Vitafoods Asia 2025 live: Liposomal tech takes hold in Southeast Asian supplements

A growing health-conscious consumer base in Asia is driving demand for liposomal supplements for efficient health interventions. Live at Vitafoods Asia, Nutrition Insight meets Wooree, dubbed South Korea’s “number one” liposomal company, to talk about how its latest HA.routine brand is shaping the future of nutraceuticals in the region. 

The beauty-from-within brand leverages its proprietary Liposome ab:MAX Technology to ensure stability of its vitamins and active ingredients through encapsulation. 

HA.routine’s product range includes liposome-encapsulated vitamin C (tablets/powder sticks/gummies), multivitamins (tablets/dual complex formulation), glutathione (sticks/film), and red ginseng (tablets/film).

The company’s liposome supplements feature vitamins D3 and CD, arginine and collagen jellies, biotin, omega-3, melatonin, and NMN.

At Vitafoods Asia in Bangkok, Thailand (17–19 September), the CEO of the OEM/ODM manufacturer of dietary supplements reflects on regulatory challenges for liposomes in nutraceuticals and the company’s ambitions to expand across Asia.

“Wooree, as a group, is vertically integrated. So our focus isn’t just on ingredients, or OEM manufacturing, or our brand — it’s the whole thing,” says Jimmy Yun.

“If I had to simplify it, I’d say we want really good control over the supply chain. That means testing everything along the way so we can deliver the best quality. I promised myself I wouldn’t make anything that I wouldn’t feed my own kids.”

Starting in the South Korean market, Yun says the company will emphasize HA.routine’s efficacy in product marketing, emphasizing that “vitamins only matter if your body can actually absorb them. That’s our first goal — continuously improving delivery technology.”

“We’re also here at Vitafoods Asia because liposomal products are trending in many places, especially in Southeast Asia, for all the right reasons. We can serve the market in different ways: selling ingredients to other OEM manufacturers, supporting private label brands with our OEM services, or offering our HA.routine products directly so they can be distributed worldwide.”

Liposome ab:MAX Technology ensures the stability of vitamins and active ingredients through encapsulation.“So yes, you can expect global expansion,” he adds.

Burgeoning liposome market

Liposome supplements enable better bioavailability of even sensitive vitamins, are gentler on the stomach, and have a sustained release for higher absorption. Its liposomes, made of small fatty spheres, capture nutrients within a protective layer similar to the body’s cell membranes. This enables vitamins to pass through the gut barrier better and into the bloodstream. 

Although the technology was first developed for drug delivery, it is a rising delivery system in nutraceuticals.

“Our main highlight right now is efficacy — specifically, high absorption,” states Yun. “That’s why we’re Korea’s number one liposomal company, because we were the first.”

“Up until five years ago, liposomal ingredients weren’t allowed to be imported into Korea. We had to go through a lot of scientific proving to make it legal. In doing so, we essentially created the market. We try to stay at the front of that.”

Ensuring efficacy 

HA.routine’s ab:MAX Technology enables liposomal supplements to stand out from traditional and other liposomal supplements, as it verifies liposomes using cryo-TEM imaging for optimal absorption. It also prioritizes scientifically proven effective dosage and enables custom formulations. 

Additionally, the third-party tested technology can aid the development of multiple product formats based on consumer preference.

Wooree plans to expand as liposomal products are trending in many places, especially in Southeast Asia.“Using liposomal technology, we make sure that an ingredient is only as good as how it’s produced as a finished product when people take it. That’s why our OEM subsidiary, Uribio, ensures our liposomal integrity, stability, and technology are maintained,” says Yun.

“After that, the best way to communicate with the world is through our brand, so we created HA.routine. ‘Haru’ means daily in Korean and ‘routine’ in English — so it’s a little Korean-American, like myself.”

Proving effectiveness

Yun says Wooree aims to globalize the safety of Korean technology, raise consumer awareness around it, and liposomalize regular vitamins for the best absorption. “Our main goal is to control the process end to end — to make sure it’s safe and effective.”

HA routine highlights that 20–50% of traditional vitamins are not absorbed by the body, leading to their excretion rather than utilization. 

The brand’s journey began with a vitamin C case study, using its liposomal technology. The “groundbreaking” results revealed 1.7 times more absorption than regular vitamin C and 1.9 times longer retention as liposomal vitamin C in the body.