PLT to showcase active nutrition, energy and mood-enhancing ingredients at IFT

10 Jun 2024 --- After being away for a few years, PLT Health Solutions is making a comeback at this year’s IFT First Conference, US, 14-17 July, with a range of functional ingredients for beverages that cater to the active nutrition, energy, stress and mood management segments.

PLT recently launched water-soluble and dispersible ingredients — Zynamite S for mental energy, water-dispersible RipFactor for muscle strength and endurance and a water-soluble version of its adaptogen, Rhodiolife Rhodiola rosea. The company notes that these botanical complexes require considerable R&D to meet beverage industry standards.

“For a variety of reasons, beverages present a range of challenges when it comes to consumer sensory and experience. This is especially true when it comes to plant-based and botanical ingredients,” says Steve Fink, vice president of marketing for PLT Health Solutions.

“In approaching this development work, we’ve focused on things beverage producers want — uniform particle size and density, good water dispersibility or solubility, neutral taste and color and stability.”

Functional beverages
According to Fink, consumers are increasingly turning to more convenient delivery systems, so the company has conducted a campaign to create or modify its ingredients to make them formulation-friendly in new delivery systems. 

“At the same time, our beverage-friendly ingredients maintain features that every product developer wants. They are fast-acting to the point of being experiential, they are low dose and maybe most importantly, they are backed by quality clinical science,” says Fink.

The company describes the new beverage-friendly products as “disruptive science-backed” ingredients. PLT Health Solutions markets more than a dozen water-dispersible and water-soluble solutions, primarily botanical ingredients. 

In the energy category, PLT offers stimulant and non-stimulant energy ingredients, such as zumXR, targeted-release caffeine and Zynamite S. In the active nutrition category, there’s the grape seed extract for enhanced blood flow and endurance MegaNatural-BP, RipFactor muscle accelerator for improved muscle strength and the Slendacor weight management complex for endurance.

PLT will showcase Rhodiolife Rhodiola rosea for white-hot stress/mood and cognitive health and Zembrin Sceletium tortuosum, featuring clinical studies demonstrating reduced stress and enhanced mood less than two hours after consumption.

Earlier this year, PLT Health Solutions expanded its intellectual property with a new Slendacor weight management complex patent. The patent is based on recent clinical research showing how Slendacor’s thermogenic properties promote weight loss and body shaping. 

Consumers want innovative benefits
According to Fink, PLT will engage the IFT First’s audience with ingredients that can help form the basis for innovative beverages.

“When it comes to functional beverages, ubiquitous ingredients like protein, vitamins and minerals are a great starting point, but today’s consumers are looking for more impactful and innovative health benefits. They want more functionality in their functional beverages,” Fink says. 

“The clinical science behind these PLT ingredients and the front-of-pack messaging they can support will help consumer products companies create a great deal of excitement in the market.”

Meanwhile, PLT Health Solutions was granted a license from the Natural and Non-Prescription Health Products Directorate of Health Canada for its Nutricog Cognitive Performance Complex. A clinical trial showed that the patented ingredient facilitates significant improvements compared to placebo across multiple cognitive domains, including learning, memory, sustained attention, working memory and executive function.

By Inga de Jong