00:08Hello everybody.

00:09This is William Bradford Nichols, the editor of Nutrition Insight, and I am here live at Vita Foods Europe in Barcelona, Spain, and I am today talking with Fiona Rawlinson, the head of marketing nutrition at Carberry.

00:20Hello Fiona, how are you today?

00:22I'm good, William, thanks.

00:23How are you?

00:24I'm great, and we're excited to talk to you.

00:26And we also have with us Chris Whitting, the European Business Development Manager at Synergy.

00:30Hello Chris, how are you doing today?

00:31Yeah, I'm good, thank you.

00:33All right, I've got some questions all lined up for you guys, and if it's all right, I'd like to just.

00:38Right in.

00:39Sounds good.

00:39OK, can you explain to us a little bit about your, how your protein products function as GLP-1 companions and whether they act to complement GLP-1 agonist therapies or sort of to support natural GLP-1 stimulation?

00:56Sure, William, yeah, so we have 2 GLP-1 products here today.

01:02So the first one that I'd like to talk about is our GLP.

01:07One peach flavored whey drink.

01:10So GLP-1 agonist therapies play a key role, I guess, in regulating blood sugar and and managing appetite.

01:21And although whey protein naturally stimulates the GLP-1 hormone, the products we have today are positioned more around complementing the GLP-1 therapies rather than stimulating them.

01:36Because as we know, protein is absolutely critical to primarily for muscle loss, which is a big concern for people on GLP-1 products.

01:50And then of course in terms of appetite, your appetite is suppressed, so people need to find, I guess a source of nutrients in a compact format that gives them all of the nutrition that they need.

02:06Whey protein is absolutely ideal from that point of view, and we've used a peach flavor actually from from synergy that you might like to talk about, Chris.

02:18Yeah, sure, so as Fiona mentioned, we've used a peach flavoring for this concept, so the thinking behind that was that obviously if consumers are on a calorie restricted diet from being on GLP-1, they're probably unlikely to want something very heavy and very indulgent.

02:36Obviously typical sports nutrition flavors and things like chocolate brownie, cookies and cream.

02:40Not necessarily going to be the most appealing if you're on a calorie restricted diet.

02:45Additionally, we've used a dairy taste ingredient in there which is a bespoke product, from the synergy.

02:52So we've used this to increase some of the mouth feel in the product and also maybe mask some of the off notes that you get with perhaps some of the vitamins in the blend.

03:01It's very interesting.

03:02I got to try it.

03:04The taste was really, really.

03:05Good, really flavorful, and like you said, I even mentioned the mouthfeel when I tried it.

03:12Yeah, and none of that chemical, weird residue feeling or taste afterwards.

03:16It's a really good product.

03:17And actually, William, it's great you say that because not only does it have whey protein, isolate and hydrolyzed whey protein, but it's also a very good source of calcium, and we have vitamin B12 and vitamin D in there as , which is very important to prevent tiredness and.

03:35Which is also a side effect of where there's a lack of energy and then of course bone health is so critical to people on these diets as.

03:46So it's great that you didn't pick up any of those I guess off notes that can happen with some protein and vitamins and minerals.

03:58So when we're talking about target consumers, obviously this is for GLP1 users, but are there other consumers?

04:04That these products might align with as far as like just people with active lifestyle or other people interested in weight management, clinical nutrition, general wellness, and stuff like that.

04:14What other sort of areas does this product speak to or do these products?

04:19I guess like GLP1 products originally were a kind of a solution for patients who had type 2 diabetes, right, and patients.

04:33With this, always have a challenge in terms of, you know, maintaining their, their muscle, and you know, they might have issues with wound healing, tissue repair, and this product then is ideal and it also in terms of because of the high levels of protein, it really, I guess, manages the metabolic health of these patients in the clinical industry.

05:03So it's.

05:03Not just for people who are actively trying to lose weight, I guess there's various reasons why people are on.

05:13Can you tell us a little bit about the types of like formats besides the drink and maybe other flavors that you're showcasing him in this year?

05:21Yeah, so this is, this product that I'm talking about, the whey protein one, is ready to mix, and you have a hydration drink there, Chris.

05:32Yeah, sure.

05:33This is the 2nd GLP-1 companion product that we're showing, so this is essentially an electrolyte hydration drink.

05:40So another common complaint from consumers who are using treatments is that they often struggle to take on enough liquid to be hydrated throughout the day.

05:51So this is a blend of electrolytes, so it's the correct osmolarity to be quickly absorbed into the bloodstream, so very quick to rehydrate people.

06:02To your point earlier about products that have applications outside of GLP ones as , hydration is obviously a massive trend elsewhere, so this would definitely fall into that, that kind of category.

06:15And so from a flavor perspective we've gone for cucumber, lime and mint, so trying to be quite hydrating in flavor as , very refreshing flavor profile, and then we've included a cooling flavor in there as , which is quite a new innovation in our taste modulation platform.

06:32Form, so this will give you some of the kind of cooling effect of menthol, but doesn't taste too strongly of menthol, so the idea is it has a bit more versatility.

06:42We have paired it with mint here, but you could use it in other applications that aren't minty and still get that cooling effect without a strong minty flavor.

06:51Interesting, but I guess with the mint it tastes a little more natural than you notice.

06:54I tasted that too, and now that you've mentioned it, yeah, I noticed, but that's interesting.

06:58Yes, yes, so you should get that, that kind of icy blast.

07:02That's really interesting stuff.

07:04Can you guys tell us a little bit about what we can expect from Carberry and synergy going forward in the years to come?

07:11Yeah, sure, thanks, Chris.

07:13So I guess in terms of GLP1, look, this isn't going anywhere, going away anytime soon, right?

07:20So we're going to I guess continue to progress our applications and move quickly with consumer demands, and I guess we're going to position ourselves in terms of solutions from not just being protein being a fitness supplement, but more as a metabolic health solution.

07:43Yeah, and from a synergy perspective, a lot of activity on the taste modulation side of things we're seeing that obviously the, the market for new functional ingredients has been growing enormously quickly.

07:55It's really important that we kind of stay on top of that and continue to develop solutions because with every new ingredient that takes hold, there's inevitably a new flavor.

08:04With that, so we're really looking at how we grow our masking technology, our mouthfeel enhancing technology as.

08:12So yeah, continuing to formulate with new functional ingredients is going to be key to continuing to grow.

08:18All right, Chris, Fiona, thank you so much for sharing all your insights.

08:22I hope you have a great rest of the show.

08:23Super, thanks.