Vitamin D for the whole food trend
16 Jun 2020 | PLT Health Solutions
Earthlight Whole Food Vitamin D is PLT Health Solutions’ answer to demands for natural, minimally processed supplements. The vitamin has come up in the COVID-19 conversation in recent weeks, with Steve Fink noting that vitamin D is seeing a “great renaissance.” Additionally, the mushroom-derived product taps into clean label and animal-free trends, which are sweeping numerous consumer groups.
This is Catherine Durrell from CNS Media.
I'm speaking to Steve Fink from PLT Health Solutions who are here to talk about their Earthflight Whole Food vitamin D products.
It's a pleasure to be here.
Thanks for having us.
As Vice President of Marketing, and, on behalf of PLP, very, very, excited to be able to talk about this, incredible whole food vitamin D solution.
Right, yeah.
Just to start, could you tell us a little bit more about sort of how long the products have been on the market and in which regions?
Sure, sure.
Earthlight has been around for a number of years.
Our innovation partner, Oakshire Naturals, is, responsible for, bringing the innovation to market with us.
They've been around since 1985.
They are one of the largest, mushroom producers in the world, and they are also, Helping us, cultivate this incredible, portobello mushroom solution, that has, hopefully going to be able to take the world by storm.
Vitamin D is, seeing an incredible renaissance.
You're seeing it picked up in media, consumer interest.
I, going gangbusters in the current environment.
And we have a really interesting, when you, when you take light and expose, mushrooms to this really, bright light, it actually enhances Vitamin D.
Very much the same as if you walk outside, people talk about you need to get outside and get sunlight because you secure vitamin D that same way.
It's very similar with the skin layer of the mushroom.
When it's bombarded by light, it renders vitamin D, and there are , really cool patent processes for this, and, Oakshire has really brought something very, very interesting to market, and we're able to commercialize this and, and help our partners, innovate their brands and clean up their labels and bring a whole foods solution to market.
Right.
You touched on it before about the, the current situation.
So I was wondering, since vitamin D has been mentioned a lot in the conversation around COVID-19, sort of, what's been the company's role in following this, and, and where do you stand?
Certainly.
Yeah, I won't, go into the, the scientific, merits of vitamin D.
Obviously, there's a lot of work going on there, but what I can tell you is that consumer sentiment and media sentiment is, is spiking, like crazy.
But you're also seeing, concurrent with that interest in vitamin D, there's also a very big interest in clean label solutions and non-GMO solutions and non-animal solutions, plant-based, and so when you look at all of these things, a growing demand for vitamin D.
Based on a, a, a myriad of, of existing clinical work that's going on there, -known human benefits in, in the health, arena.
You also have customers that are demanding, a source of vitamin D that can check boxes.
Is it non-GMO?
Are there organic grades to it?
Is it plant-based?
Is it minimally processed?
Can I add it to, enrich my product?
Not impact organileptics, but bring a, a clean label approach and Earthlight checks all of those boxes off.
You have a whole food source, so it's coming from a plant, from a mushroom.
You have this minimal processing needed.
It's clean label, it's non-GMO.
There are organic grades available.
So not only do you have demand.
And an incredible interest in it, but you're able to check box after box after box, and that's what makes it, makes it so exciting for us is to be able to play in this space and bring a solution that's very different.
You may be familiar with other solutions that are out there where vitamin D is coming from either a synthetic source.
Or if it's non-synthetic, you could see it coming from wool, you could see it coming from fish liver, yeast, lichen.
There's a lot of different options out there, but we're very excited to be able to bring this really unique, kind of, like I said, box checker to market where it's coming from Whole Foods, and you can circle that vegan.
Organic, allergen-free, and it's checking them all off, and it's right, it's right there, bull's eye in the middle.
So it's, it's really exciting to offer that to brands that are trying to talk.
To their customer base and and message that way and build formulations with all of those really important aspects.
Right.
Expanding on the on the whole food claim, I, I'd be interested to hear sort of how that is a trend compares to other things like naturality or clean label.
Yeah, the, we've, we've been seeing that one growing over a number of years as , everybody.
In the in the US market as as in Europe they're, they're looking for sources of, particularly millennials as.
The where is it coming from?
How is it being made?
The, the Whole Foods story really provides, a great , comfort when consuming, foods.
They know that this is a high quality product, that it is providing all these additional benefits to, to health and formulations.
And I think that you're looking at a Kind of a very group of consumers that are reading labels now.
I would say a decade ago you might not have seen that, but you're seeing an awareness and education.
You're talking about a savvy consumer, and when you put option A versus option B in front of that consumer, they're beginning to gravitate towards, those.
Whole food, plant-based, or even if it's not plant-based, as long as it's sustainably harvested.
If you look, if it's an animal-based product, and by no means am I disparaging animal-based products as as either.
But that background story is becoming more and more important to consumers as they educate themselves on how to come to market.
Great.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
