Vitaquest, a supplement contract manufacturer, announced the opening of a probiotics manufacturing suite located in its Parsippany, New Jersey, site. The company stated that scaling up its operations was needed to meet the growing customer demand for probiotics and to anticipate continued market growth.
The new facility features two blending rooms and four encapsulation rooms, boosting Vitaquest’s probiotic manufacturing capacity by 100%.
The company cited research suggesting that nearly one-third of supplement users have taken a probiotic in the last 12 months to highlight the scale of demand for such products.
In addition to the capacity increase, the investment allows the company to formulate with additional probiotic strains, gives it the capability to develop new product formats and personalised wellness solutions, and to ensure that production quality exceeds global standards.
When asked about the necessity of exceeding global standards, Terry Coyle, chief innovation officer at Vitaquest, told NutraIngredients that being a member of the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) allows the company access to ongoing regulatory and policy insights that will affect the dietary supplement marketplace.
“We receive timely analysis and context on US regulatory trends, enabling us to anticipate changes, assess potential impacts, and plan for future innovation and compliance, not just for products that will be manufactured in the new Probiotics Suite, but across the board at Vitaquest,” Coyle said.
Integrating functional ingredients
A key way for brands to compete in the crowded probiotics marketplace is to deliver a product that contains multiple functional ingredients.
With the new facility operating alongside integrated upstream granulation and drying, Coyle stated that the contract manufacturer can condition raw materials before live cultures are introduced, protecting probiotic viability and combining strains within one quality system.
“The key isn’t just adding ingredients, it’s stabilising them together,” he said. “The upstream capability allows formulation intent to survive manufacturing, which is essential when you move into these more sophisticated, multi-benefit categories.”
This allows probiotic developers to target benefits beyond digestion and immunity, Coyle said, including cognitive and mood health; metabolic and weight management; women’s health and hormone support; active nutrition and recovery; and comprehensive synbiotic systems.
These categories rely on pairing targeted strains of probiotics alongside specific, functional ingredients, such as probiotics alongside nootropics or stress-support ingredients for cognitive benefits, he added.
In 2023, Vitaquest acquired the powder processing site based in Paterson, New Jersey, which allows the company to carry out the upstream granulation and drying that is part of this process. Specifically, Vitaquest noted that pre-treatment of challenging raw materials allows it to improve flow, reduce moisture, and standardise particle size before probiotic incorporation.
