The energy drink of today is a healthier, more mature version of its younger self. Just take a look at how the market has changed. 

For one, the market is less diversified than it once was. As mainstream soft drink companies moved in with global brands, the number of players in the energy drink space has shrunk considerably, and the number of global new product launches recorded by Innova Market Insights has fallen consistently over the past five years. Whereas energy drinks accounted for 5% of global soft drink launches in June 2010–2011, energy drinks accounted for just 3.2% of soft drink launches in June 2015–2016. Launch activity remains slightly higher in the U.S., where 4.25% of soft drinks introduced in 2015–2016 were energy drinks.

In order to capture new consumers and retain existing customers, energy drink leaders like Red Bull, Monster, and Rockstar are addressing some of the biggest topline consumer trends today, such as zero-calorie, reduced-sugar, and clean-label. 

Companies are also focusing heavily on adding new drink formats and flavors, sometimes with limited or seasonal editions. Recent launches from major players include a new Citron flavor added to the Monster Energy Ultra zero-calorie/zero-sugar line, and a Killer Citrus product in the Rockstar Revolt portfolio. There is also interest in marketing energy drinks that offer the consumer additional health benefits. 

As global concerns over high sugar consumption grow, energy drink makers have introduced more reduced-sugar and sugar-free options. Most of the leading players have at least one zero-sugar or zero-calorie product line within their portfolio. 

Based on the U.S. energy drinks launches Innova Market Insights recorded in June 2015–2016, 21% of launches featured sugar-free claims (and up to 29% if low-sugar and no-added-sugar claims are also included).

Interest in clean labeling has also grown in recent years. Over one-fifth of energy drinks launches we tracked featured claims related to “naturalness” and/or freedom from additives/preservatives; if organic claims are also included, that percentage rises to nearly 30%. 

The use of natural ingredients is also increasing, including options like honey, green tea, and green coffee bean extracts, as well as the traditional favorite, guarana. 

The Starbucks Refreshers energy drink line has traditionally featured caffeine from green coffee beans. In 2016, the company extended the brand with two new lines featuring coconut water, an on-trend ingredient with natural isotonic properties. 

The Rocky Mountain High energy drinks brand celebrates a more unusual ingredient in energy drinks-hemp. The company recently extended this product line with a Mango flavor, complete with a low-calorie positioning at just 15 calories per can.

Consumers are also increasingly interested in the energy benefits other types of drinks offer, evidenced by the claims marketers now make related to energy/alertness. Take tea. After energy drinks themselves, iced tea products feature the most energy-related claims, with 13% of launches using this type of positioning. 

In the tea category, an interesting launch in the first half of 2016 was PepsiCo’s  extension of its Brisk iced tea brand with Brisk MatÃ© Energizing Iced Tea. This on-trend beverage combines Brisk iced tea and the energizing South American plant yerba matÃ©. Another tea brand, the bottled-tea brand Ecoteas, also focused on yerba matÃ© and at around the same time introduced Yerba MatÃ© Lemongrass, Mint, and Hibiscus teas.

Juice drinks are also increasingly making energy claims. Campbell’s V8+ Energy range, for example, focuses on both the fruit and vegetable juice content and the added energy from green tea leaves. The range was extended in early 2016 with three lightly carbonated versions: Blackberry & Cranberry, White Grape & Raspberry, and Orange & Pineapple.

Within the sports-performance sector, sports and energy products traditionally fulfilled different needs. Today, however, the two categories are now blurring and increasingly compete, particularly as products take a more lifestyle-type positioning, offering convenient refreshment and functionality “on the go.” 

The market has opened up whole new areas of opportunity and a focus on other aspects of health, targeting an increasing range of consumers and usage occasions.  

Innova Market Insights is your source for new-product data. The Innova Database (

) is the product of choice for the whole product-development team, offering excellent product pictures, search possibilities, and analysis. See what food manufacturers are doing around the world: track trends, competitors, ingredients, and flavors. In today’s fast-moving environment, this is a resource you cannot afford to be without.

Energy Drink Makers Turn to Natural Botanical Ingredients

Which Flavors Are Trending in Energy Drinks?

Articles

Energy drink makers must keep up with today’s consumer trends, including clean-label and healthy.

Energy Drink Trends: Less Sugar, Clean Label, Natural, and More

Many of us have at least one vegetarian friend or family member, but what about the flexitarians, or part-time vegetarians, in our lives? While this class of consumers may not always be as easy to identify, it is quickly becoming a top-priority group for firms specializing in meat-replacer ingredients.

According to recent data shared by Innova Market Insights, 38% of Americans report eating meatless meals once a week or more, which amounts to more than 120 million U.S. consumers who can be considered flexitarians. That’s a huge market for plant-based foods, and it may even present a more promising segment for meat-alternative growth than the fully committed vegetarians.

“While the number of people committing to a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle increases every day, it’s still a small percentage of the population overall,” says Tara Rhein, marketing manager for plant-based foods manufacturer Atlantic Natural Foods. “The bigger opportunity is the flexitarian group.”

The challenge with reaching flexitarians, though, is that expectations for meat-like non-meat products can be especially high. Replicating the texture and overall appearance of meat are among the toughest obstacles in many meat-replacer applications, Rhein explains, but they aren’t the only considerations. Some consumers may prioritize high protein content in their plant-based meat products, while others most want that convincing meat-like taste. 

“Many vegetarian consumers, and in particular flexitarians, want the ‘total package’-products that look like, eat like, and taste like meat,” says Arno Sandoval, principal applications scientist for meat at DuPont Nutrition & Health (St. Louis). Meeting those expectations is absolutely a challenge, but meat-substitute formulators have a few tricks up their sleeves. 

All About Imitating Meat, or Offering Something New?

As far as the most popular applications for meat replacers, the majority of the market remains centered around traditional meat forms, including patties, nuggets, and sausages, Sandoval says. He adds that meals where plant-based meat pieces are used in combination with other food types, such as rice or pasta, are especially “ideal targets” for meat substitutes.

But aside from veggie burgers and other conventional American food types, there may also be advantages to incorporating meat replacers in dishes consumers are less familiar with, especially when it comes to flexitarians. Plant-based foods brand Sweet Earth Natural Foods, for instance, offers several lines of “culturally diverse” packaged meals, including its Chipotle Seitan, Moroccan Tagine, Spanish Paella, and Peruvian Burrito. Rather than just positioning its products as imitations of popular meat products, Sweet Earth focuses on offering exotic dishes that consumers will find “interesting,” says Kelly Swette, owner and CEO of Sweet Earth. And in many cases, these kinds of recipes also happen to be easy applications for meat substitutes.

“The globally inspired recipes we feature represent cultures that traditionally use very little meat, which is perfect for us,” Swette explains. 

Unfortunately, despite how “clean” plant-based ingredients might seem compared to many animal-based ingredients, it can be challenging to create clean-label products with meat replacers. Meat products usually require just a few meat particulates, fibers, and proteins to create texture and bind the food together, DuPont’s Sandoval says. Vegetarian foods, on the other hand, often need additional particulates, binders, gums, or flavors that may work against a product’s clean-label image.

That may be starting to change, though. While various soy ingredients were long the bedrock of the meat-replacer industry, meat-substitute formulators are learning how to use the wider variety of the plant-based ingredients that are now readily available to them, including lentils, beans, legumes, quinoa, jackfruit, nuts, seitan, and more. 

“There are many non-meat alternatives out there, and they’re all great substitutes for meat,” says Atlantic Natural Foods’ Rhein. “It’s quite shocking how far we have come!”

Vegetarian Launches Surged by 60% over Past Five Years

Full-fledged vegetarians may be the most loyal consumers of meat-replacement products, but part-time vegetarians, or flexitarians, offer huge opportunities for market growth. Can today's meat substitutes win them over?

Are Meat-Free Ingredients Good Enough to Win over Flexitarians?

Slideshows

Strong investment from China and private equity drove 2016’s health & wellness M&As.

2016 Dietary Supplement Mergers & Acquisitions' Driving Forces

We asked health & wellness retailing experts what top challenges-and opportunities-they see facing the community today.

Retailers Talk Challenges, Opportunities for Dietary Supplements in 2016

Food wastage is a critical concern. An estimated one-third of all food produced today is either lost in the supply chain or wasted outright,

 and the ramifications for the planet are cumulatively destructive. While consumers’ over-purchasing habits are partly to blame, growers and manufacturers share an equal burden. Poor transport and storage of food items contribute to food wastage. Perhaps an even more glaring issue is the amount of edible and otherwise useful plant material that gets thrown out by growers and processors every day.

Diverting undesirable plant parts to compost can be a positive business practice. Other approaches, however, may let firms turn a profit from plant and other waste. Thanks to the leadership of responsible businesses, as well as research breakthroughs, we’re finding new human uses for these plant parts at an increasing rate. 

For all of the wine and grape juice in production, there’s a whole lot of grape seed and pomace potentially going to waste. To redirect these materials to commerce, dietary supplement ingredient companies turn them into grape seed extracts and grape skin extracts. The sizable market for grape seed and grape skin extracts is well established. The ingredient suppliers that participate in this space include companies such as Polyphenolics Inc. (Madera, CA) with its water-extracted grape products, and Draco Natural Products (San Jose, CA), a company that supplies numerous seed- and pomace-based plant extracts (not just from grapes) to domestic and international customers.

Independent researchers, as well as companies with vested interest in grape extracts, have published positive studies on human consumption of these extracts for uses such as helping to lower blood pressure. Their research continues, with recent findings supporting the use of grape pomace in brewed coffee drinks as a potential free radical scavenger,

 as well as a characterization of the bioactive compounds in wine grape skins, including, but not limited to, phenolic compounds, anthocyanins, flavonoids, and polyunsaturated fatty acids.

Fresh avocado can fetch a high price, but what of the hard pit left over from every fruit? Seeing a potential missed opportunity-in the guacamole industry, perhaps?-interested parties are giving avocado seeds a closer look.

Earlier this year, researchers in Mexico proposed that avocado seeds may contain useful starch. After extracting the starch and comparing it to cornstarch, the researchers determined that avocado seed starch has potential for thickening and gelling of foodstuffs. The same qualities may one day even make this starch useful for pharmaceutical delivery (into the body) and as a component of food packaging.

Avocado seeds have additional potential human uses. A research team years ago discovered the seeds’ potential (when crushed) as an orange food colorant.

 Ingredients firm Ecuadorian Rainforest LLC (Belleville, NJ), which sells an avocado seed powder to food and dietary supplement manufacturers (alongside other seed powders, such as pumpkin), says avocado seeds are particularly rich in antioxidants.

During production of chocolate and coffee for the masses, the unused pods and grounds of these luxury commodities are often repurposed for compost or garden mulch, or they are simply discarded (which can spread cocoa crop disease). But there are ways of redirecting discards to benefit human health. 

In the case of cocoa, extracts sourced from cocoa pods recently showed promise as an experimental antiwrinkle gel for human skin. Within three weeks, gel users experienced reduced skin wrinkles and increased skin hydration.

Available in more plentiful supply, coffee grounds and other byproducts seem to have several novel uses that researchers are now learning about. Coffee grounds can be added to baked goods as a source of insoluble fiber, essential amino acids, and low-glycemic sugars. These properties, along with a resistance to thermal food processing, made coffee grounds seem like a sensible addition to biscuits in a recent study.

 In addition, silver skin-a thin skin layer left on coffee beans after they are hulled-is showing potential as a useful additive for skin-hydration creams.

For many years now, tomatoes have been used not just as whole and mechanically processed cooking ingredients, but also for the extraction of their pigments and nutritional compounds such as beta-carotene and lycopene. Lycored Corp. (Orange, NJ) is at the forefront of this tomato science, as the company has, with its various colorants and other sophisticated tomato ingredients, already carved out a nice space in the dietary supplement, food, and beverage industries.

Ongoing research indicates that the reuse of tomato byproducts has continuous potential beyond even today’s more advanced applications. Most recently, dry tomato waste was successfully added to wheat flour at 6%.

 At this low level of replacement, tomato waste yielded increased moisture and crumb elasticity in bread.

Lots of fibrous plant materials can, once ingested, impart a prebiotic effect on their consumers. This appears to be the case with pineapple waste. Thanks to pineapple waste’s prebiotic properties, it increased the presence of probiotics in yogurt in a recent study.

 Australian researchers say that mixing a fine powder of pineapple peel and pomace into yogurt resulted in yogurt with higher amounts of 

 bacteria than a control yogurt had. The friendly addition didn’t just boost probiotic growth; it also increased antioxidant activity in the product, they said.

In the giant market for omega-3 oils, we’ve already witnessed a growing diversity of resources (marine species) being used. Aside from popular anchovy and cod, other fish species are processed into oils, and so are numerous crustacean species.

Although some marine animals are caught and harvested primarily to be used as oil, shrimp is an exception. Shrimp is primarily sold for its meat, but shrimp’s undesirable parts that are removed prior to sale can be of use for their oil. A new study on an extract of shrimp waste found that it contained ample amounts of astaxanthin and fatty acids, as well as smaller amounts of vitamin E and cholesterol.

 The ingredient proved shelf stable for up to 120 days, so it may have significant potential as a food or dietary supplement ingredient, used for nutrition and/or color.

Reusing food byproducts as livestock feed is an old tradition, but it’s one that still makes sense today. Take pickled radish, which conventionally involves a lot of waste. According to a team of researchers in South Korea, 30% of the radish plant is discarded in the production of pickled radish, but this waste product can be reused in livestock feed.

Because radish waste is especially high in soluble fiber, ruminants such as cattle can use it for energy throughout the day. If refrigerated, radish waste may keep for up to 21 days, but its high amount of sodium means it should only be used as a component of ruminant livestock feed-not as the primary ingredient.

Since many commercial food ingredients travel significant distances before reaching consumers, it’s good business to make sure that all parts of these plants are used. Fortunately, the opportunities are plentiful, regardless of the plant. Jabuticaba 

 is a specialty Brazilian fruit grown for its juice and flesh. Jabuticaba’s 

 was just revealed to have significant nutritional contents, including tocopherols, polyunsaturated fatty acids, tannins, and anthocyanins.

 Mart) are harvested for oil in millions of tons each year, yet a new study found that the leftover fruit contains lots of cheap and usable pectin, making palm fruit waste “an inexpensive raw material to extract pectin in [an] environmentally friendly and economical way.”

As food waste products continue to prove their uses, ingredient suppliers and product manufacturers alike can increase their profits by embracing these materials. Hopefully, one or more of these examples is a fit for your company, or will inspire new ways in which you can tackle your particular waste streams.

Repurposing Ingredient By-product and Giving Ingredients a Second Life

Bioplastic Beverage Packaging Made from Juice Wastewater?

Is Compostable Packaging the Next Step in Sustainability?

“Food Loss and Food Waste,” Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, www.fao.org/food-loss-and-food-waste. Accessed November 8, 2016.

Nguyen T et al., “Consumer acceptance of a polyphenolic coffee beverage,” 

Ribeiro LF et al., “Profile of bioactive compounds from grape pomace 

 by spectrophotometric, chromatographic, and spectral analyses,” 

Chel-Guerrero L et al., “Some physicochemical and rheological properties of starch isolated from avocado seeds,” 

International Journal of Biological Macromolecules,

Dabas D et al., “A colored avocado seed extract as a potential natural colorant,” 

vol. 76, no. 9 (November–December 2011): C1335–1341

Crane M, “Repurposing Ingredient Byproduct and Giving Ingredients a Second Life,” 

Abdul Karim A et al., “Efficacy of cocoa pod extract as anti-wrinkle gel on human skin surface,” 

 vol. 15, no. 3 (September 2016): 283–295

Martinez-Saez N et al., “Use of spent coffee grounds as food ingredient in bakery products,” 

Rodrigues F et al., “Coffee silver skin: A possible valuable cosmetic ingredient,” 

Rodrigues F et al., “Exploring the antioxidant potential of two food by-products into a topical cream: stability, 

Drug Development and Industrial Pharmacy,

Nour V et al., “Bread enriched in lycopene and other bioactive compounds by addition of dry tomato waste,” 

 vol. 52, no. 12 (December 2015): 8260–8267

Sah BN et al., “Effect of pineapple waste powder on probiotic growth, antioxidant and anti-mutagenic activities in yogurt,” 

GÃ³mez-Estaca J et al., “Characterization and storage stability of astaxanthin esters, fatty acid profile, and Î±-tocopherol of lipid extract from shrimp 

 waste with potential applications as food ingredient,” 

Jeon S et al., “Evaluation of feed value of a by-product of pickled radish for ruminants: analyses of nutrient composition, storage stability, and 

Journal of Animal Science and Technology,

Morales P et al., “Non-fermented and fermented jabuticaba 

L.) pomaces as valuable sources of functional ingredients,” 

 Mart) fruits: novel raw materials for the pectin industry,” 

Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture.

Scientists tell you how to turn food waste into new ingredients. 

New Ways to Repurpose Ingredient, Food Waste

No matter how you slice it, launching an initiative to improve the transparency of an entire industry is a tall order. But that’s exactly what the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN; Washington, DC) set out to do this year when it proposed, helped develop, and began beta testing the Supplement Online Wellness Library (OWL), an industry-wide, finished-product registry for dietary supplements.

 to create its new registry in April, partly in response to the barrage of negative media coverage that hit the industry in 2015. Since then, the trade association worked with Underwriters Laboratories (UL; Northbrook, IL) to build an online database that would be a “one-stop shop” where regulators and retailers can find the full label information-and, in some cases, even more info-of finished supplement products. Consumers will also be able to access the Supplement OWL, although they are not its primary intended audience at this point.

Steve Mister, president and CEO of CRN, tells 

 that while there were already ways for consumers and retailers to locate supplement label information piecemeal, the OWL is meant to help industry move forward on the “continuum” of transparency by putting all of that information in one easily navigable resource. And while FDA has other tools to inform its enforcement actions, the new registry will hopefully make the agency’s work easier too. 

“To the extent that we hear FDA saying it doesn’t know which manufacturers use which ingredients at which levels, this is a way to take that argument off the table and say, ‘Well, now you do,’” Mister says. For instance, if FDA had particular concerns about magnesium, it could easily search for all the products in the registry containing magnesium. Mister adds that the agency has indicated to CRN that it already sees the OWL “as a very favorable move.”

Still, the question remains of how many supplement manufacturers will actually use the new registry. CRN member companies will be required to upload their labels to the OWL, but what incentive does the rest of the industry have to participate? It largely hinges on pressure from retailers. If major supplement retailers begin to view participation in the OWL as a factor in store placement, a large swath of the industry would be motivated to participate. CRN is optimistic retailers will get on board in this spirit, Mister says. 

But even if the OWL isn’t widely used by the majority of supplement manufacturers, it could still be “a tool in FDA’s own risk management,” Mister explains. For one, the companies that upload their labels to the registry will probably be those more likely to be in compliance with industry regulations. “So if you’re FDA, and you’re seeing some companies in the registry and then you know there are others that are not, maybe that helps direct where your attentions are,” Mister says. For a fee, the OWL also offers companies the option of easily displaying other background documentation, such as GMP certifications, which FDA could use to prioritize where facility inspections are most needed-and where they are not.

Beta testing of the OWL is already well underway, and the site will go live once enough labels from finished-product manufacturers and marketers are in the system-hopefully in the first few months of 2017. Meanwhile, CRN will also be rolling out a marketing campaign to ensure retailers, manufacturers, and media outlets are aware of the registry and its potential to take industry transparency soaring to new heights.

“We spent 2016 developing a product that works,” Mister says. “2017 will be the year that we really start to promote it, first to industry, and then outside the industry.” The OWL may be less than a year into development, but already industry hopes are high that it will help regulators better distinguish between responsible and irresponsible firms, perhaps while also silencing criticisms that the industry is not transparent enough. 

Nutritional Outlook's 2016 Best of the Industry, Industry Leader: Botanical Adulterants Program

Nutritional Outlook's 2016 Best of the Industry, Ingredient Supplier/Service Provider: Sabinsa Corp.

Nutritional Outlook's 2016 Best of the Industry, Retail Brand/Product: KIND

CRN Offers First Glimpse of Supplement Online Wellness Library (OWL)

Congressional Leaders, Supplement Industry Executives Meet at 2016 Day on the Hill

The trade association is stepping up with a new tool to reset the conversation on industry transparency.

 Nutritional Outlook's 2016 Best of the Industry, Industry Leader: Council for Responsible Nutrition

Staying a step ahead of fraud can seem nearly impossible at times, given how adroitly cybercriminals and adulterers find new ways-overnight, it seems-to skirt existing detection capabilities. Luckily, there are those devoted to developing tools to help fight adulteration. In the herbal products industry, the 

 is one of those champions. Developed five years ago by three U.S.-based nonprofit organizations-the American Botanical Council (ABC; Austin, TX), the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia (AHP; Scotts Valley, CA), and the University of Mississippi’s National Center for Natural Products Research (NCNPR; University, MS)-the ABC-AHP-NCNPR Botanical Adulterants Program is dedicated to spreading awareness and education about how herbs, herbal extracts, essential oils, and other plant-derived ingredients are being adulterated, either deliberately for financial gain or accidentally due to poor quality control. 

Over the past five years, the Botanical Adulterants Program has evolved into a “long-term, multiparty coalition” of herbal experts supported by more than 175 U.S. and international underwriters and endorsers. Participants include universities, third-party analytical labs, government agencies, trade associations, and industry companies. Their shared goal is to help prevent botanical adulteration by determining both the scope of adulteration happening in U.S. and global markets, as well as determining whether appropriate tools exist to detect adulteration-and then spreading the word. 

The program’s educational arsenal includes the comprehensive 

 published in ABC’s prestigious, peer-reviewed scientific journal, 

 newsletter; plus peer-reviewed Laboratory Guidance Documents, which are developed to help identify the most suitable analytical methods for testing botanicals for adulteration. 

Anyone who has read one of the extensive 

 can attest to the value of these lengthy reports, each focusing in on a specific botanical ingredient and peer-reviewed by experts in the field. This spring, the program added something new: 

. These concise (but still information-packed) reviews of ingredient-specific botanical adulteration are not as in-depth as full-scale 

 but are still jam-packed with crucial information. Together, “the full papers and the 

 provide the background and available data on herbal ingredients where quality problems have been confirmed, give a fairly broad overview of the plant species, and include data on cultivation, harvest and market size, known adulterants, frequency of adulteration (if such data is available), possible therapeutic issues using the adulterating species, and a short review of analytical approaches to detect the adulterant,” says Stefan Gafner, PhD, ABC’s chief science officer and technical director of the Botanical Adulterants Program and editor of the 

Timeliness, as we know, is key when it comes to fighting adulteration, particularly for certain ingredients. “For ingredients where there are many adulterant options, the adulteration landscape changes frequently,” Gafner says. “An example is bilberry extract, where a number of fruit extracts which contain anthocyanins, the blue pigments giving bilberry its color, are used to fool the analytical test methods for bilberry and for which new adulterants are reported almost on a yearly basis.” 

 because they are concise and in digital form, they can be updated more quickly while still retaining the high quality intrinsic to the Botanical Adulterants Program. “The

 are shorter reviews on current issues of herbal ingredient adulteration, which can be released in a more timely manner,” Gafner says. In a press release, Mark Blumenthal, ABC’s founder and executive director, called the 

 “a more rapid means of confirming suspected and/or alleged adulteration.”

(on bilberry, grapeseed, skullcap, goldenseal, black cohosh, and arnica), with two more set to be published soon on saw palmetto and St. John’s wort and plans for upcoming 

The need for the Botanical Adulterants Program has never been more urgent, as the herbal-supplements industry is increasingly under scrutiny by the public and regulators. As the Botanical Adulterants Program and its esteemed participants continue the crusade against herbal adulteration, their positive effects are being felt not only within the industry but also where it matters most-consumer health and safety. 

Nutritional Outlook's 2016 Best of the Industry, Industry Leader: Council for Responsible Nutrition

New Botanical Adulterants Bulletins from American Botanical Council Dive Deep into Herbal Fraud

ABC Investigates Black Cohosh Adulteration in Latest Bulletin

Dietary Supplements: New Testing Tools to Catch Botanical Adulteration

The program’s newest educational tools keep stakeholders up to date on botanical adulteration.

Curcumin is one of the bestselling herbal ingredients in the supplements market today. It is now the top-ranked herb in the U.S. natural channel, with $37 million in sales in that channel alone last year, according 

’s annual U.S. herbal-supplement sales report

. To some unscrupulous actors, those fortunes are just too big to ignore. As demand for curcumin has increased dramatically in recent years, so have cases of curcumin adulteration-namely, the undetected spiking of natural curcumin with synthetic curcumin for economic gain. 

For consumers, this is indeed bad news because there is no evidence to show that synthetic curcumin provides any of the health benefits that researchers ascribe to natural curcumin. And for ingredient suppliers invested in natural curcumin, synthetic curcumin threatens their very business, including the integrity of the supply chain and consumer trust in the ingredient as a whole. 

Curcumin expert Sabinsa Corp. (East Windsor, NJ) saw this problem unfolding more than five years ago, and the company did something about it. To start with, Sabinsa began suing others it alleged were adulterating natural curcumin with synthetic. Sabinsa made no secret of these lawsuits either, shining a spotlight on the growing problem of adulteration in the curcumin marketplace, which the company says has now been detected in the U.S., Europe, and Australia.

Then the company turned its attention to testing. Unfortunately, test methods like chromatography (HPLC, etc.) or spectral analysis cannot distinguish synthetic curcumin from natural curcumin. In the case of HPLC, for instance, synthetic curcumin replicates the same chromatogram “peaks” that register with natural curcumin, making it impossible to tell the difference. Radiocarbon dating, however, 

 distinguish between natural and synthetic materials. 

Knowing this, in 2011, Sabinsa reached out to the University of Georgia’s Center for Applied Isotope Studies (CAIS; Athens, GA), which had developed advanced technologies around carbon dating. “As a science-based company with over 100 scientists on staff, we were very much aware of the trailblazing research work done by CAIS on the differences in isotopic composition between natural products and petroleum-based synthetic products,” says N. Kalyanam, PhD, Sabinsa’s president of R&D.

Carbon dating can detect synthetic curcumin where other testing techniques fail because it tests for carbon 14 (

C), a radioactive isotope inherent in plants. Plants naturally absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere during photosynthesis and thus contain traces of 

C; ingredients produced in a lab and not in nature, however, will not contain 

C. By carbon dating, scientists can look for the presence of 

C to indicate that a sample is of natural origin.

Talk about carbon dating may bring back memories of high school science class, but the technology is actually far more advanced today, Kalyanam explains. For instance, researchers no longer focus on carbon dating by way of measuring the amount of radioactivity using a liquid scintillation counting instrument. Instead, researchers like CAIS use sophisticated mass spectral equipment-namely, an accelerator mass spectrometer (AMS), Kalyanam explains. The AMS is more accurate and works faster than liquid scintillation counters. In fact, he says, the AMS that CAIS uses is so accurate that it can still detect 

C in the atmosphere today compared to years ago. He notes an interesting fact: “If you submit two natural curcuminoids samples, one manufactured in 2011 and one recently in 2016, CAIS will easily distinguish one from the other, even though these two samples will be indistinguishable by every other known analytical method.”

Caption: This University of Georgia 500KeV accelerator mass spectrometer can be used to identify synthetic curcumin. Photo from Sabinsa Corp.

Not only that, he says, but “CAIS can exactly detect the extent of synthetic contamination.” This means that even if there are only trace amounts of synthetic curcumin present in a natural sample (for instance, even a 2:98 ratio of synthetic:natural), the “CAIS method can still unfailingly determine even this low level of contamination,” Kalyanam says. 

This summer, Sabinsa announced that it will use carbon testing on all batches of Curcumin C3 Complex, the supplier’s flagship branded and highly studied curcumin ingredient. The company says it is doing this to “safeguard customer and consumer confidence in their product.”

At least one other curcumin-ingredients supplier is now working with CAIS on carbon dating. Kalyanam says Sabinsa welcomes the company. “Sabinsa was the first natural ingredients supplier to seek this testing from [CAIS],” he says. “Sabinsa is proud to be the torchbearer on this important fight against adulteration. We are happy to learn that other companies are following our lead to eradicate synthetic curcumin contamination in this exploding curcuminoids market.”

Curcumin Suppliers "Guaranteeing" Natural Curcumin Is Not Synthetic by Using Carbon Dating: SupplySide West Report

Radiocarbon Provides “Conclusive Test” for Detecting Synthetic Curcumin, Sabinsa Says

Turmeric Rising: Turmeric and Curcumin Research Is Hot

By leading the charge on carbon-dating curcumin, the supplier is helping to guard the natural-curcumin supply chain from adulteration. 

 Nutritional Outlook's 2016 Best of the Industry, Ingredient Supplier/Service Provider: Sabinsa Corp.

How many companies can say they stood at the happy intersection of not one, but two, of the most consequential regulatory developments to hit the food and beverage industry in 2016? From KIND’s role in prompting FDA to reevaluate how it defines the term 

 on food labeling, to its early disclosure of the added-sugar content of its products, the snacks brand managed to turn potential regulatory headaches into leadership opportunities and positive press. 

It’s a big change from this time last year, when KIND was still embroiled in media scrutiny following an FDA warning letter objecting to the brand’s use of the phrase “healthy and tasty” on several of its snack bars. KIND’s products exceeded the threshold of fat per serving outlined under FDA’s current definition of 

nutrient content claims, the agency said, and therefore had to stop using the term.

KIND shot back with a citizen petition in December of 2015 urging FDA to update its “outdated” food labeling requirements, while also pointing out that the current regulations for “healthy” claims were last updated more than 20 years ago. With its focus on fat, saturated fat, sodium, and cholesterol, FDA’s definition of 

 unjustly maligns many ingredients now thought to be nutritious, including nuts, avocados, and salmon, KIND said. Meanwhile, some high-sugar foods can be called “healthy.”

KIND’s campaign paid off. FDA announced in May that it would be reevaluating its regulations for “healthy” claims and that KIND could return to using the word 

 on its wrappers as a statement of “corporate philosophy,” but not as a health claim. In September, FDA officially requested public comments on how 

 should be defined, citing KIND’s citizen petition as one reason why it was reevaluating the term.

Stephanie Perruzza, health and wellness communications specialist for KIND, says the brand applauds FDA’s decision to reevaluate the term 

 “in light of evolving nutrition research.” 

 is an important step towards ensuring consumers have the information they need to make informed food choices,” Perruzza tells 

. In the meantime, though, KIND doesn’t intend to place the term back on its product packaging.

 saga, KIND also made headlines this year as one of the first major snacks brands to disclose the added sugar content of its products. FDA released its new Nutrition Facts label for packaged foods and beverages in May, which includes a requirement for large manufacturers to disclose added-sugar content by July 26, 2018. But in August, nearly two years before FDA’s deadline, KIND announced it would be publishing the added-sugar content of more than 60 of its products online.

“Disclosing the added sugar in our products in advance of the 2018 deadline was part of our continued commitment to transparency and providing consumers with information to help them make more informed food choices,” Perruzza notes. She adds that beginning in early 2017, the actual packaging of select KIND products will begin to carry added-sugar listings. 

“We were excited to be the first national snack brand to publicly share the added-sugar content across our portfolio and hope to set a positive example within the industry,” Perruzza says.

Sugar reduction was another key priority at KIND in 2016; the brand recently reformulated its fruit and nut bars so they contain between 14% and 56% less sugar. It also debuted Pressed by KIND ingredient bars earlier this year, which are totally free from added sugar. More new KIND products made without added sugar are slated for launch in 2017, according to Perruzza. 

What Does FDA’s KIND Decision Mean for the Future of “Healthy”?

KIND Publishes Added Sugar Content of Its Snacks

KIND Unveils Pressed Bars with Five Ingredients or Less

The snacks brand led the way on several key regulatory fronts this year, including successfully petitioning FDA to reevaluate its definition of the term "healthy." 

For as much as the dietary supplements industry has been put under the microscope by critics these past few years, surveys-most recently the 

Council for Responsible Nutrition’s annual consumer survey

-show that many shoppers remain loyal customers. These consumers’ overall confidence in the safety, quality, and effectiveness of supplements holds steady year over year.

Trust in supplements, however, is earned, not given. Those with a stake in the supplements/natural products industry need to work to continually boost industry credibility. Perhaps it’s not surprising, then, that all four of the award winners 

’s readers and editors selected as this year’s Best of the Industry 2016 worked in some way during the past year to help increase transparency, quality, safety, and clear messaging around dietary supplements.

Take the Council for Responsible Nutrition, whose new Supplement OWL database aims to boost transparency by making available to regulators, as well as to the public, an industry-wide finished-products registry. Another winner this year is the Botanical Adulterants Program, whose valuable resources educate stakeholders about the critical botanical adulteration issues happening around the globe. With adulteration in mind, as well, our third winner, ingredient supplier/contract manufacturer Sabinsa Corp., has blazed a trail on carbon-dating curcumin in an effort to expose adulteration in the natural-curcumin market. Finally, we are recognizing the snacks brand KIND, whose bold citizen petition to FDA led to the agency’s decision this year to redefine the term healthy. Thanks to KIND’s actions, this common marketing term may soon be updated and ultimately become more meaningful to the consumer.

Companies like these are making the industry-advancing contributions that will help maintain consumer trust and perhaps build back any trust that has been lost. Please join us in congratulating our esteemed Best of 2016 winners and read their stories!


Editor-in-Chief
Nutritional Outlook magazine


Congratulations to our 2016 Best of the Industry Award Winners: The Council for Responsible Nutrition, the Botanical Adulterants Program, Sabinsa Corp., and KIND.

Nutritional Outlook's 2016 Best of the Industry Award Winners

Superfruits may not be as trendy as they were ten years ago, but market experts share five key strategies for keeping the category ripe.

Nutritional Outlook Vol. 19 No. 10

Energy Drink Trends: Less Sugar, Clean Label, Natural, and More

Are Meat-Free Ingredients Good Enough to Win over Flexitarians?

2016 Dietary Supplement Mergers & Acquisitions' Driving Forces

Retailers Talk Challenges, Opportunities for Dietary Supplements in 2016

New Ways to Repurpose Ingredient, Food Waste

Nutritional Outlook's 2016 Best of the Industry, Industry Leader: Council for Responsible Nutrition

Nutritional Outlook's 2016 Best of the Industry, Industry Leader: Botanical Adulterants Program

Nutritional Outlook's 2016 Best of the Industry, Ingredient Supplier/Service Provider: Sabinsa Corp.

Nutritional Outlook's 2016 Best of the Industry, Retail Brand/Product: KIND

Nutritional Outlook's 2016 Best of the Industry Award Winners

5 Ways to Make a Superfruit Successful

7 Dairy-Free Growth Markets