SupplySide Global 2026: Healthy aging drives GLP-1, gut & menopause launches

Healthy aging emerged as the common trend at the recent SupplySide Global 2026 trade show in Las Vegas, Nevada, US. Nutrition Insight spoke with Givaudan, dsm-firmenich, Akay Bioactives, Rousselot, OmniActive Health Technologies, and Formo about new product launches and research in gut health, metabolic support, cognition, women’s health, and protein. 

“Almost every category could now fit into this idea of healthspan and longevity,” said Brian Appell, marketing manager for nutra and the Americas at Givaudan. “We see a convergence of benefits.” 

“For example, cognitive health isn’t necessarily a category that stands by itself anymore,” he told us. “It’s about how it relates to different consumer groups, because the younger consumer group isn’t necessarily interested in memory the way an older consumer group is.” 

Meanwhile, dsm-firmenich highlighted the connection between gut health and longevity at the show with an interactive installation. Sonia Hartunian-Sowa, Science, Translation, and Advocacy, North America, said the company positions the gut as the body’s control center.

“Most consumers think digestion is just about digesting your food, but it’s so much more,” she noted.

“We’re highlighting that the gut affects the brain, through the gut-brain axis. It plays a role in inflammation. Everything in the gut is important — 70% of the immune system is located in the gut, and it helps with metabolism.”

The gut effect

Hartunian-Sowa explained that gut walls contain cells and microvilli that allow water and nutrients to flow through.

However, she cautioned that, as people age, there is a separation between cell walls, enabling pathogens to leak through. “Sometimes there’s poor nutrient uptake, and this can lead to inflammation — low-grade inflammation in the gut doesn’t bode well for healthy aging.”

She added that the cells turn over every three to five days, which is one of the fastest cell turnover rates in the body. “This is something we want to protect and keep healthy through our barrier.”

Exhibitors told us that metabolic, women’s, and gut health, alongside longevity, will shape innovation in 2027.The company’s longevity installation highlighted the importance of protecting the gut microbiome during aging, which Hartunian-Sowa said contains trillions of good and bad bacteria. In a normal, healthy state, the good and the bad exist in a balance. However, she noted that the balance may get disrupted as people age, leading to dysbiosis. 

At the show, dsm-firmenich highlighted its Humiome Post LB postbiotic, which is backed by over 41 clinical trials, she told us. “It helps strengthen gut integrity at the gut wall and enhances microbiome diversity, two aspects that are very important as we age.”

“If you can strengthen those, you can begin to see the real effect,” she underscored. “That’s why we’re talking about healthy longevity: the gut effect.”

Metabolic health and GLP-1

Givaudan unveiled Novaberin at SupplySide Global 2026, responding to growing demand for metabolic health solutions. Appell explained that this is a combination of standardized, patent-pending extracts of two Ayurvedic botanicals — barberry (Berberis aristata), a natural source of berberine, and amla fruit (Phyllanthus emblica).

The company conducted a six-month clinical study on Novaberin, with adults seeking support for healthy metabolic function.

Appell said Givaudan aims to publish the results by the end of 2026. He added that the study included 33 overweight and obese prediabetic subjects who took 250 mg of Novaberin twice daily or a placebo, typically with a meal.

“Broadly, we showed not only statistically significant but also clinically relevant outcomes,” he told us. “We showed some big numbers for some of the outcomes.”

“As an example, for weight management, we showed a 10-pound reduction in weight. For blood sugar, we looked not only at the standards such as fasting blood glucose and postprandial glucose, but also at HbA1c, where we saw almost a 15% reduction at the six-month mark.”

Additionally, the team considered total, LDL, and HDL cholesterol as well as triglycerides, he added. “As an example, we saw a 22% reduction in triglycerides over six months.”

“What’s interesting about Novaberin is that we have three-month data showing results that are clinically relevant. And if you continue to take it, the outcomes improve, meaning that at three months we saw a reduction, and at the six-month mark we saw an even bigger reduction.”

Givaudan’s Appell highlighted the research results from the company’s new metabolic health ingredient, Novaberin.Rather than positioning the product for GLP-1 users, Givaudan sees a larger opportunity among consumers who are not taking the medications and are looking for alternatives, as well as people who are discontinuing these drugs.

Caffeine-free cognition

Liz Clarke, global marketing manager at Akay Bioactives, highlighted new research on the company’s CardaMind — a caffeine-free, plant-based, non-stimulant solution for cognitive performance. She told us that research on acute use links the ingredient with benefits in mental energy, focus, and cognitive processing.

To determine whether CardaMind’s benefits continued over time, Akay Bioactives conducted a two-week repeat-use trial, added Clarke. The results of the randomized, double-blind, placebo- and active-controlled study in healthy working professionals are published in Frontiers in Neuroscience.

“Over those 14 days, we found that the benefits were maintained, and in select cases they were even boosted a bit,” said Clarke. “It shows that it fits into an everyday routine instead of being something you just take every now and then.”

She noted that the company tested the ingredient with and without caffeine, as well as against placebo. “Looking at CardaMind alone, we had benefits extending about three hours, and with CardaMind plus caffeine, those benefits expanded to five hours, and in some cases up to eight hours.”

Specifically, the study found improvements in measures of attention, processing speed, cognitive flexibility, and executive function associated with CardaMind. Clarke added that the study also helped add data on safety and toxicology for repeated use.

Moreover, Akay Bioactives is planning more studies to test the ingredient’s mechanism of action. “Our best guess, based on previous research, is that it’s a possibly synergistic combination of antioxidant activity and neuroprotection.”

Outside of brain support and nootropics, the company will branch out soon to sports nutrition and pre-workout stacks, Clarke added.

“It could certainly work there now based on the mental performance, because that’s so much of sport, but we want to see if there are some physical benefits and physical endurance benefits as well.”

Collagen peptide for cognition

At SupplySide Global 2026, Rousselot launched Nextida NxCogni, a collagen peptide for cognitive resilience. The company’s Dr. Andrew Ross, science liaison for its Global Science Integration Team, explained that Rousselot built the new ingredient on its library of collagen peptides.

“We start with the collagen molecule and break it into smaller peptide fragments, with different sequences and lengths of amino acids. Then we create a composition of those peptides so we can probe certain molecular biology pathways and physiology to find the composition best suited to answer the question we’re going after.”

“With NxCogni, for example, we’ve identified 10 neurosupportive peptides. Those occur at a level 100 times greater than in standard hydrolyzed collagen.”

We also spoke with Morinaga Milk Industry and ADM about microbiome innovations and the future of gut health.Once the team has identified a specific complex, it goes through the translational research pipeline, from cellular and in vitro testing to animal models, and then to human studies.

Ross said that Rousselot achieved “exciting results” from its initial open-label human study with NxCogni, which showed efficacy and confirmed a dosage range. “We now have the confidence that it is truly efficacious in humans, and our safety data, now extending past animals into humans, is where we want it to be.”

A next step will be to conduct two randomized clinical trials in younger and aging populations in the first quarter of 2027, he added.

“Even more important, we want to demonstrate that this product can potentially have an acute effect. And also that if you take it continuously, every day, those neurosupportive peptides have time to work on our biology, so we can show chronic efficacy as well.”

Women’s health

OmniActive Health Technologies featured its recently launched Fenavari ingredient for menopause symptom support. 

Kratika Gupta, chief strategy and marketing officer at the company, explained that this ingredient is powered by a proprietary integrated extract technology platform to bring out the best of its components — shatavari and fenugreek. She noted that both botanicals have “a lot of proven benefits for women’s health.”

“At the same time, there’s a lot of complementarity between them,” she added. “The challenge our innovation team took on was to bring out the best and make the synergy stand out.”

She said preclinical research showed “robust evidence” to take Fenavari into human research. “We conducted a full-fledged randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study in 138 women aged 40 to 60.”

Gupta explained that the study aimed to include women in perimenopause and menopause. “We studied Fenavari for all the benefits a woman going through the midlife transition would care about, from hot flashes to night sweats, sleep disturbances, mood swings, and even urogenital and sexual complaints.”

She said that the researchers saw significant improvements across all these parameters at two doses — 300 and 500 mg.

“The botanicals in Fenavari work through thermoregulatory, phytoestrogenic, and adaptogenic mechanisms, which is why it is able not just to work at the hormonal level, but also to make you feel better with hot flashes, night sweats, and other benefits.”

According to Gupta, the ingredient addresses the hormones linked to midlife symptoms — estradiol and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH).

Bactolife launched its Helm binding proteins at SupplySide Global 2026.“We measured estradiol and FSH and saw significant improvements there as well,” she added. “And thereby, all the symptoms I spoke about showed significant results.”

Protein beyond whey

During SupplySide Global 2026, Formo’s enhanced casein became the first precision fermentation-derived casein to receive a “no questions” letter from the US FDA, the team told us.

The company’s co-CEO and co-founder, Roman Plewka, told us that one of the key drivers for its casein ingredient is that many people are changing how they eat. “That’s driven by health and longevity. But the biggest subgroup is probably GLP-1 medications.”

He noted that people using these therapies eat smaller portion sizes and increase their protein intake. “I think that is the big challenge for brands and formulators: increasing protein content in the same or smaller portion sizes, innovating new protein formats, and ultimately differentiating on digestibility.”

“Those are the three aspects we are targeting,” said Plewka. “Enhanced casein helps to break the protein ceiling. It helps to innovate new formats, for example, clear beverages.”

Dr. Maria Scharfe, business scientist at the company, added that consumers want new formats, new ways to get protein, and protein-plus options. “They don’t just want protein; maybe they want fiber, or they want the protein to do more for them in terms of digestive comfort.”

At the show, Formo highlighted two applications with its enhanced casein: a high-protein cold foam for coffee and a clear protein beverage.

“It enables a new product format that has so far been exclusive to whey,” she added. “You can put more protein in without sacrificing texture, so it has somewhat overlapping properties of whey protein isolate and regular caseins. That’s why we called it enhanced casein.”

Moreover, Formo has conducted trials with a basic in vitro digestion model to compare it with whey protein isolate and sodium caseinate, she told us. “We found in the kinetics that it breaks down much faster and more extensively than whey protein isolate, which adds to the differentiation.”