00:08This is Elizabeth Green reporting for Nutrition Insight.

00:12I'm at Vita Foods in Barcelona 2025.

00:15I'm here today with Michael Robbins, who is a technical sales executive at Prinova.

00:20Hi Michael, thank you for joining me today.

00:24What can you tell us about some of your ingredients that you're bringing here to Vitas?

00:30Yes, I think for Panova, the ingredient launch we're most excited about is a brand new ingredient called citrus.

00:37This is only literally just launched in Europe, getting EFTA approval within the last few months, and it's a pre-workout ingredient that we think is going to really revolutionize that kind of pre-workout space.

00:51What it is is er a speridine extract that comes with citrus er citrus, er, peel.

00:57It is really, really good because it increases blood flow, it increases, the vasodilation.

01:04And muscle pumps, and it's really an area or a space that we don't, we haven't seen much innovation in within the last few years, so yeah, there's lots of clinical studies and research behind it, and we, yeah, just can't wait to get it out into the market, er, and get it out into some products.

01:21Fantastic.

01:23So would you say that this is kind of a unique ingredient and there's nothing really else like it on the market?

01:28Yeah, correct, cos hyperidine has been around for quite a while, but up until now.

01:33The hesperidine has been very insoluble, and therefore not very, bioavailable, so, the difference with Citropeak is , it's around 100,000 times more soluble than regular hesperidine, and it also is really fast acting, so it works within about 30 minutes, and that's key for a pre-workout because it's something you wanna take just before you're ready to go.

01:55You don't want to have to sit around and watch your, watch and wait for it to work, and it also means.

02:01So you can kind of feel the effects as you're starting your workout and it really gives you that boost that you need.

02:06OK, fantastic.

02:07We mentioned the clinical evidence, but what can you explain the thermogenic effects observed in citra peak users and how this benefits pre-workout performance?

02:16Yeah, so we've actually done some studies around the thermogennes effect, and we found versus a control that it increases the blood flow to your muscles and that comes with.

02:29Rise in kind of the body temperature and the muscle temperature and that's absolutely key for these kind of ingredients because it's creating an environment where your muscles are going to perform to their absolute limit, it's in the right temperature range, the blood flow is shuttling key nutrients to your muscles and it means that you're able to get the oxygen, you're able to get the the vitamins and minerals, the amino acids there, that's going to help you perform better and also recover better.

02:56Fantastic.

02:57So what about the.

02:57Application potential then, is it just beverages or is there, are there sort of more opportunities in terms of?

03:04Yeah, so one of the great things about Citrope is it's really ubiquitous across all applications.

03:11So obviously we've shown it on our stand as a beverage, which you've definitely come and try if you haven't already, but we've also shown it in gels, in powders, you can put it into capsules as.

03:23The dosing is quite small so it fits into a capsule.

03:26So yeah, it's not definitely not a kind of a one application based ingredient it definitely has a yeah multiple applications it can go into.

03:35Fantastic, and what about the recommended dosages then?

03:38Yeah, so the recommended dosage is 200 mg into one serving.

03:44So as I said, it is something that can fit into a capsule or can fit into a powder, but it also means that it's effective, but also it doesn't add a mass.

03:54Of amount to the cost, so from that point of view it's very cost effective, and again, it means that it can go into kind of even your basic pre-workouts all the way up to the most premium brands.

04:05And because it's derived from citrus peel, you're really tapping into like the clean label, natural sustainable ingredients, right?

04:12Exactly, yeah, we know that consumers want to see that kind of really natural clean label angle, and it's definitely helps when consumers can see the ingredients.

04:22And actually visualize, like everyone knows what an orange peel is, so they can visualize, OK, this is an ingredient, I might not recognize cisperidine, but it's from nature, it's from citrus peel, and that really resonates with consumers.

04:35Definitely.

04:37Er, what future research directions might er you have plans on exploring citrus peak's effects on recovery, mood or cognition?

04:45Yeah, so we've er actually got some research that's probably going to be published towards the end of the year.

04:50And that's looking at a whole host of different, kind of health benefits, probably the two that I'm most excited about, recovery.

04:58So we're actually doing some, some research on recovery, and again that's looking at the increased blood flow, shuffling, kind of those things you need to recover like amino acids to the muscles, but we're also at, looking at, , cognition as.

05:14So again, we know cognition is a really hot topic at the moment and.

05:19Again, it kind of lends itself to a slightly different application, so it's really diversifying the type of products that Citrac Peak is going to be able to go into.

05:26Fantastic, thank you very much, and you've got some of the RTM, sort of beverages and other solutions here on stand, haven't you?

05:33What else can you tell us about what you're presenting at Vita Foods?

05:36Yeah, so we've got two other, beverage concepts on the stand.

05:40One of them is around gut health, kind of a take on a, a gut soda which we know are really, really popular.

05:47Really, really on trend at the moment, that's got lots of really good kind of prebiotics in it, so things like inulin, glutamine, and a branded ingredient called Aquamin, which is absolutely suited for this kind of product.

06:00It's got some research behind it for gut health, so we love putting that in there and, and showing that ingredient.

06:07Fantastic, and what about the young at heart beverage formulation, how's that addressing er healthy agent market and which ingredients are most impactful?

06:16Yeah, so we know that everyone is aging and people want to try and hang on to their youths for as long as possible, and that was kind of at the forefront while we were formulating this, so we wanted nutrients so we're gonna kind of address some of the key areas that as you age.

06:32You really feel, so for example, there's an ingredient called sarberry, which again is a branded, Amla fruit extract that has a really high antioxidant potential, so it has a high RE score, it helps protect cells from oxidative stress.

06:49We also have included a really kind of specialized vitamin and mineral premix, within that we've got other antioxidants, so things like vitamin C and zinc.

06:59So we also have, other nutrients such as, vitamin K and calcium, so that helps with your bone health, keeping your bones strong, maintaining the bone mass, and finally things like vitamin A, which is perfect for things like vision and immunity, so we really wanted to make it quite a.

07:16Holistic concept that's going to not just tackle one aspect but all the aspects of healthy aging.

07:23Fantastic, thank you very much.

07:25And so Crenova is really harnessing those customizable solutions and really turning them into functional benefits as for the user.

07:34Yes, absolutely.

07:35So we know that functionality, particularly within beverage, has really grown within the last 3 to 5 years.

07:44So we really wanted to show what we can do in that area and I guess some of the issues you have with functionality to beverage, and things around the, the taste, the solubility, the clarity and within our formulas we've really kind of focused on that, so we're using things like er taste maskers in order to neutralize the base, we're working with some of the flavor houses on some really kind of on trend and innovative, er flavors, so, yeah, for example like our, Pre-workout is a Citrus Blast flavor, so that's really kind of on trend with that kind of er white Monster Energy type flavor and yeah we, we're really just trying to focus on ingredients that are gonna er be good for the beverage application, they're gonna work, they're gonna add functionality, that they're gonna be soluble er they're gonna have research behind them and, and really kind of, yeah, make your products stand out in the marketplace.

08:36Thank you very much Michael, really interesting.