Ashwagandha is swiftly emerging as a key ingredient in the booming functional food and beverage space. And best-selling ashwagandha root extract KSM-66 is leading the field due to its superior quality and versatility.
Sponsored by KSM-66: Ashwagandha
Flourishing interest in health and wellness is driving consumers across Europe and beyond to place stronger emphasis on improving their diet. Concurrently, convenience remains key for many individuals – and this mindset extends to how enhanced nutrition is delivered.
With ‘pill fatigue’ on the rise, consumers are seeking more opportune ways to incorporate better nutrition into their often-hectic daily lives. The resultant high level of innovation around the ever-expanding ‘functional’ food and beverage space has led to notable growth in the demand for natural additives that can be incorporated into products to deliver to the consumer an array of health benefits in a convenient format.
Possessing a legion of health-boosting, adaptogenic properties, alongside equally multifaceted application potential, ashwagandha is an ingredient whose star is shining particularly brightly in the functional F&B space right now. A flagship of Ayurveda (the traditional system of medicine from India), ashwagandha has been used for centuries, yet a flurry of recent clinical studies has turbo-charged today’s consumer interest in the botanical, by shining a spotlight on the root’s myriad positive psychological and physiological impacts on human health.
At the forefront of such research is India-headquartered ashwagandha expert Ixoreal Biomed and its brand KSM-66 – the highest concentration full-spectrum ashwagandha root extract on the market today. Amongst its health and wellness benefits, this leading brand has been clinically proven in human studies to: help reduce stress, anxiety, cortisol levels, and stress-related food cravings; enhance memory and cognition; increase endurance, strength, muscle size, and muscle recovery rate; and improve sexual function in both men and women. Moreover, KSM-66’s many compelling attributes – chiefly its neutral taste, its stability, and its clinical superiority – make this star performer in the ashwagandha space also the top choice for functional food and beverage formulators today.
The world’s leading branded, full-spectrum, 100% organic ashwagandha root extract is backed by an unrivalled rollcall of clinical studies and trials that speak to KSM-66’s purity and efficacy. But beyond its impressive science-backed credentials, it is KSM-66’s sheer versatility, stability, and functionality that have elevated this best-selling ashwagandha root extract as the go-to for functional F&B manufacturers.
The organic root extract is already used in more than 2,000 products worldwide, including an array of beverages (coffee, juice, smoothie mixes, sparkling water, black water, non-alcoholic cocktails, kombucha, tea); snacks (bars, chocolate, popcorn, strips, bites, chewing gum, soft chews); spreads (butter, honey, spread); other food formats (gummies, mouth spray, liquid sachets, lozenges, elixirs, stick packs), and even burgers.
One key reason for KSM-66’s extraordinary versatility across segments is its neutral taste profile. This positions the branded ingredient favourably in comparison with other ashwagandha extracts, which are invariably very bitter on the palate. At the heart of KSM-66’s neutral taste profile lies a unique, clean production method – an extraction process that requires no alcohol or chemical solvents. In contrast, the hydro-alcoholic extraction process favoured by most other market players results in an extract that is bitter and requires additives to mask the taste when used in food and beverage products.
The brand’s adherence to ‘green chemistry’ principles is likewise significant in setting KSM-66 apart from the crowd in terms of efficacy: the hydro-alcoholic extraction process favoured by the vast majority of other producers leads to the loss of certain components of the raw root, with the resultant material proving less beneficial than a full-spectrum extract like KSM-66.
Clearly, one crucial aspect for the successful incorporation of functional additives in the case of many food and beverage applications is heat stability. For KSM-66, this has been the subject of an extensive number of studies over the years. Indeed, the manufacturing process itself involves heating to temperatures of around 100 degrees Celsius, with no deterioration of bioactives detected.
Another important KSM-66 attribute with respect to F&B applications is its impressive solubility, with brand owner Ixoreal Biomed having launched a highly soluble grade that is well suited for inclusion in ready-to-drink beverages.
Finally, when it comes to ingredients, the reassurance of quality clearly goes a long way for F&B manufacturers – and KSM-66 Ashwagandha boasts more quality accreditations and certifications than any other brand globally.
Backed by such impressive credentials, KSM-66 Ashwagandha continues to expand functional potential across all manner of F&B categories. And certainly, Texas-based company Good Seed Burger is doing its bit in terms of opening out the use cases for KSM-66, having incorporated the leading root extract into its Curried Sweet Potato hempseed burger. The firm’s founder, Oliver Ponse, observes growing interest in ashwagandha across a spectrum of products categories. “Outside of people looking for clean ingredient decks, they’re looking for superfoods,” he advised, “So, [with] that added value of an adaptogen, basically we’re raising the bar. Compared to a veggie burger filled with soy, corn, and wheat, we have added value with superfoods – nutrient-dense foods and adaptogens like ashwagandha,” he said.
Another interesting functional food innovation is Allysian’s ‘Sinless™ Finest Dark Chocolate’ bar – touted by its Canadian manufacturer as “the most unique chocolate in the world”. The chocolate is carefully crafted through the fusion of raw cacao with Allysian’s proprietary ‘Mastermind Matrix’ blend, which includes KSM-66 Ashwagandha (alongside other high-grade botanicals) and is marketed as “a delicious way to enhance overall brain and whole-body health”.
Another unusual KSM-66 Ashwagandha functional food incorporation is the ‘Activated Superfood Popcorn’ produced by San Francisco-based Living Intentions. The company declares its organic, non-GMO, gluten-free and clean-label Tandoori Turmeric flavoured snack – featuring “the added goodness of ashwagandha” – as “a paradigm shift in popcorn”.
Indeed, in the last few years in particular, the door has been blown wide open in terms of ashwagandha incorporation in food and beverage products. “It’s hit almost a conventional space, where people who are taking vitamins or supplements understand it, or they’re getting to know it,” remarked Good Seed’s Oliver Ponse.
And KSM-66’s high profile within the segment has likewise undoubtedly served F&B manufacturers well from a marketing perspective, in terms of enabling them to confidently gain a foothold in this flourishing space.
Beyond formulation- and marketing-related considerations, increasingly there is also the sustainability question for F&B manufacturers to address.
More than ever, supply chain integrity is on the radar of consumers as they trawl the supermarket shelves for health-and-wellness-enhancing options. And in that respect too, KSM-66 undoubtedly ticks all the boxes.
Crucially, all ashwagandha roots utilised in the making of KSM-66 are sourced from Ixoreal Biomed’s own organic and sustainable farms, with this high level of vertical integration serving to support the guarantee of quality, potency, and provenance – for functional food and beverage brands, and the end-consumer alike.
