Sirio bets on longevity with science-backed ingredients in fun formats

Amid a trend for healthy aging, Sirio built a longevity platform for daily habits that it introduced at Vitafoods Europe 2026. Nutrition Insight meets up with the company to discuss its take on longevity — science-backed ingredients in fun formats for daily adherence that are marketed responsibly.

“We’re really just getting started,” Maria Pavlidou, head of Marketing at Sirio Europe, tells us. “It’s fascinating what is going on with longevity in different fields.”

“We will continue with our research. We’ve invested in our Sirio Institute of Aging, our team is dedicated to healthy aging, and there is much more we can do in that space.”

The Aeion platform follows the framework from the Sirio Institute of Aging, with eight concepts in geroprotection (preventive health for a younger demographic) and gerotherapy (helping to manage symptoms). These cover health areas like cellular and mitochondrial energy, joint health and mobility, metabolic health, and intestinal health.

Dr. YouYou Zhao, chief scientific officer, says the institute enabled the team to combine clinical science from professors, material science with Sirio’s partners, and its own expertise in applications and engineering to create the Aeion platform.

Although Sirio observed a growing interest in longevity for many years, she says it has taken the company some time to create concepts that answer key questions on scientific evidence, traceability of materials, and finding the right applications.

At Vitafoods Europe 2026, Maria Pavlidou told us how the Aeion longevity platform helps build healthy habits.First, the contract development and manufacturing organization aimed to determine what is truly evidence-based. “It’s not just science or best wishes,” says Zhao. “People talk about mitochondria and cellular systems, but how do these link to final endpoint evidence in terms of clinical data?”

“The second thing is traceability. There are many raw materials and cutting-edge sciences, but how can we trace whether these things remain stable throughout the whole manufacturing process? What is the shelf life? How stable are they all the way through the supply chain?”

The final task to solve was applicability, says Zhao. “We want to offer something to customers and consumer brands that is not super expensive and inaccessible.”

What is longevity?

Longevity and aging are often misunderstood, professor Richard Siow tells us. He is the director of Ageing Research at King’s College London, UK. He says that aging is often seen as getting to a certain number, while longevity is understood as extending the lifespan.

However, he calls for a life-course approach to healthy aging, which does not only target older people with longevity solutions. “We need to start thinking about aging from the beginning of life.”

“You’ve probably heard the term health span. When does longevity start? When do we need to think about aging? From day one — from conception,” he underscores. “For example, if you’re born to a mother with diabetes during pregnancy, that already increases your rate of aging and your risk of age-related diseases before birth.”

Moreover, Siow notes that age-related conditions are informed by genetics as well. He also highlights the role of epigenetic programming, where environmental factors like diet and stress alter gene expression, without changing DNA.

Siow calls for a life-course approach to healthy aging, where consumers start thinking about aging from the beginning of life.He adds that healthy aging is not “one-size-fits-all,” and is more than taking one supplement throughout someone’s whole life. Products and evidence for lifestyle interventions need to be context-specific for different age groups and genders.

“The body changes through puberty, early years and growth, pregnancy, and menopause. Different regions also have different habits; what may work in China may not work in Southern Europe.”

Measuring effectiveness

To determine whether interventions can help expand the health span, Siow highlights the importance of biomarkers to measure a person’s biological age. Whether a product makes a difference is crucial for consumers to keep taking a product.

“We’re working on biomarkers that are easy and cheap, for example, so consumers don’t have to go to a clinic to have liters of blood drained.”

He points to saliva and urine as examples of consumer biomarkers that can be measured easily and cheaply, for example, with a lateral flow device like COVID-19 tests or a urine stick.

“What can we measure? For example, saliva samples can pick up epigenetics, maybe not as accurately, but it gives you a picture of whether something over a week or a month made a difference.”

Product development process

Janine Barlow, head of R&D at Sirio Europe, details the company’s product development process. This starts with market research to determine where the market is heading and what the company aims to target. Next, Sirio determines effective ingredients for these targets through scientific research.

“Then we determine if we need to consider how to deliver these ingredients effectively into the body,” she adds. “It’s not a long-term pharmaceutical development process, but it’s with that mindset so our customers can bring market-leading, efficacious products to the market.”

Moreover, she says that while the longevity formulations each cover a specific health area, some include ingredients that provide more than one benefit. “For example, our metabolic health product contains ADM’s BPL1 postbiotic, with evidence around weight management, cardiovascular protection, and lowering blood glucose levels.”

The Aeion platform includes eight product concepts in geroprotection and gerotherapy, such as cellular energy and mobility.“When we’re choosing a health benefit area, we need to consider what’s the best format for a consumer to take this,” Barlow details. “It’s important to consider the dosage format in the early stage of that development process, which would also help drive efficacy for the product as well.”

For example, one of the dosage formats in the Aeion platform is a LifeChew, a pectin-based jelly tablet. Barlow says this format has been shown to improve the bioavailability of docosahexaenoic acid compared to some other formats.

Fun formats for daily habits

Alex Dens, sales director, highlights that Sirio approaches longevity in a multi-layered way, designing a “system of habits” with the eight product concepts in the Aeion platform that offers customers a range of options in dosage formats and health benefits.

“More importantly, we need to provide options so the end consumer can integrate these products into daily habits.”

Dens underscores the importance of building those rituals, because longevity solutions will not work if consumers only take them for a few months or years. “We’re really talking about a lifelong approach.”

“That means we need to put formulations into formats that fit naturally into people’s lifestyles. We’re talking about the supplementation of healthy aging as part of a general healthy lifestyle, meaning we need convenient formats, targeted to consumers,” he details. “For example, some on-the-go formats, some that can be taken without water, and for morning or evening use.”

While traditional tablets and hard capsules are still the most popular delivery formats in Europe, Pavlidou says pill fatigue is driving strong growth in alternative formats.

“The consumer experience is very much related to adherence, the implementation of a routine, and repurchases, because that’s what brands eventually expect and want from us. They don’t want to just sell at one time; they want people to get hooked on it.”

Dens says that convenient formats, like LifeChew jelly tablets, help consumers integrate products into their everyday life (Image credit: Sirio).For example, while dissolvable oral powders have been around for a long time, she notes that these can be chalky in texture, which can impact mouthfeel. Therefore, the Sirio team created the Snowmelt product format as an alternative. This powder dissolves instantly in the mouth with a tiny particle size that “makes it melt like snow.”

“It's all about identifying the pain points at a consumer level and trying to offer a better experience,” says Pavlidou.

Responsible marketing

The Sirio team underscores the importance of responsible marketing in the nutrition space.

To ensure longevity formulations become a part of daily life, like healthy eating habits, Dens says it is essential that they are based on scientific evidence “so consumers don’t develop unrealistic expectations.”

Sirio’s Barlow cites market data indicating that consumers are shifting their mindset from anti-aging toward longevity. “With that comes an understanding that supplements need to be taken long term in order to have an effect.”

She says the company leverages health claims in Europe to help its customers communicate a product’s benefits to consumers.

“That’s why it’s really important in the development process to choose ingredients that go along with those hero ingredients, which are underpinned by science that drives that product. If it doesn’t have a health claim in Europe, we will try to match it with other ingredients that provide that communication to a customer.”

For example, Aeion BodyBalance contains chromium in addition to a postbiotic for metabolic health. In the EU, this compound has two authorized health claims for its contribution to normal macronutrient metabolism and normal blood glucose levels.