This month, Vitafoods Insights focuses on bone and health, including market growth, innovations and opportunities.

Tune in to hear more!

 Guests:

·       Monica Gomez, marketing manager at Bioiberica

·       Xavier Berger, global market manager,joint and mobility at Gnosis by Lesaffre

Hyperlink to mentioned resources:

• Grand View Research
• Vitafoods Insights thematic panel discussions
• Vitafoods Insights industry reports

Increasing calls for transparency in the supply chain are driving brands and suppliers into greater collaboration and dialogue around sourcing.

Driven by regulatory requirements, consumer demand, and myriad other influences, companies are seeking ways to optimize how they collect and share information. As part of Vitafoods Insights Virtual Expo Europe, an expert panel discussed the opportunities for the ways companies can optimize the way they collect and share information around sustainability and sourcing. In this podcast version, we share the insights of Juliette Barre, director of enterprise sales at Sourcemap; João Brites, director of growth and innovation at HowGood; Dan McGlynn, senior account executive at TraceGains; and Miranda Murphy, principal consultant at Sedex

Tune in to hear more about: 

• What companies need to do to ensure they can meet regulatory requirements around the globe.
• Understanding the biggest risk in responsible sourcing, and how companies should be managing those risks.
• Exploring the ‘say-do’ gap with consumers, and understanding the right way to communicate about sustainability.
• Questions to ask about tech solutions when making the decision to use those tools to enhance sustainability reporting.

Guests: 

• Juliette Barre, director of enterprise sales, Sourcemap
• João Brites, director of growth and innovation, HowGood
• Dan McGlynn, senior account executive, TraceGains
• Miranda Murphy, principal consultant, Sedex

Click here to listen to our other Sustainability Series podcast episodes

If you like the show, make sure to subscribe and follow the Vitafoods Insights podcast. Feel free also to recommend the show to a friend that you think would enjoy it.

Awareness and education around mental health and holistic wellbeing are raised among consumers across all demographics looking to maintain optimal health. Consumers seek holistic solutions to support their overall health, including their brain, cognitive and mental health. The cognitive health market is booming and expected to witness continued growth, opening commercial opportunities for brands to support consumers with better quality sleep, alleviate anxiety and depression symptoms, and optimise cognitive functions. This month, Vitafoods Insights focuses on cognitive health, including market drivers, trends, and consumers' demands. 

Tune in to hear more about: 

• Cognitive and brain health market growth
• Market drivers
• Consumer's insights 
• Market opportunities 
• + more 

Guests: 

• Zakaria Benmerzouga, Global Product Manager for Nutraceutical Ingredients at Lubrizol
• Maggie McNamara, Marketing Director at Gencor

Featured voices: 

• David Foreman, The Herbal Pharmacist 
• Julia Wiebe, Managing Director at red otc

Hyperlink to mentioned resources: 

• Grand View Research 
• Allied Market Research 
• 2021 - 2022: Industry Reflections & Predictions
• Vitafoods Insights industry reports

If you like the show, make sure to subscribe and follow the Vitafoods Insights podcast. Feel free to recommend the show to a friend you think would enjoy it.

For more content from Vitafoods Insights, make sure to check our website:  https://www.vitafoodsinsights.com    

To learn more about sponsorship opportunities, click here and make sure to check our media kit.

The push for sustainable packaging alternatives to replace plastic counterparts.

Plastic remains the packaging material of choice across the food and nutrition industry thanks to its cost effective, shelf stable, durable and variable associations. However, huge carbon footprints and waste challenges throughout the plastic lifecycle have put pressure on multiple industries to consider packaging alternatives that work toward overcoming the climate and environmental crisis. 

In this Vitafoods Insights podcast, Ulla Hahn of Sanner discusses sustainable packaging for nutraceutical brands and provides a framework of the bioplastic opportunity. Since joining Sanner in 1995, Ulla has worked across quality management, packaging development, innovation management and product management, where she gained a wealth of expertise in desiccant and effervescent packaging development. Since 2017, she has been the head of product management and leads the company’s bio-based packaging development. 

Tune in to hear more about: 

• How food supplement brands currently contribute to the plastic crisis 
• The essential transition needed to sustainable packaging alternatives that protect future environment 
• A definition of bioplastics, composition and the opportunity for finished products 
• Material properties and key considerations around moisture, shelf life and product protection

Understanding the concept and impact of vertical farming.

For this Vitafoods Insights podcast episode, Johnny Stormonth-Darling, Technical Director at UK Urban AgriTech, share insights on:

• What is vertical farming
• The role vertical farming plays in ensuring food safety, food security, food quality 
• Vertical farming’s role in increasing the chances for more potent bioactive ingredients
• How vertical farms help to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Tune in hear about the Vitafoods Insights Virtual Expo 2021’s round-up and key takeaways.

Each day of the Virtual Expo centred around one of four key themes, providing insights and sparking new ideas around Mental Performance, Gut and Immune Health, Sports and Active Nutrition and Healthy Ageing.

Hear more directly from the Vitafoods #Contentteam how the event went!

Understanding how a shift in consumer mindset presents new opportunities to nutraceutical brands, and guidance for EU/UK brands looking to enter this market.

Accelerated through the pandemic, consumers in China are more dedicated to healthy ageing than ever before—including an increasing base of younger consumers proactively addressing prevention. Within the ageing category, inner beauty is a particular area of interest driving new launches in edible beauty products. Additionally, sleep and general anxiety management through dietary supplementation is seeing significant uptake. Tune into this podcast with Zarina Kanji, Tmall Business Development lead for Health & Wellness and Food & Beverage Brands, Alibaba Group Europe, to learn more about:  

• How Chinese consumer attitudes toward ageing have shifted over the past few years, including through the COVID-19 pandemic  
• Defining healthy ageing and positioning the category for wider demographic appeal  
• Examples of UK and Nordic companies seeing success in the Chinese market  
• Key considerations for EU and UK-based nutraceutical brands looking to launch into China 

Exploring how the nutraceutical industry can and must achieve health for both people and planet.

The importance of sustainability is increasingly recognised by the nutraceutical community, and sustainability is on the agenda of consumers, government and nutraceutical brands and manufacturers around the world. But what exactly constitutes a sustainable diet, and how can consumers, brands and ingredients companies find a necessary unity between dietary and planetary health? In a conversation spanning food security, sustainable food systems and corporate responsibility, Vitafoods Insights spoke to founder and director of sustainable food consultancy, Mark Driscoll, about his concept of ‘sustainable nutrition’. 

Tune in to learn about: 

• A definition of ‘sustainable nutrition’
• How to educate consumers on the importance of sustainable diets
• Why collaboration across the supply chain is essential in revolutionising the way we see functional food and nutraceuticals
• Whether the plant-based movement is the solution to both malnutrition and climate change
• Innovation in the nutraceutical industry that is paving the way for more sustainable food systems

As consumers seek more natural health care solutions, companies like Uriach are evaluating their own strategic positioning to best meet market needs.

With its recent acquisition of Sidroga, the 180-year-old firm extended its reach into Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, and entering new product categories including immune support. Uriach’s CEO Oriol Segarra has led the business since 2012, navigating through a time of transformation and the desire to meet consumer demands.

• With greater market consolidation in the pharma space, there has been an opportunity for smaller organisations to take on whitespace opportunities in the natural health care space.
• Consumers continue to seek new solutions for their health care needs, particularly driven by last year’s pandemic, further focusing on preventive solutions.
• What lies ahead? Segarra expects to see the company extend its reach geographically as well as further differentiating the product mix it offers.

As genomics technologies continue to evolve, the need for interpreting consumers’ genetics is increasing. Thus, the role of consumers' genetics in the nutraceutical industry could quickly become more prominent. 

As consumers are learning more about the need for a personalised nutrition approach to achieve optimal health, Rachel Clarkson, specialist dietitian at The DNA Dietitian, joined me to share her passion and knowledge about the nutrigenomics market. 

Tune in to hear more about:

• How personalised nutrition is important for ensuring each person is living at their optimal health 
• Consumers' perspective on wants and needs – what are they looking to achieve by taking a personalised nutrition approach 
• How market demand around personalised nutrition market demand has increased in the past years, months and through COVID-19
• Most common reasons that lead consumers to consider personalised nutrition 
• Things industry players active in the personalised nutrition space should consider when introducing new products and solutions to the market
• Technologies that are helpful in fast-tracking personalised nutrition recommendations and whitespace to be addressed by the industry 
• Insights on how Rachel uses her expertise to support tech companies and practitioners in the space of personalised nutrition 

The very real issues of climate change are putting increased pressure on industries to reduce their environmental footprint and build sustainable business and production models. Within the natural products supply chain, ingredients manufacturing contributes significantly to the overall carbon footprint of finished products that retail at consumer level. With tighter regulations on the horizon and consumers holding brands accountable, companies are starting to seriously evaluate carbon impact across the supply chain. 

In this podcast, Simon Levesque, business development director at Nexira, speaks to the importance of achieving carbon neutral for ingredients manufacturers. Tune in to hear more about: 

• The need to drive more action around carbon footprint reduction plans to meet environmental needs and customer expectations
• Regulators and legislation in coming years that could cause supply chain to reform quicker than anticipated 
• Communicating carbon action to consumers through on-package information
• Nexira’s motivation to achieve carbon neutral goal, and how this achievement reflects not only an environmental effort but also a market advantage opportunity 

Discover fermentation as a platform for the delivery of functional ingredients

Although most people associate fermentation with yogurt and probiotic products, it is important to understand the different application of fermentative processes within food production and application. As fermentation is now being associated with food innovation, Aline de Santa Izabel, Founder at YOGUT ME joined me for this podcast episode to discuss the trendy topic of fermentation as a platform for the delivery of functional ingredients. 

Tune in to hear more about: 

• the role fermentation plays in food or ingredient application
• the drive for fermentation biotechnology applications
• key insights or considerations industry players should keep in mind when exploring the use of fermentation delivery for their products
• the sustainability and opportunities behind fermentation as a platform of delivery of functional ingredients 
• the linking of fermentation and the personalised nutrition markets 
• the roles start-ups play to enable and create new innovative delivery methods for probiotic products
• bonus Linkedin question 

Hanno Cappon, Chief Technology Officer at the H&H group, Harini Venkataraman, Analyst Agrifood & Health at Lux Research and Aline de Santa Izabel, Founder at YOGUT ME will discuss Innovative forms for gut & immune health products delivery in a panel discussion as part of our Vitafoods insights virtual expo this may 11

Examining the growing opportunity for brands in the nootropics space.

‘Nootropics’ is the word on everyone’s lips in the nutraceutical community, but what exactly constitutes nootropics and how can brands capitalise on the growing popularity of this ingredient group? Ahead of his roundtable on COVID-19 and the nootropic opportunity at Vitafoods Insights Virtual Expo, David Tomen, founder of nootropicsexpert.com, shares the history of nootropics as well as current trends and whitespace in this category. 

Tune in to learn about: 

• A definition of nootropics
• How to engage consumers with nootropics and the need for consumer education in the industry  
• What ingredients in particular are performing well in this market
• How brands can stay ahead in this increasingly competitive space
• How COVID-19 has affected the nootropics market and the opportunity that the pandemic gives to brands

For this Vitafoods Insights podcast episode, Maja Oresnik, Science & Research Director at PharmaLinea, joined us to discuss regulatory updates formulators should know about. 

Tune in to hear more about: 

• Regulatory updates from European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) from a formulator's perspective 
• How these regulatory changes affect the nutraceutical industry players and the key barriers the industry should be aware of
• the lack of clarity in this system makes formulating difficult
• What supplements formulators can do to stay on top of these changes 

Guest: Maja Oresnik, who's Science & Research Director at PharmaLinea

If you like the show, make sure to subscribe and follow the Vitafoods Insights podcast. Feel free also to recommend the show to a friend that you think would enjoy it.

For more content from Vitafoods Insights, make sure to check our website:  https://www.vitafoodsinsights.com    

To learn more about sponsorships opportunities, click here and make sure to check our media kit.

Exploring how nutraceutical and functional food brands can take steps to ensure ethical and sustainable practise across the supply chain.

Consumers are increasingly demanding ethical options in the functional food space and transparency in the supply chain of the products they buy. How can brands meet this call for sustainable business?

Tom Smale, co-founder of Wunder Workshop, discusses the importance of consumption with purpose, and shares how his functional food business makes decisions based on a set of ethical and sustainable values to promote a transparent relationship between grower and consumer. 

Tune in to learn about: 

• Why consumers are becoming more interested in ethical consumption
• The challenges and opportunities that come with making sustainable choices as a business
• How to educate consumers about the importance of opting for sustainable offering
• How to ensure that your products are both sustainably sourced and accessible
• The process of becoming a B Corps
• Innovations in sustainable packaging 

Personalised nutrition solutions may suit consumers’ desires to lead a longer, healthier life, addressing their specific concerns and bolstering longevity.

While healthy ageing is a term widely used within the health and wellness industry, for consumers, it’s simply the way they’re looking to optimise their personal experience to stay active and engaged without compromise. Peter Wennstrom, founder of The Healthy Marketing Team (HMT), has explored the topic of healthy ageing for decades, and believes the pandemic is a ‘game changer’ in terms of accelerating interest in supporting lifelong wellness.

• Consumers seek solutions for health challenges; tests and technology, together with education, can raise the profile of personalised options.
• Individual lifestyle choices and health conditions impact consumers’ susceptibility to illness; a new report unpacks how this consumer understanding is aligning with digital acceleration to shape the future of personalised nutrition.
• Incremental growth in online shopping and virtual health care appointments during the pandemic lay the groundwork for long-term expectation of personalised services for wellness.
• Peter; Geoff Mullan, HumanPeople; and Mariette Abrahams, Qina, will address the healthy ageing/personalised nutrition intersection in a panel discussion on 13 May as part of Vitafoods Insights Virtual Expo.

How can nutraceutical and food brands meet the growing consumer demand for sustainable packaging?

Traditional methods of packaging – both in the nutraceutical industry and the CPG space generally – are often not sustainable, and the rise of the plastic pollution problem necessitates change in the packaging materials we use. Reyna Bryan, President of RCD Packaging Innovation, discusses what her company is doing to innovate in this space, reveals the packaging materials of the future and shares more about the challenges and opportunities in sustainable packaging for the nutraceutical industry.

Tune in to learn more about:

• Why sustainable packaging is an issue that the nutraceutical industry should prioritise
• How RCD Packaging are encouraging industry collaboration in order to innovate in this space 
• How brands can drive change in the packaging supply chain
• What questions brands should be asking their suppliers and manufacturers when trying to make their packaging more sustainable

Find out more about RCD Packaging’s ‘Redefining Flexible Films’ Workshop here. If you’re interested to learn more about the latest packaging trends in the nutraceutical industry, register for Vitafoods Insights Virtual Expo where we will be running sessions on EU and APAC packaging.

The top solution to enhance your productivity, yield, and quality.

In this podcast, learn how SeaGel(R) can take your vegetarian soft capsule development and manufacturing to the next level. Sustainably sourced and proven by decades of use in commercial soft capsule products, SeaGel (R) delivers unique and unmatched formulation flexibility, quality and productivity benefits to allow your product to stand out and to address evolving consumer needs. Tune in to:

• Gain some latest data on the plant-based craze – is it here to stay and why is it important for capsules?
• Hear from our experts on how SeaGel(R) enables you to efficiently manufacture superior quality vegetarian softgels, even with very demanding fill materials
• Learn how SeaGel(R) makes thermally stable softgels that don't melt on their way to the consumers and addresses needs for label claims and experience

Extracted from the slimey coating on brown seaweed types, fucoidan is a dietary fibre with multiple applications in nutraceuticals, delivering potential across gut health, immunity, inflammation, and skin care. 

A relatively new ingredient, fucoidan excites researchers and experts with its vast array of health benefits. Paul Garrott, CEO and managing director at Marinova, a Tasmanian biotech company specialising in fucoidan, shares an overview of this unique ingredient and its market potential. 

• Understanding how fucoidan is extracted and processed 
• Exploring known benefits and common applications, including interest in anti-viral and respiratory health properties
• The COVID-19 impact and identifying the greatest future market opportunities 
• Key considerations surrounding responsible sourcing for brand owners

A new standard from the European Committee for Standardisation aims to prevent doping substances in sports nutrition products. 

On 22 February 2021, Specialised Nutrition Europe (SNE) welcomed the first EU-wide standard to address the presence of doping substances in sports nutrition and food supplements—the CEN “Dietary supplements and sports foods free of doping substances" standard. Aurélie Perrichet, Executive Director at SNE, joined us to discuss this new standard and what it means for the nutraceutical industry. Tune in to hear more about: 

• The importance of the new CEN standard to the nutraceutical industry
• What requirements and changes companies based in the EU should pay close attention to in order to keep in compliance with the CEN standard
• How the CEN standard affects the lives of consumers, athletes, and sportspeople
• How the CEN standard differs from others in the global market 

Click here for further information on the process for CEN standard—designed to be revised at least every five years. 

Unique delivery systems and personalised nutrition connections are among the differentiators supporting growth of the healthy ageing segment in APAC.

Partnerships with technology companies and scientific research into new ingredients are also fuelling the growth of solutions for healthy ageing—throughout a lifetime. As Bettina Hudry-Gerez and Florent Eveillard, heads of APAC with Alcimed, detailed in their free position paper, there are myriad unique factors working synergistically to extend the market opportunity.

• Healthy ageing is not just for older consumers, but knowing the drivers for young adults is important to gaining interest.
• On-the-go and tasty options for product delivery are critical to repeat purchase and long-term investment, as a recent report detailed.
• Partnerships between tech platforms and consumer brands will extend the reach of new product offerings.
• Scientific substantiation on ingredients and combination formulas is also important, particularly to message responsibly.

Understanding the impact of COVID-19 on clinical research in the consumer healthcare space.

COVID-19 has accelerated many changes in clinical research, particularly in the consumer healthcare space. While natural health products are increasingly attractive to consumers, the pandemic has caused significant disruptions to the clinical trial enterprise. Felix Alt, Head of Clinical Operations at Analyze and Realize, discusses both the challenges and the opportunities COVID-19 has brought to clinical research and consumer healthcare. Tune in to learn about: 

• Why natural health products are increasingly attractive in COVID-19 times
• How this trend is shaping consumer’s health clinical research
• How Clinical Research Organisations (CROs) are adapting to the pandemic, including patient recruitment and the accelerated role of digitalisation

Discover trends and emerging ingredients to support new digestive health product launches in Asia.

Globally, digestive health is a booming market with strong presence in various geos. Irene Kersbergan, Insights & Innovation manager APAC at Innova Market Insights, discusses the importance of this area—focusing specifically in the Asia-Pacific region. Tune in to hear more about:  

• The importance of the digestive health market in the APAC region  
• Why it’s important to discuss digestive health  
• Trends and developments affecting the digestive health category 
• Emerging ingredients in the gut health industry  

With a significant reliance on natural resources and a robust supply chain, addressing climate change is key to the long-term survival of the nutraceuticals industry. Ahead of his Vitafoods Asia Digital Week presentation, Rushva Parihar, head of sustainability at OmniActive Health Technologies, discusses real implications of climate change for the nutrition supply chain, positive progress made, and ways companies can contribute to what needs to be a collective industry effort. 

Insights on go-to-market strategy, contract manufacturing, sustainability, and Vitafoods 2022 upcoming events, Vitafoods Asia and Vitafoods Insights Virtual Expo Europe.

This May, Vitafoods Insights dove into contract manufacturing and sustainability, highlighting World Environmental Day 2022 and upcoming Vitafoods 2022 events updates.

Tune in to hear more about:

• Common mistakes brand owners make with their contract manufacturers
• Consumer communication and sustainability considerations of contract manufacturers
• World Environmental Day, and the intersection of sustainability, technology and nutritional bioactives from upcycling ingredients to bring benefits to human health
• Updates on Vitafoods Asia 2022 and Vitafoods Insights Virtual Expo Europe 2022

Hyperlink sources:

• Selecting the right manufacturing partner – podcast
• Choosing the right manufacturing, GTM partner – video
• World Environment Day
• Brightseed using AI to tap nature's 'dark matter' — podcast
• Vitafoods Asia 2022
• Vitafoods Insights Virtual Expo Europe 2022 
• Vitafoods Speaker Portal - proposal submissions 

Featured voices:

• Cory Carter, CEO of the Carter Regulatory group
• Luca Bucchini, Managing Director at Hylobates Consulting
• Dr Volker Schehlmann, General Manager at analyze & realize
• Kurt Schneider, Founder of Food + Nutrition Contract Manufacturing Consulting
• Sofia Elizondo, Co-founder and COO at Brightseed

If you like the show, make sure to subscribe and follow the Vitafoods Insights podcast. Feel free also to recommend the show to a friend that you think would enjoy it.

For more content from Vitafoods Insights, make sure to check our website:  https://www.vitafoodsinsights.com    

To learn more about sponsorships opportunities, click here and make sure to check our media kit.

Commissioned research surveying 1000 consumers in the US and UK reveals that younger consumers continue to indicate interest in products with sustainability credentials. As Generation Z increasingly contribute as independent buyers, brands and retailers worldwide are shifting their strategy to meet further demands for plant-based and vegan food and beverage products. Richard Clarke, managing director at Ingredient Communications, discusses the survey findings, mainstream acceleration of vegan and plant-based, and what key highlights mean for product developers.

Continuous pandemic developments continue to shift priorities and therefore demands of consumers. While health and wellness brands are trying their hardest to adjust their business models and products to meet consumer need, developing a strategy for long-term success is as important as tackling the ‘here and now.’ In this podcast, Gillian Fish, founder of the 6AM Agency shares guidelines and tips for brands looking to adopt smart market positioning, stay close to consumers and customers, and maximise visibility in saturated markets.

With the launch of the Healthy Height protein shake to APAC, Liron Fendell, CEO of Nutritional Growth Solutions, reflects on the company’s journey, formulation and quality considerations, and research grounding.

As personalised health company Atlas Biomed expands into Japan, its CEO shares his perspective on the consumer and market drivers, and the technology facilitating industry growth.

The ongoing pandemic continues to shift the health concerns of consumers—from building immunity, to supporting active performance and weight management. As priorities and consumer behaviour changes, new opportunities become available to manufacturers and brand owners. In this podcast, Charlotte Bastiaanse of Vitafoods talks to Richard Day, head of medical affairs, health & wellness at ADM about: 

• Prominent trends and health concern developments 
• Epidemiological science relating to risk concerns if COVID-19 is contracted
• Defining metabolic health and unpacking market opportunities 
• The link between metabolic health and COVID-19, and connecting back to gut health

Consumers are making increasingly informed decisions about the products they buy, whether in store on online, with technology supporting their process. From a retail perspective, this affords both challenges to cut through the noise and opportunities to offer more targeted, personalised solutions that provide value at point of purchase. What could the world of big data and artificial intelligence offer in terms of potential paths forward? In this Vitafoods Insights podcast, Marcus Stripf, founder of Spoonguru (spoon.guru), offers a look into the development of an AI-powered food search and discovery tool, and the ways that data is informing the future of health and nutrition at retail.

In this podcast, Stripf and Informa’s Heather Granato discuss:

·      Consumers’ interest in proactive solutions that enable them to make healthier food choices, and the technologies that support that.

·      The ways in which AI and big data connect, each informing more precise solutions and future product offerings.

·      Technology’s ability to support consumer health while also building retail loyalty.

Over the years, global stress levels have been tracking upward—only to be heightened through the coronavirus pandemic, which continues to affect people’s lifestyles and livelihoods nearly one year later. Once a common issue to younger and working populations, children and especially seniors are experiencing new waves of stress. 

In this podcast, Charlotte Bastiaanse, associate editor at Vitafoods, talks to Rachel Yarcony, founder and co-CEO of MyAir, a company specializing in plant-based bars developed for stress relief about the global trend of accelerated stress. Driven by data and artificial intelligence, we unpack the concept of MyAir, and how consumers can benefit from personalised and tailored bars to reduce stress through food.

In this Ashwagandha Advantage podcast episode, we talk with Ali MacDonald, founder of U.K.-based Resilient Nutrition, about the journey to building a performance optimization brand based on research and integrity. MacDonald shares how he addresses challenges in the sports nutrition category by carefully vetting ingredient suppliers; focusing on purity, quality and efficacy; and meeting the needs of today’s consumers who are looking for clean performance optimization products. 

“Being customers of the performance nutrition space for a long time, there were characteristics that we weren’t comfortable with. As founders, we make things that address the challenges we are aware of.” –Ali MadDonald, founder, Resilient Nutrition 

This August, Vitafoods announced its partnership with the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and the SUN Business Network (SBN) to support improved nutrition. GAIN was launched by the United Nations in 2002 with a goal to tackle human suffering caused by malnutrition, especially the most vulnerable and distressed population groups. The SBN is a private sector focused initiative and branch of the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement, a multi-stakeholder movement to address malnutrition worldwide.

In this podcast, Fraser Grice, content producer at Vitafoods, chats to Laurène Aubert, senior associate for global partnerships at SUN Business Network about: 

• The relationship between the SUN Business Network and GAIN to address global malnutrition and building impactful networks
• The roles of public and private sector across the full food value chain and the need for both to work together closely, especially with regards to policy and regulation
• The value for companies to offer technical support to vulnerable populations, whilst simultaneously gaining market knowledge and entry intelligence 
• Recent partnership examples targeting issues such as obesity and malnutrition 
• Malnutrition in the workplace and the opportunity for employers to impact the lives of working adults in both low and high income countries

More and more consumers are looking for dairy alternatives and the offers in on the supermarket shelfs and becoming increasingly varied. In this competitive space, new products need to stand out with additional health benefits to get noticed and claim their market share. 

In this podcast, Marion Schumacher speaks with Nicolas Hartmann, Founder of VlyFoods, a pea milk drink, about his start-up journey and potential growth in the dairy alternative space. Tune in to hear more about:

• What makes a product stand out in the alternative dairy space
• Steps to take and challenges to be aware of as part of a start-up journey
• Supply chain security and product quality in the pea product pace

At the intersection of sustainability, technology, and nutritional bioactives, Brightseed is exploring new ingredients to benefit human health.

Sustainability, technology, bioactives, targeted health issues—all of these areas are seeing incremental growth in interest from industry and consumers, and they are increasingly interconnected. Brightseed sits at this intersection—founded to address the world’s health challenges with a focus on the natural world, using artificial intelligence via its Forager platform to identify new bioactive compounds and commercialize them for human health application. Most recently, it announced a $63 million Series B funding round, complementing its extension from tech into supply—commercializing one of its own discoveries. In this Vitafoods Insights podcast, Sofia Elizondo, co-founder and COO, offered insights into the company’s journey and its emphasis on the power of the plant kingdom.

Tune in to hear more about:

• New ways that artificial intelligence is powering exploration based on research.
• The sustainability equation including opportunities for upcycling from current ingredients.
• Synergy between industry partnerships and ingredient commercialization strategies.
• Opportunities to increase diversity in the C-suite and its impact on business.

Guest: Sofia Elizondo, co-founder and COO, Brightseed

If you like the show, make sure to subscribe and follow the Vitafoods Insights podcast. Feel free also to recommend the show to a friend that you think would enjoy it.

For more content from Vitafoods Insights, make sure to check our website:  https://www.vitafoodsinsights.com    

To learn more about sponsorships opportunities, click here and make sure to check our media kit.

Across the health and wellness space, entrepreneurs have for years had innovative concepts to solve challenges facing today’s consumers. Nutritional ingredients, great tasting foods, unique topical formulations—the possibilities are endless and have supported incremental growth of the industry. However, there are also important considerations, as smaller enterprises seek access to the capital that will allow them to grow, while larger firms keep an eye out for concepts that may boost their own innovation pipeline.

For more than 20 years, Nutrition Capital Network (NCN) has played a role in bringing investors together with cutting-edge firms. Across the globe, NCN events foster dialogue over years that can ultimately lead to huge value for firms and consumers alike. In this Vitafoods Insights podcast, Robert Miller, CEO of Phynova, reflects on his company’s journey from its early stage in pharma development based on investigating medicinal plants to its broader focus on natural functional ingredients for the consumer healthcare and food space, and the concurrent journey for funding, which yielded a collaboration investment and investment from DSM, an NCN Cornerstone Investor.

Brands must spend the time to choose the right partner to help them go-to-market; assessing capabilities of a manufacturer is only part of the process.

Food supplement brands are looking to deliver the best possible product to consumers—one with a solid formulation, grounding in science, and efficacious delivery of nutrients. One of the key considerations to doing this is connecting with the right go-to-market partner, and selecting a contract manufacturer means assessing myriad considerations. Everything from capabilities and run sizes, to regulatory compliance and certifications should be on the table. How to navigate selecting and managing manufacturing partners can make the difference between market success and failure.

To offer context on the process, Cory Carter, CEO of Carter Regulatory Group, joined the Vitafoods Insights podcast. Cory has been advising companies on different matters regarding contract manufacturing, with a focus on regulatory compliance, for 20 years, and dove into these issues and more.

Tune in to hear more about:

• Common mistakes brands make when selecting a contract manufacturing partner.
• Why it is critical to have a contract and quality agreement in place with your partner.
• The role of on-site audits and options for working with companies in different geos.
• Ways to assess the capabilities and fit of different manufacturers.

Guest: Cory Carter, CEO, Carter Regulatory Group

If you like the show, make sure to subscribe and follow the Vitafoods Insights podcast. Feel free also to recommend the show to a friend that you think would enjoy it.

For more content from Vitafoods Insights, make sure to check our website:  https://www.vitafoodsinsights.com    

To learn more about sponsorships opportunities, click here and make sure to check our media kit.