Advice from NI Award champion: Join the competition to master the market
Speaking about their ‘beauty from within ingredient of the year’ win last year, Silvia Castegnaro, product manager at Synbalance, says simply joining the competition and discovering who else was taking part was an excellent way to gain insights into the market.
“In my opinion, any company with a solid product should take part in this competition. Winning is definitely good, but joining the race and knowing with who you are dealing with, personally it is the best way to better understand the market and the players.”
Discussing how the win impacted the team and the business as a whole, Castegnaro says: “It was like daydreaming, but once awoke, we realized that get this award among thousands of applications it’s the tangible proof that our commitment has been recognized and appreciated from the most important audience.
“Several customers reached us thanks to this victory and, even though we have won in Europe, we have observed a global impact.”
She says the application process was a time of “deep reflection”, since it required the team to summarise “years and years of efforts”, including in-vitro assays, clinical trials, and to also discuss the ways in which their product offers “the X-factor” to the market.
The awarded ingredient from SynBalance is 'ProBeautyShield', a probiotic complex composed by L. plantarum PBS067, L. rhamnosus LRH020 and L. reuteri PBS072, designed to promote skin health through the gut-skin axis.
The ingredient was chosen thanks to its great commercial potential, its focus on long-term solutions, and its scientific backing.
“Globally, around 10% of the population is affected by skin discomforts which may also touch the psychological sphere,” Castegnaro asserts. “ProBeautyShield can genuine support it, guaranteeing visible results after only 28 days and overtime. ProBeautyShield acts on skin distresses thanks to the long-term action interacting with different immunity players and providing an initial reaction in the gut which is echoed on the skin.”
She adds that seeing a probiotic product triumph within a beauty-from-within category exemplifies the thinking of both the scientific community and the final consumers.
“Finally, the importance of the microbiome world is taking its stage and we, as a company of science-backed probiotic ingredient, can’t be more proud,” she adds.
Looking forward, Castegnaro says the team is carrying out other clinical trials using the ProBeautyShield ingredient, exploring other skin targets apart from acne and atopic dermatitis as well as other target populations in further countries.
“We know that our life habits and where we live strongly influenced our gut microbiota, so our goal is to collect data and demonstrate ProBeautyShield activity all around the target population and the world.”
The NutraIngredients Awards are back this year with new categories but the same commitment to honour the best and brightest in ingredients, finished products, companies, people, and initiatives in food supplements and functional food & beverage.
The closing date for entries is Monday 23rd January, 2023 at 11:55pm CET, Paris. ENTER NOW for your chance to join the race.
