Kappa Bioscience at SupplySide West: Vitamin K2 ingredients for delivery format innovation

17 Oct 2022 --- Ahead of SupplySide West Las Vegas, US (Oct 31 - Nov 4), NutritionInsight speaks to Thies Ripcke, director in business development for North America at Kappa Bioscience.

Delving into the company’s vitamin K2 MK-7 ingredients: K2VITAL and K2VITAL DELTA – the company’s main showcase at the show – Ripcke explains that the vitamin K2 market is witnessing similar trends to those seen across the wider nutraceutical sector.

“These include rising consumer demands for newer and more convenient delivery formats to increase pressure on brands to deliver on sustainability goals with more environmentally-friendly manufacturing processes that preserve energy and water, while reducing raw material waste,” explains Ripcke.

Vitamin K2 and climate awareness
Kappa Bioscience has developed vitamin K2 formulations for new formats to support manufacturers seeking to meet increased demand for innovation in delivery formats. Ripcke identifies such formats as chewing gum, smart chews, gummy bears and powder sticks.

“More specifically, for vitamin K2, we are seeing an increasing demand for quality, consistent bioavailability and sourcing transparency. In a recent market review project, we tested various commercially available products containing vitamin K2. We found that as many as 90% did not meet the standards for their label claims,” he notes.

According to Ripcke, pre-pandemic more women than men took supplements while now it has been evened out.“When it comes to transparency, this has always been a priority for us, and Kappa Bioscience is now a climate-positive workforce. We also work with a partner called Ecologi, which plants trees for every kilogram of K2VITAL we sell.”

“To give our partners peace of mind and quality assurance, we recently launched a new quality seal, the all-trans logo, which highlights to consumers that the product only includes K2VITAL, thereby helping brands to meet the consumer demand for transparency. Solutions like this could help to block opportunistic free-riders from entering the market in the future.”

Nutrition sphere affected
The COVID-19 pandemic has reportedly increased consumer interest and demand for dietary supplements.

Ripcke says there has also been a breakdown of traditional age and gender barriers, as significantly more women than men took dietary supplements in the past, but this now appears to have balanced out.

The company also highlights the hundreds of scientific studies conducted to explore the effects of various active ingredients on human immunity since the pandemic began.

“We initiated several studies investigating the link between severe COVID-19 disease and deficiency in either vitamins D and K2,” Ripcke states.

“These studies found a clear association between Dp-ucMGP (the protein used to determine Vitamin K status) and IL-6 levels, potentially pointing to a correlation between vitamin K deficiency and the severity of COVID-19 infection. Now, another study is already underway to examine the effect of a vitamin D and K2 supplementation on long COVID symptoms.”

He adds that the supplements industry is still largely unregulated in regards to transparency.

“It can also be difficult for brands to conduct appropriate product tests or establish best practices for raw material selection and ensuring long-term bioavailability. With vitamin K2, for example, bioavailability can be determined by whether it takes the MK-7 form and by its isomeric purity – these features also make it all-trans,” Ripcke concludes.

By Beatrice Wihlander