Paid content
Contact: Isabel Gomez Job title: Global Marketing Manager Company: Lubrizol Life Science Contact: nutraceuticals@lubrizol.com Visit us: www.lipofoods.com
1 We’ve heard a great deal about challenges with adulteration in the botanicals market; how do you ensure the integrity of your supply chain and the quality of the ingredients you offer?
We are working only with reliable suppliers that provide us with all questionnaires and certificates we request. As an example, we ask for an internal questionnaire validation supplier, manufacturing flowchart, FSSC22000, TDS, SDS, allergen and non-contamination certificates, origin statement, traceability, etc. We also perform internal parameters testing before the approval of the new supplier, validating the active concentration as well as analyzing all potential solvents and contamination parameters.
2 What makes the botanical ingredients you offer unique in an increasingly competitive commodity marketplace?
In the botanicals space, our uniqueness comes from an extended value proposition composed by: recognizable botanical ingredients with a sustainable, transparent and traceable sourcing; science-backed ingredients showing better efficacy and microencapsulated ingredients to enhance the bioavailability, water dispersibility and minimization of any off-taste.
Furthermore, by offering dry extracts in a powder form we facilitate formulation, simplify supply chain, minimize transport costs, reduce/remove needs for preservatives.
3 The COVID-19 crisis has accelerated consumers’ interest in long-term natural health solutions; how do your offerings support consumers in their quest to take control of their health?
The wake of the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the demand for products focused on preventative health.
Furthermore, consumers are gravitating toward natural solutions and are increasingly demanding botanical ingredients including information about processing techniques, sourcing, sustainability, and clinical evidence on health benefits.
In this respect, botanical ingredients may have an exceptional positioning as they are proved to be a natural solution to support a healthy aging as a preventative approach.
In this respect and to build trust in our long-term natural solutions, we at Lubrizol are committed to bringing food ingredients with innovative technological solutions and scientific backing to enable our customers develop differentiated nutraceutical solutions.
Currently our branded botanical ingredients feature: microencapsulated curcumin, astaxanthin, natural caffeine and phytosterols. We applied our microencapsulated expertise to provide technical benefits to them: increase the bioavailability of curcumin, the stability of astaxanthin, mask the bitter taste while providing a long-lasting release of caffeine and increase the water dispersibility of phytosterols.
4 What type of botanical ingredients are currently trending in the market, and what two or three offerings do you expect to see pick up momentum in the next two to three years?
In line with the megatrend of health & wellness, we see a holistic approach to health-refining ancient science by modern scientific methods. This includes a focus on traditional Indian ayurvedic ingredients with powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties such as curcumin, so we expect to see a grow in this ingredient in the future.
Other botanical ingredients that stand out, are algae-based products like Haematococcus pluvialis extract (astaxanthin) and spirulina green blue extract for cognitive health and mental wellness.
Additionally, we believe adaptogen ingredients have potential to grow as consumers are looking for natural solutions that help them reduce stress, help them focus and improve the quality of sleep.
In summary, we think that those botanical ingredients that provide clean and sustainable claims with clinical substantiation on their health benefits will be the fastest growing in the market and are set to rise further given consumer interest.
Contact: Rafael Esteban Ollo Job title: CEO Company: Soria Natural Contact: customerservice@sorianatural.es Visit us: www.sorianatural.com
1We’ve heard a great deal about challenges with adulteration in the botanicals market; how do you ensure the integrity of your supply chain and the quality of the ingredients you offer?
Adulterations have mainly two origins; on one hand we have the unintended or accidental adulteration, induced by erroneous botanical identification, and on the other hand the adulterations that are caused with an economical motivation, but SORIA NATURAL will never undercut the competition offering surprisingly cheap products and will never pretend at all to compete only on price.
In SORIA NATURAL we are very conscious about the increasing consumer demand for more transparency. Our production chain reflects our more than 40 years’ experience, where we have been growing the main part of the botanical species we work with. We developed our own agricultural and collecting practices with full transparency from SEED-to-FORMULA. All raw materials, sourced and home-grown ones, are not only quantified on active ingredients, but are also checked with HPLC and DNA testing in our in-house laboratory.
We will keep on striving to encourage consumer trust for natural products and fight any type of adulterations that will make consumers lose confidence in the botanical market, which would be detrimental to our business and to nature.
2What makes the botanical ingredients you offer unique in an increasingly competitive commodity marketplace?
Consumers persist to drive boundaries for natural products and seek non-artificial and natural ingredients that are constantly driving the market towards more ‘clean’ labels, also for botanical products.
SORIA NATURAL stands out in the market for the full control we have over the complete process from SEED-to-FORMULA.
It all starts with our exceptional ingredients. We are located in a unique environment, more than 1000 meters above sea level and with very particular weather conditions. Our climate is sunny and dry, with cold and long winters, which make our plant grow “strong”, assuring like that a very high load of active ingredients.
In less than 8 hours we convert our fresh plants into high-quality extracts. In those 8 hours we are able to concentrate up to 95% of the active ingredients of the plant where with the traditional and common processes, it would take us 48- 72h to obtain only 65 to 70% of the actives. None of that would make sense for us without an exhaustive quality control in our laboratory on raw materials, intermediate and finished products.
3The COVID-19 crisis has accelerated consumer’s interest in long -term natural health solutions: how do your offering support consumers in their quest to take control of their health?
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed consumer behavior in many ways, and the desire of SORIA NATURAL is to use this opportunity to influence on health and wellness by educating consumers about botanical ingredients. It is still the same as when we started our business 40 years ago, we want to create new opportunities for natural-dense products with functional health benefits.
We launch campaigns through social networks to encourage consumers to know more about botanicals, with tips and recommendations about how botanicals can be an all-natural addition to their wellness routine.
4What type of botanical ingredients are currently trending in the market, and what two or three offerings do you expect to see pick up momentum in the next two to three years?
Worldwide we see the enormous increasing demand for ingredients like ginseng, echinacea, Ginkgo Biloba and garlic which shows overall health and improvement of physical and intellectual performance as the main drivers. We see a growing interest in for example milk thistle and other detoxifying botanicals, but SORIA NATURAL has a strong commitment for the future with the investment on investigation and product development with pepperwort, an undervalued plant with a huge potential.
We also strongly believe in further investigation on finding synergies between different botanicals. The combined effect of different plants will keep on offering new opportunities.