Vitafoods Europe 2026: AAK’s OptiSyn boosts DHA bioavailability and efficacy
27 May 2026 | AAK
The commercial product manager at AAK, Isabella Garcia Prado, talked with us about metabolic syndrome, pill fatigue, and the rise of functional foods as supplement alternatives. She also introduced OptiSyn, AAK’s proprietary docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and phosphatidylcholine combination designed to enhance DHA bioavailability and uptake.
Hello everybody.
This is Brad Nichols with Nutrition Insight, and we are live in the Barcelona, Spain at Vita F of 2026.
And today we are speaking with Isabella Garcia Prado, the commercial product manager at AAK.
Hello, Isabella, how are you today?
Hi, very good.
How are you?
I'm good.
We're excited.
To talk to you.
I've got some questions all lined up.
If it's OK, I'd love to jump right in.
Can you tell me what are the key trends that you're seeing in consumer health that are shaping innovation and nutrition today, specifically for?
Oh yes, of course.
So we are not alone in this market.
We do see shifts and trends not only from the industry side but also from the consumer and the organizations such as the World Health Organization.
There is of course a concern with increasing metabolic syndrome, obesity, type 2 diabetes.
We can see how much the G1-like products are growing everywhere, so this is for sure a key trend that we see on driving the market, driving the innovations.
I think it could also connect that with.
The type of products that the consumers are looking for, so the consumers are becoming more aware of their own nutrition.
They're educating themselves and trying to take a more long-term approach, let's say, so more preventive, and that means that they are taking more supplements, but that also means we have seen a trend on pills fatigue.
So we are taking too many pills, too many supplements, and this is starting to become too much, and there we see a very clear opportunity for the industry on bringing functional foods and drinks, so food and products that they can introduce to their daily lives without the need to introduce a new capsule or a new pill every day.
Looking at that trend, what is your view on how functional foods can support consumers with metabolic syndrome and consumers who just want more nutrition in their food?
Yeah, of course.
So I think the functional foods can play a key role in helping them not need to consume so many pills.
So this is, I think, the first one, and that's why I think it's so important that the industry looks at also adding.
Health benefits is specific to the food products.
So we see, for instance, DHA products, it's a very known already, mostly on supplements on capsules and gummies.
We see opportunities for this type of products with specific health benefits to be incorporated in food products.
And then of course also helping these consumers, for instance the consumers, so how they can have their nutrition more concentrated, so dense nutrient dense, smaller portions.
We have seen this and mostly today addressing fiber.
And protein, this is a clear need for them, but these consumers, they are also in most of the cases with metabolic syndrome.
So how else can we support these consumers on their journey into weight loss and on improving their health overall?
What makes the combination of like DHA and phosphoditacycline or cycloline in Opticin different from conventional omega 3 solutions?
Yeah, so, Opticsin is the, the new, solution that we are introducing to the market here.
It is, as, as you mentioned, a combination of DHA and fossa chole or PC.
That's easier for us.
What makes it unique and special is that it, it is, proprietary combination.
That we have studied and we continually studying showing that it improves the uptake of the DHA into the saline brains.
So DHA is recognized and, and, and known, but what we have seen is that for it to be biologically active or to actually bring you the health benefits that you want that we want, it needs to be incorporated into the saline brains and that.
With the DHA as we are consuming now, so the traditional oils, let's say, is not necessarily bringing this benefit.
So what we are proposing with this solution, and that's why we keep investing in more studies, more science behind it.
Is that with our solution you increase this incorporation and that means that you're going to have a more effective product or you're going to enhance the benefits of the DHA, let's say so you're stacking the ingredient with another ingredient that increases the availability of that ingredient.
So what we saw is that for the digestion, for the whole process of the DHA in our body, we need the PC.
And our thought was, what if we already combine the two of them and we provide them together?
Do we have a better effect?
And yeah, so far, so good.
We think that we do.
Looking sort of into the future, can you tell us what are the biggest opportunities for this type of innovation going forward and what sort of white spaces do you think it would be able to fill?
Yes, of course, so I think looking into the health benefit areas, thinking specifically of Optusing or DHA kind of products, I would say the space where the DHA is already proven, DHA is very studied, it's, it's been studied for decades already.
So the spaces where it's already being studied, how can we improve that?
And I would say this is this, movement or this.
Way on how can we make it more use it in our bodies is a good path, but I think we can also explain this to other products.
So why don't we study other nutrients that are important for the health and understand how they're incorporated and how they're processed in our bodies and how we can make it better.
And then thinking about applications I mentioned earlier, the function of foods and drinks, I think that's a very, it's a sewide space, so we see more products with protein, protein is, is everywhere and it's, it is very important, but what's next?
What else can we do in the, in the food, sorry, on the function of foods.
And then of course linking with the pill fatigue that I mentioned earlier, but also with this GLP-1 companion products, they are starting to pop up.
It's not everywhere yet, but they are still very focused on same on proteins and and fibers.
There are some looking to vitamins because there are some vitamins that are lagging on this on these consumers.
Why not increase to something else that will actually Support even their journey on, on the weight loss, yeah, Isabella, thank you so much for talking to us today.
Thank you very much for coming.
