Botanicals

A Higher Nature astaxanthin-based product...set to receive marketing support from its supplier AstaReal

British campaign takes astaxanthin to the people

By Shane Starling

Swedish-Japanese astaxanthin specialist AstaReal is working with its UK brand partners to push awareness of the carotenoid’s skin health benefits – even in the absence of approved health claims.

Why did 52% of the electorate of the UK vote to leave the European Union?  © iStock.com / lenscap67

All you need to know about Britain's Brussels blow

A dummies' guide to Brexit

By Annie-Rose Harrison-Dunn from a southern European expat bunker

Confused about all this talk about Brexit in that far-away rainy country of crumpets and Beatles? Not quite sure who Nigel Farage is? (Lucky you.) Well we’re here to guide you through it. Disclaimer: I am British and voted Remain.

©iStock

Chat with a chief

Frutarom firming nutrition form after 4 years

By Shane STARLING

In 2012 Frutarom appointed a new chief of its health and nutrition division, with the Swiss-Israeli flavours and ingredients house making no secret of its ambition to expand its supplements and functional foods footprint.

The head of the Commission's DG SANTE food legislation unit outlines three possible solutions to the EU's botanical woes. © iStock.com / JPC-PROD

The botanical blockade: EC ponders 3 pathways

By Annie-Rose Harrison-Dunn from Brussels

The European Commission has mused three different solutions to the botanical extracts situation that has seen about 2000 claims stuck on hold. Yet real movement will not be seen in the immediate future, a DG SANTE head has said.  

Can bone and joint support be cool enough for sports nutrition?

Special Edition: Bone & Joint Health

Can bone and joint support be cool enough for sports nutrition?

By Adi Menayang

Athletes and active people in general tend to put more wear and tear on their bones and joints. But unlike protein or energy, bone & joint supplements aren’t as easy to market as a sport nutrition product.

‘Science on polyphenols has come a long way’ ©iStock

SPECIAL EDITION: ANTIOXIDANTS, POLYPHENOLS & CAROTENOIDS

Juice maker shares polyphenols venture experience

By Shane Starling

Massachusetts-based Juice maker Welch’s entered the global ingredients business in 2014 with its polyphenol-loaded Concord grape offerings. We fly at the speed of words inside the grape with global ingredients VP Wayne D Lutomski.

'My personal view is that, unless it is clearly explained as a property of the food, it is a health claim or a reference to general well-being, which needs to be accompanied by an authorised health claim.' © iStock.com

SPECIAL EDITION: ANTIOXIDANTS, POLYPHENOLS & CAROTENOIDS

Why antioxidant claims have been killed off in the EU

By Annie Harrison-Dunn

European regulatory restraints have killed off antioxidant health claims as lawyers advise firms to play it safe despite leniency in some EU member states. We round up the legal status of the term, and the impact this has had on the market.

The €1.62m-project PUReOPE wants to make polyphenols from brewing, distilling, malting and cereals sector waste common place. © iStock.com / mrdoomits

Special Edition: Antioxidants, polyphenols & carotenoids

Pint of polyphenols? Culture shift needed to find value in brewery waste

By Annie Harrison-Dunn

The EU has offered up big money for a project to get high value polyphenol compounds from brewing industry waste. Yet the leader of the project says a business culture shift is also needed to take the practice mainstream.

The power of antioxidants in lowering the risk of chronic inflammatory diseases such as asthma, and Crohn's disease has been well documented. © iStock.com / Daniela Andreea Spyropoulos

Special Edition: Antioxidants, polyphenols and carotenoids

Inflamed & stressed: Rejuvenating antioxidants in big demand

By Will Chu

Healthy ageing and the insights garnered from micronutrient studies could help drive demand for products that reduce inflammation and ease oxidative stress on the body, according to industry experts.

 Supplement start-up looks to offer a 'modern yet natural solution for a world in which healthy fasting has become more difficult'. © iStock.com / alexkich

Not so fast: First fasting supplement takes cautious approach to claims

By Lynda Searby

Start-up Nowrish has launched the first fasting supplement - a mix of vitamins, minerals and herbs formulated to support the body’s cleansing, immune, digestive and energy production systems during periods of fasting like Ramadan, but without making any...

Parliament concerns over energy drinks come to a head as MEPs vote to veto caffeine health claims. © iStock.com / KatarzynaBialasiewicz

MEPs vote to veto 4 caffeine health claims

By Annie Harrison-Dunn

The European Parliament’s Environment and Public Health Committee (ENVI) has adopted a last-minute motion that could see four controversial caffeine claims vetoed in a move the energy drink sector warns could result in yet more years of "legal uncertainty”.

Boswellia: 'There needs to be a focus on the quality of the extracts...But I believe the industry can clean itself up.' ©iStock

'When the price is low you should be suspicious.'

Action needed to curb boswellia adulteration: QC analyst

By Shane Starling from Paris

Boswellia serrata adulteration remains a major problem in the EU and elsewhere and responsible players need to do more to identify fraudulent material and actors, an expert has said.

Flop: Network marketing company Forever Living Products has suspended a seller's account after the ASA cracked down on unauthorised health claims made on her Facebook group. © iStock.com / dolphfyn

ASA puts maca claims to bed following Facebook fallout

By Annie Harrison-Dunn

The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has warned a Facebook user not to repost claims that a Multi-Maca supplement could up sperm count for men and enhance fertility for women.

The global energy drink sector is set for robust growth but could regulations and health concerns chill expansion? ©iStock

Sector to grow 40% by 2020

The world’s unquenchable thirst for energy drinks

By Shane STARLING

Global sales of energy drinks hit €38.2 billion last year and will be worth €53.4bn in 2020 according to Euromonitor International, even as regulatory winds blow ill beneath the sector's wings. 

Basil Mathioudakis is promoting EU food legislation around the world after retiring from DG SANTE leadership last year. © iStock.com

Public figure profile: Basil Mathioudakis

'EU food regulation is world's best': EC veteran on life after DG SANTE

By Annie Harrison-Dunn

After retiring last February as head of the European Commission’s DG SANTE food legislation unit, Basil Mathioudakis is spreading the world globally about the merits of the EU’s food and nutrition regulation as a consultant to industry and governments.

'The supplements are periodised during the season and then we provide combinations to meet particular needs - eg illness, injury.' ©iStock

Leicester City signs sports supplements deal

By Shane STARLING

Welsh firm Pro Athlete Supplementation (PAS) has signed a deal that makes it the exclusive sports supplements supplier to reigning English Premier League (EPL) champions Leicester City Football Club.

Image © iStockPhoto / Elenathewise

Ginger linked to healthier hearts: Study

By Stephen Daniells

Daily consumption of ginger may reduce the risk of many chronic conditions, including high blood pressure and coronary heart disease, says a new paper from Chinese researchers.

Can health claims save a trust crisis? Not really, says consultant. But how consumer-centric is your business? ©iStock

Busted trust? What we didn’t see at Vitafoods Europe 2016

By Peter Wennström

Yesterday the Healthy Marketing Team (HMT) outlined impressive innovation at Vitafoods Europe in Geneva. Here HMT founder & expert consultant Peter Wennström outlines what was missing from Europe’s biggest healthy ingredients, supplements and functional...

Image: Informa

What we saw at Vitafoods Europe 2016

By Hannah Heath

The Healthy Marketing Team (HMT) were impressed – mostly – by what they saw at the 20th year of Vitafoods Europe in Geneva last month from probiotics to novel powders to category creak and a gummy explosion, says the firm's Hannah Heath.

'...this can be a first line therapy to women with impaired glucose control during pregnancy.' ©iStock

Preloaded: Medical macro-nutrients show diabetic benefits

By Lynda Searby

The first clinical study testing medical nutrition therapy as a treatment for gestational diabetes has yielded positive results for Swedish biotech firm Indevex, demonstrating that its patented ‘Preload’ macro-nutrient blend is effective in controlling...

Superfruit, summer fruit and tropical: the Bella Berry line-up

Bella Berry beauty drink on finding the right retailers and investors

By Rachel Arthur

Beauty drink Bella Berry launched in the UK last year with a mission to bring beauty drinks to a mass market. One of the key lessons for the brand has been to learn who the right retailers for the drink are, as it continues to build listings both in the...

'One thing foods do well that supplements don’t do well is that they tell a largestory. [Foods] engage the consumer in the story of the brand,' says BrandHive co-founder. © iStock.com / Kwangmoozaa

Dispatches from Vitafoods Europe 2016

How to make supplement packaging sexier

By Annie Harrison-Dunn

Supplement players need to make their packaging sexier if they are to bat off competition from encroaching healthy food and drink products, says marketing expert.

IRI: Cocnut milk sales up 67% in the UK. ©iStock

Consumers crazy about coconut, but are they nuts?

By Lynda Searby

Whilst sales data from market intelligence provider IRI shows that UK consumers can’t get enough of coconut products, a leading dietician brands coconut “an expensive con with no authorised health claims”.

'Our ambition was to offer a very sympathetic message to consumers,' says company following second ASA run-in. iStock.com / Melpomenem

Omega Pharma: 'We weren’t clear enough'

The dangers of normalising a medical taboo

By Annie Harrison-Dunn

Food supplements are often presented as a 'softer' alternative to health than pharmaceutical treatments. Yet Omega Pharma experienced first-hand the dangers of trying to normalise a medical taboo when its advertisement for a night time urination botanical...

Symrise-Diana Food has paid an undisclosed sum for Nutra Canada

Cranberry players unite

By Shane Starling

Botanicals firm Diana Food has bought a Canadian start-up to expand its technology and footprint in cranberry and other fruits and pursue novel health domains.

The California-based energy drink giant has been locked in an appeals process for its EU trademark since 2013.

'Green Beans M Java Monster' canned

You’ve got fax: Monster mashed in EU trademark battle

By Annie Harrison-Dunn

Monster Energy Company has lost a trademark battle with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) for the wording ‘Green Beans’ following a three year argument over a lost fax.

Nutraveris ups game with nutrient-research-health claim online database (© Nutraveris)

DISPATCHES FROM VITAFOODS Europe 2016

Nutraveris showcases its online reference platform at Vitafoods

By Will Chu

French consultancy Nutraveris was at Vitafoods to make available the latest version of its nutrient-health claim database that will better enable clients to source claims and nutrition research materials.

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