Since the ingredient’s debut in 2024, the New York-based company has scaled to more than 10 million servings per run and now works with over half a dozen partners developing products featuring effera, Laura Katz, CEO of Helaina, told NutraIngredients during SupplySide Global 2025.
These include collaborations with formulator Joey Savage and PricePlow on novel functional confectionery formats such as a GLP-1 support cake pop and a protein-based chocolate ball aimed at longevity-focused consumers.
The company has also moved into targeted women’s health formulations. With Freemen Nutra, Helaina co-developed a clean-label chocolate supplement for postmenopausal consumers, designed to support cognitive clarity and calcium absorption.
Katz said the company’s rapid scale-up required intensive regulatory groundwork to support commercial readiness.
“For regulatory, for us we have really written a playbook here because we have interrogated this protein from every possible angle to ensure absolute safety in any possible way,” she said.
Women’s health remains a central R&D priority
As category interest grows around menstrual, prenatal, perimenopausal and menopausal nutrition, Helaina is deepening its research focus on the distinct needs of women across life stages.
“There’s two areas that need so much innovation, and that’s around prenatal nutrition and perimenopause,” Katz said. She added that “perimenopause is so many years of a women’s life, and our nutritional needs evolve,” noting that more rigorous investigation is needed to guide product development.
“There has to be more clinical research to really understand first, what are women going through, what do the hormonal changes mean for our nutritional needs, and then the industry needs to listen to that and run their own studies,” she said. Katz added that Helaina aims to build its own research capabilities “to run our own studies in different stages of a women’s life to be specific in a moment of time.”
Positioning bioidentical lactoferrin for broader industry adoption
Helaina continues to frame bioidentical lactoferrin as a tool for ingredient personalization and efficacy, supported by its precision fermentation platform and ongoing collaboration with formulators exploring new delivery formats.
The company expects growing interest from brands seeking clinically supported bioactives that align with consumer expectations for clean label, functional and sensory-friendly products.
Watch the video for the full interview.
