Last week’s big news included Alkemist Labs’ list of 20 herb and fungi ingredients that require extra scrutiny, NZ’s BLIS celebrating 25 years of pioneering oral probiotic and updates on magnesium ingredients in the EU.
Herbs and fungi watch list
California-based Alkemist Labs released its 2025 “Herbs & Fungi We’re Watching” list, which features 20 ingredients that the lab says requires extra scrutiny.
While the list was previously only available on a limited basis, Petra Erlandsen, vice president of sales at Alkemist Labs, told NutraIngredients that the positive feedback from clients inspired the lab to offer this information to the broader industry and highlight some of the tools available to support ingredient and product quality.
“This list, along with other resources such as the Botanical Adulterants Prevention Program (BAPP) bulletins and laboratory guidance documents, can be critical tools for the market to stay vigilant against adulteration and other quality issues,” she said.
She added that the list is representative of the products Alkemist’s manufacturer clients are testing before they put them into their products, as well as some finished products.
While the usual suspects like ashwagandha, lion’s mane, rhodiola and saw palmetto made the list, one repeat offender was missing: elderberry.
“Elderberry was our most consistently failed herb for the first couple of years we did this tracking, but it fell off the list at the end of 2024,” Erlandsen said.
BLIS Technologies on 25 years of pioneering oral microbiome science
New Zealand’s BLIS technologies is celebrating its 25 years of pioneering work with oral probiotics. Having built its success on two ingredients, the company is now exploring a “large freezer full of oral bacteria waiting for their time in the sun”, Dr. John Hale, the company’s chief technology officer, told NI.
Professor Emeritus John Tagg, founder of BLIS Technologies, identified an opportunity in the oral cavity to use bacterial agonists to prevent the growth of other infection-causing bacteria and so began mining the microbes from the mouths of local children for potential beneficial bacteria that could be probiotics.
The key to the beneficial bacteria (and also the company’s name) are antimicrobial substances called Bacteriocin-Like- Inhibitory Substances, or BLIS, that are produced by bacteria. The first and best BLIS-producing oral probiotic (Streptococcus salivarius K12), was isolated from an individual who did not seem to get a lot of sore throats. This was followed by BLIS M18 for teeth and gum health.
The company has branched out beyond the oral cavity, launching a skin probiotic in 2021 called BLIS Q24 (Micrococcus luteus strain BLIS Q24), but Dr. Hale said the company will continue to be pioneers of oral probiotics.
“John Tagg has collected 35 years’ worth of strains from people’s mouths, so we have a large, large freezer full of oral bacteria waiting for their time in the sun,” he added.
Success and failure: Magnesium ingredients in the EU
Magnesium Orotate Dihydrate has failed to secure EU novel food approval, as Magnesium L-threonate clears its final regulatory hurdle to enter the European supplement market.
Published on July 23, the European Commission updated Annex II to Directive 2002/46/EC in the Food Supplements Directive, listing the vitamin and mineral substances that may be used in the manufacture of food supplements to include Magnesium L-threonate.
This is the final step in market authorization after the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) gave a positive safety assessment, and it gained novel food approval in October 2024. North American distributor Magtein secured exclusive rights to sell the compound in the EU market for five years.
The proposed conditions of use limit magnesium intake from this source to a maximum of 250 mg per day, for adults only and explicitly excluding pregnant and lactating women.
EFSA also said Magnesium Orotate Dihydrate is not approved for use in food supplements in Europe under proposed conditions of use.
The scientific opinion concluded the safety of the ingredient (considered a novel food because it was not widely consumed in the EU before May 1997) cannot be established under the intended use—at levels delivering up to 400 mg of magnesium and approximately 5,000 mg of orotic acid per day.
