The Creatine+ range has been developed in response to significant consumer demand, with Nourished seeing a sharp increase in requests for creatine-based products over the past six months.
Melissa Snover, CEO of Nourished, says this increased interest can be partially attributed to emerging research which suggests creatine may play a role in supporting cognition.
“Creatine has been around a really long time, but there has very much been a focus of weight training, body building and this type of use case,” she told NutraIngredients. “But actually, the most exciting research that’s coming out is around cognitive function […] and what that’s done is open up the creatine market from a specific cohort […] to really being very mass market.”
Responding to demand while ensuring product quality
The rising demand for creatine has driven significant growth in the supplement industry, boosting sales, product innovation and market competition.
Some suppliers are even experiencing shortages. For example, Alzchem, the leading supplier of branded creatine monohydrate in the West, has had to temporarily turn down or delay new business opportunities while it constructs a new production facility.
Alzchem reports that in the past two years, demand has tripled, primarily due to new trends beyond sports nutrition, including women’s health, longevity and cognitive function.
Cognitive function is one of the most rapidly growing areas, with a recent review finding that creatine may have positive effects on memory, attention time and processing speed. However, the European Food and Safety Authority (EFSA) recently rejected a health claim that creatine can support cognitive function after concluding that a cause-and-effect relationship could not be established.
The rejection, and supplier shortages, do not appear to have affected the market, however. There has been a surge in new product development this year, with formats moving beyond powders towards more innovative delivery methods, including creatine chews, RTDs, stick packs and gummies.
However, the gummy format in particular has faced increasing scrutiny, with testing by natural product manufacturer NOW finding that half of the gummies it tested did not meet dosage claims. Another round of testing conducted by fitness influencer James Smith revealed that just four of the nine brands tested contained adequate levels of creatine.
The problem arises when creatine comes into contact with water, acid or heat. When combined, creatine can rapidly degrade into creatinine, a useless by-product.
Manufacturers therefore have to find the right supporting ingredients and processing parameters to ensure the creatine molecule stays in tact throughout the manufacturing process. Snover said Nourished has achieved this through its patented encapsulation technology.
“Creatine has always been very tricky for gummy formats, because when you expose creatine to a free water environment, you have accelerated degradation of the creatine molecule, meaning that over a very short space of time, the amount of usable creatine monohydrate will go down,” she said.
“Because we have a cool gel and this super cool patented material science technology for encapsulation, that has meant we have been able to incorporate 1 g of creatine per gummy. We’ve been able to test that over 24 months accelerated stability and we’ve been able to prove that the creatine molecule has not degraded and has been maintained.”
Each of the products in Nourished’s Creatine+ range have been third-party tested by Eurofins, a world leader in food, environment and pharma product testing.
Making supplementation simple
The new range is designed to support multiple use cases, with Creatine Energy in tart cherry flavor featuring natural caffeine from green coffee and a B vitamin complex to boost performance and metabolism, and Creatine Mind in green apple flavor including citicoline and B vitamins to support focus, memory and mental clarity.
The blood orange and yuzu-flavored Creatine Strength contains added vitamin D3 and K2 as well as HydroCurc curcumin for enhanced absorption. An additional product in the range containing creatine and electrolytes will be launched in the coming months.
Each formulation is sugar-free and designed to make supplementation simpler, consistent and more enjoyable for consumers who may be put off by powders, shakes or complex supplement regimens.
“Our goal was to create a range that supports our customers and reflects how people actually live today,” Snover said. “By combining clinically recognized creatine dosing with targeted functional ingredients in our patented gummy format, we’ve created products that make supplementation simpler, more enjoyable and more accessible for everyday consumers.”
