The plant-based, chewable jelly tablet format also significantly improves the bioavailability of nutrients, according to the company’s research, offering improved stability and efficiency.
The new LifeChews format is positioned to tackle some of the biggest challenges for supplement brands when it comes to gummy formulation, according to Janine Barlow, head of R&D at Sirio Europe.
“Traditional gummies typically incorporate oils into a water-based matrix, which can result in separation, instability and inconsistent dosing,” she told NutraIngredients. “LifeChews, by contrast, use a structured jelly system in which lipid droplets are finely and evenly pre-dispersed throughout the formulation. This ensures uniformity from the outset, enabling consistent delivery of active ingredients in every dose.
“This approach also allows for significantly higher loading of lipid-based actives—up to around 55%—while maintaining stability and a high-quality chewable texture. As a result, LifeChews make it possible to deliver levels of oily actives that are difficult to achieve with conventional gummies.”
Appealing to consumer desires for taste and efficacy
Consumer demand for food-like formats is on the rise, with data from Informa’s 2025 Supplement Business report suggesting that gummies now account for 25% of the market, holding the largest share of non-pill formats.
While capsules, tablets and other pill-like formats still hold the largest market share overall, gummies are beginning to compete for the top spot.
“Pills continue to dominate the dietary supplement market, holding over a third of market share,” said Bill Giebler, content and insights director at New Hope Network, a division of Informa Markets. “However, their dominance has declined significant in recent years, as food-like formats have surged ahead.”
Giebler suggested that younger consumers appear to be leading this trend, with food like-like pleasure and convenience driving appeal.
Efficacy is also important to consumers, according to a 2025 consumer supplement survey by the Industry Transparency Center, which reported that sensory appeal and performance now lead decisions about supplement purchases globally, with 43% of consumers calling for greater efficacy and up to 45% citing pleasant taste as a key format driver.
Barlow said Sirio’s new LifeChews format is designed as enjoyable and effective to appeal to both of these consumer pain points.
“LifeChews build on the familiarity and appeal of gummies while unlocking access to more advanced formulations,” she said. “For consumers, this means being able to take higher-impact, lipid-based ingredients—such as omega-3s—in a format that is still enjoyable and easy to incorporate into daily routines.
“Rather than replacing gummies, LifeChews expand what chewable supplements can offer. They enable meaningful dosages of more complex ingredients, bridging the gap between efficacy and experience in a way that traditional formats cannot.”
Boosting bioavailability
LifeChews are suitable for a range of oil-soluble ingredients, including omega-3 oils, certain vitamins, CoQ10 and carotenoids like lutein and astaxanthin. The format enables brands to deliver a significant dose of active ingredients in a single chew (up to 400 mg of primrose oil or 200 mg or CoQ10, for example).
Research conducted by Sirio also shows that this novel format boosts the bioavailability of certain nutrients. In one study, the format achieved a 161% higher blood plasma DHA concentration versus a control, representing a 198% improvement in bioavailability.
This is achieved through a patented emulsion-based delivery system in which lipophilic ingredients are pre-dispersed into fine, uniform oil droplets (around 5 μm in size), which helps optimize how they are processed in the body.
“This level of dispersion increases the surface area available to digestive enzymes, such as lipases, enabling more efficient breakdown and helping maintain the ingredients in a form that is readily absorbed in the gastrointestinal tract,” Barlow explained.
Additional digestion studies under simulated gastric and intestinal conditions have also demonstrated even distribution of DHA throughout digestion, highlighting the format’s stability and efficiency.
