phyteasy’s services are open to adapting to a client’s needs. In fact, Manubens summarizes the new introduction with this nod to customer expectations: “With Phyteasy, we want to offer flexibility to our customers, whatever their profile, size, or distribution channel, because their needs are different,” she says. The goal is to provide customers with “the perfect match” in terms of the finished product, one that will offer clients “the possibility of taking what interests them, with optional services, but also with adapting possibilities” that meet their challenges.

This is an example of how private- and white-label manufacturers are recognizing the benefits of traditional contract manufacturing, with many keen to create hybrid models to better compete.

But one thing that private- and white-label manufacturers are hoping not to lose is their advantage of quick-to-market delivery. As Manubens explains it, Phyteasy “is an approach that combines market relevance, business performance, compliance, and mastery of industrialization, while saving development time at every stage to seize opportunities quickly.”

PharmaLinea sees additional possibilities now that pharmaceutical companies are seeking a new source of income. They’re doing so because, as Ambrožič says, those companies are “being squeezed on all ends. Costs are rising, OTC-to-Rx switches are limited, and Rx drug prices are regulated.”

Consequently, a nutraceutical or food supplement could be a very profitable product to add to a pharmaceutical company’s portfolio. A supplement that already has clinical substantiation is particularly appealing, Ambrožič says. And these pharmaceutical companies are typically under time pressure. They may have the preestablished relationships with doctors and pharmacists, and they have the established teams for medical promotion. What they don’t have, according to Ambrožič, is “the time to wait to decide on a new formulation and do the technical development, the stability testing, and then do the clinical research on this formulation.” This is one more situation in which a company like PharmaLinea could be of service.

If, indeed, classic contract manufacturing and private- and white-label manufacturing are coming closer to overlapping offerings, is that making it more complicated for brands to outsource their manufacturing needs to the right partner? It could initially. Finding the right partner is key.

Soft Gel Technologies’ Bouskila has a last piece of advice for potential clients. “When customers base their decision to work with a contract manufacturer based exclusively on price, [they could] end up paying more in opportunity costs because they don’t factor quality, service, and on-time delivery into the equation.” Specifically using softgel production as an example, he says that “customers need to verify their potential vendors so that they don’t end up with softgels that leak, longer lead times, and the inability to obtain much-needed documentation and regulatory paperwork.”

At the end of the day, it’s up to the brand to decide what it needs. “The lines between contract manufacturing and private label are up to each individual company on what they decide to do and which business model they decide to pursue,” says Ambrožič.

As both models have benefits and disadvantages, the importance of the relationship should not be discounted. Ultimately it will come down to what works for the individual companies making the outsourcing decisions. It’s likely that flexibility, innovation, communications, science, and transparency will all be important.

Zečkanović, A.; Kavčič, M., Prelog, T.; Šmid, A.; Jazbec, J. Micronized, microencapsulated ferric iron supplementation in the form of >Your< Iron Syrup improves hemoglobin and ferritin levels in iron-deficient children: double-blind, randomized clinical study of efficacy and safety. 

Pirman, T.; Lenardič, A.; Svete, A.N.; Horvat, S. Supplementation with >Your< Iron Syrup corrects iron status in a mouse model of diet-induced iron deficiency. 

Finding the Right Partner: Are the lines blurring between contract manufacturing and private label?

At first glance, the bone health supplements market appears to be robust. According to SPINS (Chicago), sales of such supplements reached $302 million in the U.S. alone in the 52 weeks ending August 13, 2023. But it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. The fact is that the bone health market isn’t growing. In fact, SPINS says sales are down about 2% since the same time last year.

Why? The bone health category is dominated by roughly three ingredients: vitamin K, vitamin D, and calcium. “The main point of interest is finding added value,” says Matevž Ambrožič, marketing and public relations director at PharmaLinea (Ljubljana, Slovenia). This can take the shape of vegan, free-from, pure, traceable, or otherwise superior versions of these ingredients, or those that can remain bioavailable and active in a range of alternative delivery formats. This is where the opportunity lies in the market, and where brands must innovate.

Until now, bone health supplements have filled the space between pharmacological approaches and non-pharmacological approaches, says Angie Rimel, marketing communications manager, North America, at Gelita (Sioux City, IA). “Some non-pharmacological approaches to preventing osteoporosis include regular physical activity, reducing alcohol intake, and quitting smoking,” she explains. This is where supplements have traditionally come in, and new ingredients like collagen peptides are attempting to reinvigorate the category.

But in order to grow, bone health supplements must find a way to excite customers with new ingredients and products. Here are just three pathways to success, from experts in the know.

In the supplements space, it’s not yet necessary to cater to DNA or other highly individualized personal characteristics—though that’s certainly on the distant horizon. Instead, bone health brands can meet this trend by catering to specific life stages with products designed for children, young adults, and the aging population.

“Children, for instance, express high levels of inactive osteocalcin, indicating low vitamin K status,” says Clarisse Geraci, product manager at Gnosis by Lesaffre (Marcq-en-Baroeul, France). This, she adds, can result in the inability to build bone optimally during a critical time, indicating a need for bone health products for this specific demographic.

The children’s bone health market is already booming in Asia, where parents are especially concerned about children’s growth, says Ambrožič. One example is the Chinese launch of Little Elevit in November 2022, demonstrating a branching off of the brand’s hallmark prenatal offerings to also include products for babies and toddlers focused on support for bone and teeth development.

“Knowing that up to 90% of peak bone mass is acquired by age 18 in girls before it peaks around 30, the demographic of adolescent girls and young female adults is a clear white space in the bone health market,” adds Geraci. “The more calcium a woman can bank in her younger years using vitamin K2, the better equipped she is when bone mass decreases as menopause inevitably hits.” Ambrožič points to the launch of New Chapter’s Organic Plant Calcium: Women Under 40 as just one attempt to fill this gap. Certainly, there is room for more.

According to Ambrožič, there’s additional white space in the bone health market for products in non-conventional, user-friendly formats like sprays, powders, and gummies. Indeed, proprietary Mintel GNPD data show that new supplement launches in gummy format have increased by 86.5% in the past five years. Among bone health products launched in North America, gummies (26% of the launches in the category) were almost as popular as tablets and capsules (29% each).

If you ask Stefan Lander, vice president of consumer goods group sales and marketing at Omya (Oftringen, Switzerland), brands can take this one step further by launching fortified foods that are already on consumers’ radar when it comes to boosting bone health. “Many people appreciate the whole ‘good for me’ package in food form,” he says. “If they’re looking for a product that is rich in calcium—perhaps because of a medical condition or life stage—it’s certainly worth investigating the potential to improve even traditional foodstuffs, such as plain milk, by adding beneficial ingredients.” Additionally, milk alternatives such as soy, almond, or oat milk can be made better for bones with the addition of a functional ingredient.

Beyond these “expected” fortified foods, Lander also points out that calcium carbonate can be used to fortify bread, beverages, cereals, snack bars, fine baked goods, and infant nutrition. As an added bonus, this ingredient can act as a white pigment and texturizer to give milk alternatives a more authentic dairy appearance.

Bone health supplement brands can reinvigorate the category by taking the guesswork out for consumers, streamlining their nutrient intake across different products, and offering holistic bone health products that include several different ingredients.

“The potential of vitamin K2 MK-7 combined with other vitamins and minerals is particularly promising in this space,” says Lindsay Cole, sales and business development manager for North America at Kappa Bioscience AS (Oslo, Norway), which is part of Balchem’s Human Nutrition & Health segment. Other potential blends the companies can offer include chelated minerals alongside K2VITAL Delta, a vitamin K2 ingredient that’s microencapsulated in double-coated beadlets for stability in most environments.

Bone health brands can also bring nutraceutical support to different product categories. For example, in 2022, oral care brand Colgate partnered with Nourished, a UK-based 3D-printed personalized gummy company, to launch Nutristacks. These gummy/chew supplements contain calcium alongside other enamel-strengthening and oral health ingredients like arginine and xylitol, bridging the gap between bone health and oral health and widening the bone health nutraceutical market to include personal care shoppers. “We can confirm firsthand that we now have inquiries from personal care brands, dental clinics, and so forth, all looking to launch oral care products including calcium, vitamins D3 and K2, and more, for the support of healthy teeth,” adds Ambrožič.

Tips on how to grow the bone health supplements market from experts in the know.

The bone health supplements market is large, but stagnant. Here’s how brands can get consumers excited again.

If there’s one thing omega-3 companies can agree on, it’s this: despite the nutrient’s success, there’s still room for the category to grow. Why? Because a wide swath of consumers still have suboptimal omega-3 intake levels, making omega-3s “a health-promoting supplement,” says Simon Riise, director of business development at GC Rieber VivoMega (Norway).

Omega-3s are among the most studied nutrients, with a scientific dossier that would make other nutrients green with envy. An array of studies ranging from animal models to randomized controlled trials have demonstrated that omega-3 fatty acids can support human health in areas like inflammation, heart health, cognitive function, eye health, prenatal and fetal development, and more. Furthermore, there’s emerging research on everything from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients to muscle recovery and lung health.

There’s certainly no shortage of reasons for consumers to consider this fatty acid essential. So, why, then the widespread deficiency? Despite all the scientific hoopla, research shows most people are just not consuming enough omega-3 fatty acids to rise to the level of intake sufficiency, let alone make it to the optimal-level end zone.

For example, at OmegaQuant (Sioux Falls, SD), an independent lab offering omega-3 testing services to researchers, clinicians, and the public, founder William S. Harris, PhD, who is also president of the Fatty Acid Research Institute (FARI), is an internationally recognized expert on omega-3 fatty acids. Harris is also one of the co-developers of the Omega-3 Index (O3I), a measure of the amount of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) omega-3 fatty acids present in red blood cell membranes and a test that determines risk factors for heart disease. The O3I has identified 8% or higher as the ideal index goal, placing people with those test results in the lowest-risk zone. Unfortunately, according to OmegaQuant, most people stack up around 6% or lower, with most Americans at 4% or lower, the highest-risk category.

OmegaQuant is not the only organization raising concerns. The American Heart Association says most people in the U.S. don’t include enough omega-3s in their diets.

 And the consumer website of the Global Organization for EPA and DHA Omega-3s (GOED; Salt Lake City, UT), the industry association focused on increasing worldwide consumption of omega-3 EPA and DHA, says 80% of people worldwide, and 95% in the U.S., are not getting enough EPA and DHA omega-3s.

 Why are there shortfalls? One reason, at least in the U.S., could be that although fatty fish is the richest source of EPA and DHA, unfortunately a lot of people are not wild about eating fish.

Enter the rise of vegetarian/vegan, plant-based options for omega-3s, from algae to Ahiflower, seeds (e.g., flax, chia) to nuts (e.g., walnuts, pecans). And for those who think the growing interest from consumers in plant-based options might make fish oil companies squeamish, the opposite appears to be true.

In fact, many well-known fish oil companies are expanding their own omega-3 portfolios to include plant-based options alongside fish oil—algae especially. These companies are encouraged by the possibility of attracting more types of omega-3 consumers.

Harry Rice, GOED’s vice president of regulatory and scientific affairs, says, “There’s no doubt that companies that used to sell only fish oil are branching out to include an algal omega-3 product, but it’s only been in the last few years that many companies have added or plan to add an algal omega-3 product.”

Seeing this trend unfold, a year ago GOED started working on a Codex proposal for new work on a standard for microbial (e.g., algae) omega-3 oils. “At the time,” Rice says, “there were just over 10 GOED stakeholder companies” participating in the algae omega-3 market. Now, there are 25, with some “currently marketing an algal omega-3 oil, while others are exploring the opportunity or are in some stage of development,” he says. All of which would seem to demonstrate an increased interest in plant-based omegas moving at a rapid rate.

Nordic Naturals, one of the industry’s leading omega-3 consumer brands, was founded on fish oil omega-3s but launched its plant-based option, Algae Omega, in 2012. Brian Terry, director of sales for retail at Nordic Naturals, says the company expanded into plant-based omega-3s “in order to meet growing consumer needs for vegan and vegetarian options and Nordic’s commitment to health for people and the plants.” And while “plant-based omega-3s are a smaller, more niche market,” he says, he proudly reports that Nordic’s Algae Omega products are top sellers, ranked as the number-one algae oil in the U.S., according to sources such as ClearCut, Nielsen, and SPINS annual data.

While Terry doesn’t necessarily believe that fish oil companies 

 to offer a plant-based omega product to stay top of mind, he does think that “it is critical for brands to meet consumer needs and to have a portfolio of products to serve consumer needs.”

In what can be seen as a positive move to entice more consumers to the market, Nordic Naturals expanded distribution into Walmart for the first time in the fall of 2022, offering an array of omega-3 options now including both its fish oil and algae supplements, Terry says.

Earlier this year, GC Rieber VivoMega launched VivoMega Algae Oils, its new line of ocean-derived, high-concentration vegan microalgae omega-3.

 It’s not that the company had any concerns about fish oil’s sustainability. (GC Rieber VivoMega already counts sustainability high on its list of corporate values.) Rather, Riise says, the decision to introduce algae-based omega-3s was based on a combination of factors.

“We see it as a strength that there is another source of omega-3s, allowing us to be more flexible and deliver a longer range of products,” he says, as “consumer preferences are changing, with newer generations having different priorities.”

“We see algae and fish go hand in hand as they both offer high-quality omega-3,” he continues. “The most important aspect for us is being able to source the best-quality raw materials that allow us to produce the highest-quality omega-3 concentrates with little to no waste.”

The timing was right for the company to expand into algal oil, he adds, because “the value chain for microalgae has improved significantly over the years. We can leverage our core competence in processing omega-3 oils, and it gives our partners and customers flexibility in their offerings that again will cater to both new and existing customers.”

Not all fish oil companies are planting roots in plant-based omega-3s, though. And there is something to be said for sticking to what you’re best known for.

For example, Thomas Gulbrandsen, global sales and marketing director at omega-3 concentrates supplier Epax (Norway), says, “Epax is vertically integrated through its parent company, Pelagia, which is focused on fish products, so fish will continue to be our main focus.” They’re not making any (fish) bones about that fact, as the Pelagia website says front and center that “It’s all about the fish.”

Could that change one day? Gulbrandsen notes that “we don’t have any plant-based ingredients in our portfolio as things stand, but we’re continuously evaluating the space to identify areas where we could positively impact the category.”

However, Gulbrandsen is gracious in his thoughts about the omega-3 pie being large enough to allow for source diversity. “The overall market for omega-3 continues to grow, and even now most people aren’t consuming enough,” he says. “That shows that the market has a very high ceiling and is certainly big enough to accommodate a diversity of products from both fish and vegetal sources such as algae.”

He understands, moreover, the market’s need to accommodate many consumer tastes, stating that “vegetarians and vegans will probably continue to drive demand for plant-based omega-3.” On the other hand, he points out that “looking at the retail shelves, fish sources continue to hold their stand, maybe due to the wealth of scientific backing behind them.”

The point about where the scientific research is strongest is compelling. The only omega-3 source in plants like flax, chia, walnuts, and soybeans is alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), which Gulbrandsen contends “offers limited health benefits compared to EPA and DHA.” He explains that “the body can convert ALA to EPA and DHA, but the process is inefficient.”

As for algae, Gulbrandsen says that the marine source of omega-3 can also provide high levels of EPA and DHA, but there hasn’t been as much research on algal sources as there has been on fish sources. And, he adds, “consumer awareness levels are much lower” for algal oil than for fish oil. “It seems consumers all over the world recognize fish oil as a proven solution,” he says.

Among the plant-based omegas that are building awareness is Ahiflower. First launched around 2015 by Natures Crops International (NCI; Winston-Salem, NC), Ahiflower is NCI’s branded specialty omega seed oil 

Company founder and CEO Andrew Hebard refers to Ahiflower as the “first true multi-omega, analogous to the multivitamin category” and one that “offers a rich, single-plant source” of omega-3s ALA and stearidonic acid (SDA), omega-6 fatty acid gamma linolenic acid (GLA), and omega-9 fatty acid oleic acid (OA).

Ahiflower was first introduced primarily in supplement form, but the first Ahiflower-containing product launched in the U.S. was actually a chocolate truffle, Hebard says, a product that “was pivotal for leveraging our FDA GRAS review status.” Today, there have been “over 100 brands launching products containing Ahiflower oil in all categories of nutritional supplementation and/or foods/beverages around the world, including animal supplements.” This includes supplement brands like Wiley’s Finest, doTERRA, and even Sports Illustrated Nutrition.

Prenatal supplements and infant formulas are still very heavily focused on DHA, which has been studied for its effects on pre-term birth. With DHA customers in mind, NCI recently developed its Ahiflower + DHA line in an alliance with Algarithm and its DHA oils sourced from algae.

Beyond supplements, Hebard is quite intrigued by the promise of the omega nutritional market, “because this is far broader than the omega supplement market, and it’s where we see plant-based omegas like Ahiflower taking the lead because of their far greater versatility and acceptability in foods and beverages stemming from” what he calls “superior oxidative stability, hence clean sensory appeal.”

While Hebert would ultimately “love for Ahiflower to be the newest darling of the omega nutrition market,” he realizes that goal remains “a distant milestone for us.” However, he shares that “today, Ahiflower occupies a relatively small space, but the science being published is generating significant interest, and Ahiflower is contributing to fill a very large white space of opportunity for improved, complete, and balanced omega nutrition.” That is, Ahiflower is building up its reputation on its own front, not simply being seen or equated only as a direct replacement for or alternative to fish oil, he says.

In fact, ideally “marine and plant-derived omega-3 sources can and should happily coexist,” Hebert says. He doesn’t view that coexistence through a binary lens, either—e.g., fish versus plant, or Ahiflower versus flax. Rather, he says, “We think the solution is to find areas for innovation and collaboration.” Marine and plant omegas “each provide unique benefits and serve different consumer needs. They don’t need to cannibalize each other, and if that’s all they do, we have missed an opportunity and failed the consumer.”

He’s clear about growing the pie for the omega-3 market, stating that “all indications are that the omegea-3 industry must be far larger and more inclusive of terrestrially farmed alternatives like Ahiflower.”

At this point, there’s no beef between fish oil companies and those involved in plant-based options. That’s not only because many of the major players are hedging their bets with their own vegetarian and vegan solutions for customers and consumers. It might also be because there’s no real financial threat to fish oil at this point.

The fact is the fish oil omega-3 market is still going strong. Rice says there’s no evidence to suggest the fish oil market will be cannibalized as more algal omega-3s enter the market. He declares that “as algae-based omega-3 oils get closer to price parity with fish oils, some consumers may convert, but fish oils are here to stay.”

The most recent volume and value stats from GOED support his position. Rice’s colleague, Aldo Bernasconi, PhD, GOED’s vice president of data sciences, shares that in the U.S., in 2022, the value of fish oils in dietary supplements at point of sale was around $1.2 billion, up between 6%-7% from 2021.

By contrast, “In the U.S., as well as globally, the algal oil segment, both in terms of volume and value, at the point of sale for dietary supplements, is still a small part of the overall omega-3 supplement market,” Bernasconi says.

“However,” he adds, “interest in sustainable sources and plant-based nutrition are driving this segment to grow faster than the overall omega-3 supplement market.”

In 2021, the global volume for algae-based omega-3 oil used as an ingredient in dietary supplements was 1,104 metric tons (MT), with a value of $77.2 million, he shares. Algae-based omega-3 oils played a more prominent role both globally and in the U.S. in products like infant formula and food and beverage than in dietary supplements. Bernasconi reports the following global volumes and values for algae-based omega-3 oil for 2021: 2,563 MT volume as an ingredient in infant formula (value: $108.9 million) and 1,360 MT volume as an ingredient in food and beverage applications (value: $78.4 million). And a report from Transparency Market Research estimates that the “fish-free” omega-3 market is estimated to come close to $1.3 billion by 2029.

 Rice indicated that both the fish-based and algal-based markets are growing but that the supply issue will undoubtedly impact the fish oil numbers, at least from a volume perspective.

Rice said, “The reality is that in order to [continue to] increase omega-3 intake globally, we need every possible source.”

Some might argue that the reason we need plant-based omega sources is to ward off overfishing. But fish oil companies have no plans to get caught in that messaging net.

As Rice points out, “Just because you aren’t using fish to produce the oil doesn’t necessarily make the end product more sustainable. Just like with fish oils, a rigorous life-cycle assessment is necessary to determine the environmental impact of manufacturing algal omega-3 oils.”

Furthermore, Rice explains that fish oil producers adhere to strict environmental guidelines and in many cases are using a byproduct of the seafood or aquaculture industry, so it’s important to assess the full scope of production for all omega-3 sources when weighing the options.

Epax’s Gulbrandsen says, “We have an unwavering commitment to sustainability. We first launched our EcoVision policy in 2010, which formalized our commitment to never take fish from unregulated or unsustainable sources. Two years prior to that, we became the first omega-3 ingredient company to secure Friend of the Sea sustainability certification. We’re also certified by MarinTrust, which champions best practices and responsible business conduct in the sourcing and production of marine ingredients.”

Moreover, Gulbrandsen continues, “The regions we source from have been very well managed over a long period of time, but we know there’s no room for complacency.” That’s why, he says, “we recently launched our first annual environment, social, and governance (ESG) report, which sets out 12 goals that will help us further optimize our impacts. One is to achieve 98% circularity for our marine biomaterials this year, with any byproducts refined into other valuable resources such as animal feed, fertilizer, and biogas. We achieved 96.7% circularity for biomaterials in 2022, compared to a global average of 7.2%, but we want to go even further. Like our parent company, Pelagia AS, we’re committed to 100% fish utilization.”

In response to the question about whether algae oil is a more sustainable option than fish oil, Riise responds that “currently there is no binary answer to that question, and there are pros and cons with each source.” He says that compared to fish, algae are still in its early days when it comes to technology development and strain improvement.

We need to keep in mind that the fisheries are well managed and regulated. Riise has an example to support that point. He conveys that “this is best illustrated by VivoMega’s past fishing season in Peru being cancelled due to unfavorable biological conditions. This is a strong signal since Peru is historically one of the main suppliers of fish oil.”

And here’s the meat of the matter, according to Riise: “From our perspective, the most important measure we can take is to continue setting high quality standards when sourcing raw materials, and stay close to our suppliers. Having long-term relationships allows us to understand and drive our sustainability agenda across the industry together with our partners.”

Hebard agrees about the importance of the omega-3 market, even if he’s not in totally set on the long-term sustainability of fish alone as a reliable source for the anticipated growth of the market. As he explains, “The omega-3 market is undoubtedly an essential nutritional component of consumer and animal health and wellness, and it is primarily supported by a supply chain that is becoming increasingly vulnerable, with periods of fragility or turbulence.” He believes that as “total omega-3 demand grows and fish oil supply remains constrained, it’s inevitable that plant and algal sources will take up some of that slack.” He adds that “for brands to meet their consumers’ expectations of performance, availability, and affordability, and to meet untapped demand, I do believe plant-based omegas play and will eventually become the dominant source.”

Hebard expects that “Ahiflower will be part of the plant-based solution.” As such, he says he is honored to work with growers “who are employing regenerative practices in growing our Ahiflower oilseed crops, and, by definition, returning tangible value—nutrients, microorganism and pollinator diversity, carbon capture—to the planet.” Currently, all of NCI’s crops are grown in the UK, but “we have the framework in place to grow Ahiflower in Canada, Europe, and the Southern Hemisphere to meet future demands,” he shares.

Nordic Naturals’ answer about sustainability—and its expectations that the suppliers it works with will help ensure that both fish and algae will be in the market and safe to use for the long run—is simple but to the point.

Terry declares that “Nordic Naturals is committed to sustainably sourcing both fish- and algae-based omegas. The documentation that we collect for algae oil is the same set of documents that we collect for our fish oil. Nordic checks for the GMOs, allergen, pesticide status, and regulations of the ingredients, as well as testing the specification that is provided against the product that arrives to ensure all label claims as it relates to the active dietary components are met and met regularly with each lot that is sourced.”

In other words? Every source is scrutinized equally for merit and performance.

Finally, as all categories need to innovate to stay relevant and keep customers coming back, are algae ingredients keeping up with innovation in comparison to fish oil? According to Rice, “The real innovation is with the delivery methods, but this is not specific to omega-3s.” He’s talking about consumer demand for more user-friendly product delivery options, with gummies being “the first thing that comes to mind.”

On the innovation front, the ConCordix “smart chew” delivery technology “seems to be gaining a lot of traction” in the omega-3 market, Rice says. He notes that while “softgels are still the primary delivery form and the easiest in terms of getting higher amounts of EPA and DHA per dose, chewable gels are able to deliver a higher dosage than a gummy.”

Vitux AS (Oslo, Norway) launched ConCordix over a decade ago but noted in a 2022 article for 

 that penetration in the U.S. market expanded significantly in the last four years. In that article, Marc van Maris, senior vice president of marketing and sales for the U.S. market at Vitux, noted that Amway’s Nutrilite Brainiums DHA Jelly Splat and Guardion’s Viactive Omega Boost Gel Bites are two brands leveraging ConCordix technology for omega-3 supplements.

High concentrates represent another new direction for algae oils. “Given that some algal omega-3 oils are now being concentrated, the innovation in terms of concentration technologies is comparable [to fish oils],” Rice observes.

GC Rieber VivoMega is one of those companies innovating in high-concentrate algae. “VivoMega Algae Oil’s SuperLight proprietary processing technology is designed and developed exclusively for algae oils. Its process utilizes high-end technologies and decades of know-how, allowing for gentle and noninvasive processing,” the company’s press release explains. “Through a specifically designed circular reflux system, the oil has very low exposure to heat, is protected from oxidation, and includes every relevant fatty acid. The SuperLight circular technology results in a product with exceptional quality parameters and optimal resource utilization with zero waste.”

Is the omega-3 market big enough for all types of ingredient sources?

Nutritional Outlook Vol. 26 No. 8

Nutrition bars: Can encouraging positive thinking sell protein bars?

Can probiotics manage metabolism, mood, and body mass?

Finding the Right Partner: Are the lines blurring between contract manufacturing and private label?

The bone health supplements market is large, but stagnant. Here’s how brands can get consumers excited again.

Omega-3 fish and plant sources: Can plant-based omega-3s only grow at fish oil’s expense?

Taking charge: What women want in health, wellness, and supplements

Are regulations for hemp-derived cannabinoids nearing?

Show me the opportunities: How to get the next generation of students to pursue nutrition as a career

Are CBD sales stabilizing?

Analyzing CBD studies: Health concerns, health claims, populations, and more

Prebiotics: Is fiber specificity the key to increasing the consistency of prebiotic benefits?