Women’s health, healthy aging and novel nutraceuticals take the spotlight at SupplySide West

01 Nov 2023 --- Women’s health, novel nutraceuticals and consumer-focused approaches took center stage at this year’s SupplySide West trade show in Las Vegas, Nevada, US (October 23-27). Companies emphasized the need to meet women’s lifelong health needs, stressed the demand for science-backed ingredients and looked to address the rising consumer awareness of brands and ingredients.

Nutrition Insight spoke with leaders from dsm-firmenich, IFF Health and TSI Group about the trends shaping the nutraceutical space.

“This year we’re focusing mostly on menopause,” reveals Sebastien Guery, the VP of IFF Health. “Menopause is a condition for women’s health that is growing extremely fast with huge market potential.” 

“What we’re bringing forward to the show this year is the desirable, the essential and the sustainable,” Penny Antonopoulos, the senior director for marketing and business development for proactive health at dsm-firmenich, explains that the company is focusing on proactive health across women’s lifespan.

TSI Group focused on its Enfinity paraxanthine offering as well as its healthy aging solutions.

“The key health benefit areas that we’re focusing upon this year are women’s wellness, cognitive performance and health from the gut,” she says. “The two key areas that we’re focusing on are healthy aging and menopause support as well as the motherhood journey and in the health from the gut area, we’re highlighting our acquisition of Adare Biome.”

Antonopoulos reveals the company is also underscoring its docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) offerings for early life nutrition (ELN) and brain development.

Larry Kolb, the global president and co-founder of TSI group reveals that the company is focusing on an untapped segment of the healthy aging market, as well as refocusing how it approaches the market.

“Healthy aging for muscle health is probably the untapped market,” he shares. “We look at total musculoskeletal health and there is a very established joint care market for healthy aging consumers and a very established bone health market, but there’s really not a big emphasis on muscle health — we think that's a huge opportunity.”

Owning the market
TSI Group highlights that it is the only distributor in the world for the caffeine derived ingredient, Enfinity paraxanthine.

“It’s a very exciting, very experiential ingredient,” Kolb explains. “It is the main metabolite of caffeine and when you ingest caffeine you basically metabolize 85% of it into paraxanthine.”

IFF revealed that it would continue to invest into perimenopause and women’s health needs in the coming years.

“The other metabolites are theophylline and theobromine and theophylline is very toxic. It causes a lot of the side effects with caffeine, such as the jitters and the headaches. Enfinity is a very clean source of energy that is very experiential, and it will suit a lot of our B2B partners who are looking for new and innovative ingredients. It’s really one of the major showcased ingredients in my division of this show.”

As the only supplier of the innovative ingredient, Kolb further reveals that the company has several patents pending.

Managing menopause
IFF highlights the growth of the menopause-specific market as a key focus of the show and of the company’s future endeavors.

“Next year we are going to keep investing in the women’s health and menopause segments,” Guery reveals. “That is definitely something where we are seeing a lot of traction.”

“One billion women globally are going through menopause as we speak — roughly 20% of the population — and today there is no clear solution for this part of the consumer population. So for us, it’s a tremendous opportunity to bring tailored solutions for customers, looking at addressing various symptoms of the premenopausal and postmenopausal women.”

“With our partner GenM, which created an awareness campaign for pre- and post-menopausal women, we can help them to select the best product with customers and retailers. We still see a growth potential for the market. We’ve been seeing obviously some softness over the past year due to lower consumer demands and the squeeze on disposable incomes due to high inflation and macroeconomic uncertainty.”

Yet, he notes that the market is slowly starting to recover.

Meno-Pro, dsm-firmenich’s menopause symptom reducing solution contains CanolaPro protein and GeniVida genistein.At the same time, Antonopoulos at dsm-firmenich highlights the company’s menopause solution, Meno-Pro.

“Meno-Pro is basically a protein based supplement, highlighting a key ingredient for menopause support, GeniVida with genistein,” Antonopoulos underscores. “Meno-Pro also highlights our CanolaPro plant-based protein, which is a complete protein with great flavor and taste.”

“This protein, with our dsm-firmenich capabilities, as well as our GeneVida genistein that helps reduce the intensity and frequency of hot flashes, is rounded out with some really nice micronutrients. Where this comes to life with a plant-based protein is that it provides the right masking and also tonalities to bring a very palatable experience to the consumer.”

Focus on the “motherhood journey”
Antonopoulos at dsm-firmenich details how the company is looking to focus on the life span health of as well as the perimenopausal and perinatal stages.

“In the sense of the motherhood journey, we have a lot of capabilities there in terms of prenatal and postnatal that we are looking at to partner with our customers, especially when thinking about the fourth trimester,” she explains. “In the sense of prenatal, we’re focusing on our Life’s DHA, which is our algal-based omega three offering.”

“It’s very well known because it helps support infant cognitive performance and brain development in the first thousand days,” Antonopoulos concludes. “Also, research has shown the benefits of DHA in higher doses in mitigating and helping reduce the risk of preterm birth.”

By William Bradford Nichols