With rising interest in healthy aging, more people are looking for clinical research that supports products designed to help them live healthier for longer. The coenzyme NAD+ is essential to the body's metabolic processes, but it declines with age, so supplements that boost NAD+ have garnered considerable attention in the scientific community. Chro…

Loren Israelsen from the United Natural Products Alliance shares insight on how agency priorities might change and how businesses can prepare. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is in process of a massive reorganization designed to streamline operations within a unified Human Foods Program (HFP) to largely replace the Center for Food Safety and …

One of the biggest challenges for dietary supplements has been proving that products actually work. The traditional model for clinical research is expensive, slow, and not representative of diverse populations. As its name suggests, the company Radicle Science aims to address those concerns with a much different approach, leveraging new tools and t…

Born as a DTC multivitamin brand with strong focus on transparency, Ritual entered retail stores for the first time in 2022 with Whole Foods, and expanded in 2023 with Target and Amazon. Now an omnichannel brand and a Certified B Corp, Ritual has expanded its menu of products to include a Synbiotic for gut health, as well as a Skin Hydration supple…

Women In Nutraceuticals (WIN) is a nonprofit group established in 2022 with a mission to “empower women to unlock their personal and professional potential,” ultimately looking to “achieve economic and societal equity to change the global industry.” WIN recently conducted an industry Leadership Survey to get a global benchmark of where the industry…

Mushrooms seem to be everywhere, and in everything. Reishi, Shitake, Cordyceps, Lion’s Mane, Turkey Tail, Chaga, and others are all finding their way into dietary supplements and other nutritional products. The closer you look at the Kingdom of Fungi, which is separate from plants, the more fascinating it seems to become. To better understand the c…

There are all sorts of legal and regulatory issues affecting the dietary supplements market today. FDA restructuring, drug preclusion, facility inspections, FTC’s new Health Products Compliance Guidance, and updated Green Guides for environmental claims are just a few. Top legal and regulatory experts will be tackling these issues and more at the 1…

This November marks 25 years since the debut issue of Nutraceuticals World (NW), which launched 4 years after passage of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA). NW Founding Editor Ellen Schutt—now the managing director of the Global Organization for EPA and DHA Omega-3s (GOED)—reflects on advancement of the nutraceutical market and…

Caitlyn Vanderhaeghe is the President and CEO of KidStar Nutrients, based in Vancouver, BC, Canada, which aims to deliver the highest quality nutritional supplements for kids. She co-founded KidStar Nutrients after one of her daughters was diagnosed with iron deficiency, and she wasn’t satisfied with what was available on the market. “I went on a h…

Dietary supplement issues discussed include: The drug exclusion rule in DSHEA and the impact on CBD, NAC, NMN, and other ingredients; FDA restructuring of the Human Foods Program and industry’s relationship with its regulators; FDA’s “Dietary Supplement Ingredient Directory”; CBD and potential for a regulatory fix through the Farm Bill, or other le…

Mark Blumenthal is the Founder & Executive Director of the American Botanical Council, an independent, 501(c)(3) nonprofit research and education organization dedicated to providing accurate and reliable information for consumers, healthcare practitioners, researchers, educators, industry, and the media. He’s also Editor-in-Chief of the peer-review…

Diverse minds in the board room, and science lab, are healthy for business. In this episode I talked Karen Howard, CEO and Executive Director of the Organic & Natural Health Association (O&N); Naomi Whittel, CEO of Naomi Whittel Brands and President of the Board of Directors for O&N; and Sandra Lee, CEO of NJ Labs and a Board Member of O&N. In Marc…

Sustainability is a broad term that gets tossed around a lot these days in different contexts, to the point where it's not always clear what it means. A report released this year from Nielsen IQ and McKinsey showed that consumers are shifting their spending toward products with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) related claims. To better u…

Food scientist and CEO of Icon Foods discusses evolution of clean label sweetening systems in foods, beverages, and gummies. In this episode we talked with Thom King, the founder and CEO of Icon Foods, which is one of the largest importers, manufacturers and distributors of clean-label sweetening systems and natural sweeteners. Thom has over 20 yea…

At Expo West 2023 in Anaheim, CA, we sat down with Erin Stokes a naturopathic doctor, educator, and mom who lives with her family in Boulder CO. Stokes is the medical director for MegaFood, the Certified B Corporation that’s celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. She spearheads the health and wellness education movement at MegaFood to empower …

In this podcast I talked to Michael McGuffin, president of the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) about the Dietary Supplement Listing Act of 2022 and the regulation of dietary supplements more broadly. In April, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) introduced Senate Bill 4090, which would require dietary supplement manu…

Royal DSM, a global science-based company in nutrition, health and sustainable living, recently launched a new brand campaign for the human nutrition and health markets. The concept reflects DSM’s evolved strategic direction in human nutrition and health as an end-to-end partner within the value chain, championing the purpose behind products that h…

It’s a tall order to manage teams through a crisis like COVID-19. The magnitude and scale of disruption have presented challenges from every angle and at every turn. For Pharmavite, keeping its roughly 1,100 frontline workers safe is the top priority, according to CEO Jeff Boutelle. Simultaneously meeting increased consumer demand for health produc…

The American Herbal Products Association will be presenting its inaugural Sports Nutrition Congress on Wednesday, Oct. 21, from 8 am to 4:30 pm PT. The virtual event will cover market trends and dynamics, innovation and research, product testing and quality assurance, and much more. The full agenda can be found here. To register for the event, clic…

Brand development and sound marketing strategies are essential components to success in a competitive landscape like the nutritional products marketplace. Sheldon Baker, senior member of Baker Dillon Group, LLC, has more than 30 years of brand marketing and management experience in the nutraceutical industry. In this podcast, he discussed the hallm…

The United States faces a national reckoning on racial injustice, as people of color demand change and recognition that Black Lives Matter. With companies and brands being held to account for their actions, it’s important for executives to evaluate their biases, their business structures and strategies, products, hiring practices and more. Food and…

Traditionally, consumers and marketers have focused on cognitive health at either end of the life span—brain development in the pre-natal and early childhood stages, and then maintaining mental sharpness and memory in the senior years. But supporting brain health and sustaining cognitive function is a lifelong endeavor. Today, brands are recognizin…