Photo Gallery: 7 developments in functional ingredients

7 developments in functional ingredients

Jan. 30, 2012 8:29pm

Supplement delivery format innovations

30 million people have issues with swallowing pills—among them children and the elderly. Can you say "opportunity"?
Choice and transparency

Healthy beverage company Silk confronted supply-chain issues with organic soy and decided to go non-organic. Instead they put codes on soymilk boxes that consumers could use to go to the web and find the exact farm where the soybeans were grown—all from American farmers. Different price points for different products has led to greater fortunes.
King Caffeine and his upstart court

The enhancing effects of caffeine enjoy more evidence than many prescription and OTC drugs. However, the quest for uniqueness invariably demands risk taking—the introduction of other chemicals and plant extracts with stimulant effects but a paucity of safety and efficacy evidence. What actually makes caffeine work better, or works just like caffeine?
Sustainability

Consumers want their consumables to be pure, simple and natural—including the ingredients that go into them.
Fish oil optimization

It used to take 30 kg of crude fish oil to yield 1 kg of EPA concentrate, but recent work like using the waste stream from salmon farms has cut the crude oil amount in half.
Liposomes

Phospholipids are being used as carriers to radically improve the absorption of nutrients like vitamin C, krill, glutathione and botanicals.
BioLumix desktop microbiology testing machine

In-house assays, no microbiologist needed. Simplified testing tech monitors samples, customizes reports, makes your company more efficient at detecting yeast, molds, E. coli, salmonella and more.