We don’t see the pre-workout sector going in the right direction post-DMAA: Chromadex CEO

In a provocative interview with NutraIngredients-USA at the recent SupplySide West show, Frank Jaksch told us that he does not see the pre-workout sector going in the right direction, post-DMAA, with his company tracking at least four or five examples “new alkaloids that may be more dangerous”​.

“We see it going in the opposite direction of what you’d expect. Because of DMAA and what happened with DMAA we expected people to move in a different direction but we see the opposite. ​

“We’re being approached by all kinds of suspect alkaloids that are the replacement DMAA.”​

Industry support?​

“The companies that create these types of products cannot exist in a vacuum,” ​said Jaksch. “They have support. Although I know everyone likes to hold them up as, quote, the handful of bad actors that are not representative of the market, well, that may be true, but what’s also true is that they have some very large companies that are upstanding participants in this market that are supporting these guys by manufacturing product for them, and in some other cases actually financing them during their growth.”​

“The industry as a whole, although it likes to condemn these companies as not representative, in a lot of cases there is a wide degree of support that is provided to these types of companies. And some of that support even through their ability to buy membership into trade associations.”​

So how to break the chain? “That’s the key question,”​ said Jaksch. “The problem is that if these companies continue to get support because of economics, and people are drawn to the dollars. People have to stop making products for these companies. It’s never going to stop unless these companies participating in this market stop working with these guys.”​