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Choosing the right iron ingredient for your supplement formulation is not as simple as it sounds. Balchem explains how to choose the right solution to deliver optimum absorbability and tolerability.
September 30, 2024
Iron is an incredibly important mineral, essential for several biological functions. However, many of us do not get enough of it. Iron deficiency is extremely common and often leads to anaemia, which affects up to 1 in 4 people worldwide.¹ Women are particularly vulnerable, and even more so during pregnancy where the prevalence is 36% globally.²
Iron supplementation is therefore becoming more important, but choosing the right iron ingredient is not as simple as you might think. Traditional iron supplements containing iron salts, such as ferrous sulfate or ferrous fumarate, fall short when it comes to absorption and tolerability.
So, where should you start? Balchem’s Oliver Riemann, Senior Marketing and Business Development Manager, Albion® Minerals, explains why formulators should innovate with science-backed iron ingredients that ensure consumers get the full macro-benefits from this micronutrient.
Before we dive in, it’s important to understand why iron is so important for us. Iron is essential for the transportation of oxygen around the body, so deficiency can have serious, detrimental effects in multiple areas including energy metabolism, immune health and cognitive function. This means that having insufficient iron prevents us from unleashing our full physical and cognitive potential, to become the best version of ourselves. But the human body doesn’t produce iron itself, so supplementation is key.
Even if we consume the recommended amount of iron, or other minerals, we may not be getting the most out of them. So called ‘anti-nutrients’ in our diets, such as phytates, can bind to minerals – including iron – in inorganic salt forms, inhibiting absorption and reducing bioavailability. Phytates are prevalent in nuts, seeds and legumes, components particularly common in plant-based diets. This means that when developing supplement formulations, protecting minerals from ‘anti-nutrients’ to enhance absorption is key.
At Balchem Human Nutrition and Health, our Albion® Minerals products shield against ‘anti-nutrients’ through chelation. This process binds minerals to the amino acid glycine, protecting them from the external environment and limiting interference from ‘anti-nutrients’. In fact, our Ferrous Bisglycinate, a chelated form of iron, demonstrates significantly greater bioavailability, with up to five times greater absorption, compared to conventional iron forms.³
Another challenge when developing iron supplements is that traditional iron salts may cause gastrointestinal discomfort, potentially reducing compliance. Ferrous Bisglycinate, however, allows efficient and digestive-friendly uptake akin to absorbing minerals through proteins in our diet. This means it has far greater tolerability compared to traditional iron salts, with a 64% reduction in adverse gastrointestinal events seen in pregnant women.⁴
Albion Minerals’ Ferrochel is the most studied brand of Ferrous Bisglycinate on the market. Ferrochel carries our TRAACS® co-brand, which marks exceptional chelates that are extensively validated by Albion, the brand with the longest history of analytical data, ensuring unique accuracy. We continue to drive innovation in this space, through collaborations with industry experts and universities.
Albion Minerals’ Ferrochel is the ideal source of Ferrous Bisglycinate to guard against iron deficiency. Together with our wider portfolio of chelated minerals, including Magnesium Bisglycinate, Calcium Bisglycinate and Zinc Bisglycinate, we provide a powerful portfolio backed by over 160 publications, with decades of science and clinical research. All of this means we can support brands in creating products with enhanced bioavailability and high tolerability that help consumers reach their full potential.
References
GBD 2021 Anaemia Collaborators, Prevalence, years lived with disability, and trends in anaemia burden by severity and cause, 1990–2021: findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021. The Lancet Hematology, (2023).
Stevens et al., National, regional, and global estimates of anaemia by severity in women and children for 2000-19: a pooled analysis of population-representative data. The Lancet Global Health, (2022)
Bovell-Benjamin AC, et al., Iron absorption from ferrous bisglycinate and ferric trisglycinate in whole maize is regulated by iron status, Am J Clin Nutr, (2000).
Fischer et al., The effects of oral ferrous bisglycinate supplementation on hemoglobin and ferritin concentrations in adults and children: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Nutr Rev., (2023).
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