Bone, Joint Specialist Waitaki Biosciences Ventures into New Health Areas at Vitafoods Europe 2016

Photo © iStockphoto.com/David Marchal

New Zealand–based ingredients supplier Waitaki Biosciences (Christchurch) highlighted three new ingredients at May’s Vitafoods Europe trade show. The new ingredients expand the company’s focus beyond its core specialty of bone/joint health and inflammation.

The three new ingredients, all sourced from New Zealand, are Lipernex, an omega-3 and phospholipid-rich green shell mussel oil; ActiPhen, a freeze-dried kiwifruit powder for digestive health; and CassiPure, an anthocyanin-rich blackcurrant extract for eye health, brain health, and immune support.

“Waitaki’s product range has traditionally been in the area of bone and joint health and inflammation,” said company CEO Craig McIntosh in a press release. “The addition of these new ingredients widens the net where our products have application, providing our customers with a more complete range of healthcare solutions.”

The new ingredients were made possible in part due to the company’s “ambitious expansion project to increase capacity and develop new extraction technologies,” the press release says. For instance, the company recently installed a 1-ton freeze dryer providing an additional annual capacity of 200 metric tons of freeze-dried material. Waitaki says it is also currently building a custom-designed solvent extraction facility that “creates an entirely new business for the company, adding high-value marine and botanical extracts to its traditional product portfolio of dried meat and marine products.”

The firm says the new ingredients benefit from New Zealand’s strict non-GMO policies and clean and environmentally sustainable growing practices. Also significantly, it claims, the ingredients benefit from “the seasonal hole in the ozone layer” which enables “higher than normal levels of protective phytonutrients.”

Jennifer Grebow
Editor-in-Chief
Nutritional Outlook magazine
jennifer.grebow@ubm.com