How the right ingredient can help you win in the market

Developing successful health and wellness products – whether they are supplements, shakes, beverages or powders – is more difficult than it has ever been. The natural products industry is booming worldwide and drawing more companies, more investment and more innovation than at any point in history. All of these factors mean increased competition and a greater need to stand out from the crowd.

Inspired formulating is certainly one of the ways that we can stand out. But what about the building blocks of those formulations? The ingredients that we base our innovation on. What types of features of our ingredients should we be on the lookout for that can help us achieve our goals?

What should we expect from our ingredients today?

The wish list for ingredients is long and growing. Not every ingredient is going to check all the boxes, but we can balance the elements of the list to inform our choices. Your criteria might be different depending on the mission of your business and your product development goals. Here is an example of such a wish list. Let’s review a few of these.

Novelty and innovation are always important. People respond positively to the ‘new’, and it offers us the opportunity for compelling messaging – as long as we tell them why the innovation is important. Which is where step change comes in. First adopters are eager to try something new. Others are not. Does the new ingredient perform better enough than what was available before to encourage people to take the leap to a new idea? In the last year, PLT Health Solutions has launched Nutricog^® Cognitive Performance Complex into the cognitive space and Serezin™ Restorative Sleep + Pain Relief into the sleep category. Nutricog is a clinically backed botanical complex demonstrated to provide support across a broad range of cognitive domains. Companies can use Nutricog to develop targeted products for memory, learning, attention and focus. Or, they can use it to make general products for cognitive performance or brain health. Serezin is a new approach to helping people sleep. Rather than make them drowsy, it addresses the issue of nighttime aches and pains that prevent us from getting good sleep. Clinical data shows that it helps us achieve what’s known as ‘restorative sleep’, giving us the experience of a good night’s rest.

Another trend for ingredients is that they be both low dose and fast-acting. The experience of easy, rapid results draws people to our products and encourages them to keep using them. Clinical studies show that with a 100 mg/day dose, AprèsFlex 5-Day Joint Support starts improving joint comfort in just five days. This is compared to traditional joint support ingredients that recommend one- to two-gram doses and promise results over months. Similarly, our Slendacor^® Weight Management Complex has been clinically demonstrated to provide significant weight loss results starting at 14 days and calorie burning on day one. This type of efficacy gives encouragement to our customers.

Clinical studies power innovation

At PLT we’ve found that solid clinical science is the main driver of ingredients into the marketplace – and today, we have the most robust clinical science pipeline in the history of our company. Here are some recent highlights on both new and established ingredients

AprèsFlex^® 5-Day Joint Support – A 6-monthy study showed long-term and continuing benefits. It also demonstrated joint space improvement and cartilage preservation and protection. Science-backed cartilage health is a major innovation with this ingredient.

Slendacor^® Weight Management Complex – A clinical trial demonstrated increased resting metabolic rate, thermogenic effects and calorie burning in addition to metabolic health benefits. The ingredient was recently granted a patent based on this new clinical data.

Nutricog^® Cognitive Performance Complex – A 2023 study demonstrated multiple aspects of cognitive performance including faster learning, improved attention, better memory, and reduced distractibility.

Serezin™ Restorative Sleep + Pain Relief has been clinically proven to improve sleep across a wide range of measures, helping people get to sleep faster and easier, improve their quality sleep and helping them wake easier, more alert, and in a better mood. The improved restorative sleep offered by Serezin has also been shown to decrease pain during the day.

Let’s talk about what makes a great ingredient

Ultimately, a great ingredient is one that helps you meet your goals for developing products that capture the imagination and the loyalty of consumers. At this year’s VItafoods Europe, we invite you to visit with us to see how we can work together.