Nutritional Outlook Staff

An update on where the market's top ingredients are headed.

A look at several dietary supplements that should be on the radars of health care practitioners.

Phillips Distilling Co. has introduced a green tea-flavored vodka. The company says that green tea yields a honey-green vodka. Green tea leaves are sourced from various global locations. 'The fresh brewed taste of green tea adds a refreshing take to this classic sweet tea flavor,' it says. The company makes no health claims about the benefits of green tea. Instead, it promotes the flavor of green tea as a unique feature in the industry, 'capturing the taste, aroma, and colors of these natural ingredients.'

Honest Tea, a marketer of organic bottled teas, has launched Passion Fruit Green Tea with Maqui Berry, sweetened with organic stevia. The company says that it is the first ready-to-drink organic bottled tea to be naturally sweetened with stevia.

Joint Juice has reformulated its supplement beverage for joint health. The company has now added chondroitin sulfate and vitamin D3 to its formula. In addition to these ingredients, the new 20-calorie drink includes glucosamine, vitamin C, and various antioxidants. 'Using our customers... feedback, we wanted to keep everything that worked well in the original formula, but create an even better product to support an active lifestyle,' said David Ritterbush, COO at the San Francisco-based joint-health beverage company.

TSI Health Sciences’ (Missoula, MT) Pureflex chondroitin sulfate sodium line has obtained self-affirmed Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) status for use in food and beverages. The company has also obtained self-affirmed GRAS status for its Pureflex glucosamine line. The GRAS affirmation for chondroitin was conducted by a panel of independent experts, which deemed the Pureflex products, derived from bovine, avian, marine, and porcine sources, safe when added to conventional foods and beverages.

In its June issue, Nutritional Outlook reported the Comax Flavors (Melville, NY) had introduced a new sweetness enhancer that allows brands to add sweetness at half the calories of sugar. Cathy Armstrong, vice president of corporate communications for Comax Flavors, offered more details in an interview with Nutritional Outlook assistant editor Robby Gardner. Describe this new technology and how it works.

Bayer Consumer Care, a division of Bayer HealthCare LLC), is calling its new Phillips...-brand Colon Health Probiotic + Fiber a 'two-in-one' supplement that combines three probiotic strains and inulin prebiotic fiber to maintain the digestive system...s 'natural balance' and help defend against digestive disturbances, including against occasional diarrhea, constipation, gas, and bloating.

While 30% of consumers say they make it a point to eat naturally fiber-rich foods, studies show that most Americans are failing to meet their recommended daily fiber intake, said market researcher Mintel International, according to a recent survey taken. Mintel said that the lack of fiber in the American diet may be attributed to a negative taste perception of fiber. In the survey, 27% of respondents indicated their belief that food with added fiber usually has an 'unpleasant' taste.

Cargill (Minneapolis) has announced plans to unveil an 'industry-first' omega-3-fortified cooking oil derived from canola seed and flaxseed at the upcoming Institute of Food Technologists... (IFT) Annual Food Expo in July. According to Cargill, the oil offers consumers a good source of omega-3, while eliminating possible taste and formulation challenges involved with oils derived from omega-3 sources such as fish oil.

Grain Processing Corp. (GPC; Muscatine, IA) has partnered with flaxseed specialist Enreco Inc. (Sheboygan Falls, WI) to marry Enreco's Sterling Choice flaxseed products with GPC's own grain line. GPC products infused with Sterling Choice flaxseeds will now be able to bear the claim 'excellent source of ALA omega-3.'

General Mills has introduced Total Plus Omega-3s cereal, featuring ALA omega-3 derived from ground flax. The company says that each serving delivers 160 mg of ALA per serving, or 10% Daily Value of omega-3. According to the Flax Council of Canada (Canada is the world...s leading grower of flaxseed), more than half the fat in flax seeds is ALA, which the body converts into docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosopentaenoic acid (EPA).

In light of steadily rising cocoa prices, Comax Flavors (Melville, NY) has developed a range of cocoa “extenders” and replacers that the company says can replace between 10 to 75 parts of dutched cocoa in a finished product with one part of Comax flavoring.

The Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act of 2010 is the most recent initiative in Washington that could affect nationwide food standards for children. Announced by Representative George Miller (D-CA) on June 10, the bill calls for enhancing and expanding access to school food programs and “…for the first time, establish[ing] nutrition standards for all foods sold in schools,” according to Miller’s Web site.

Besides school lunch, there are obviously multiple other venues for getting kids proper nutrition-and supplementation can be one of them.

Find yourself suffering from a “food coma” after consuming a big meal? Enzyme specialist National Enzyme Co. (Forsyth, MO) may have a solution. At this weekend’s Natural MarketPlace trade show in Las Vegas, the company will debut ZIP eX2-a new “three-tiered” supplement solution that combines enzymes, herbs, and vitamins to help consumers both increase nutrient absorption and fight the feelings of fatigue that can come from “energy-zapping digestive stress.”

Daily lutein supplementation may help protect against loss of sight in those with retinitis pigmentosa, according to a four-year study published in the April issue of Archives of Ophthalmology.

During baseline testing of 111 subjects for a one-year, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind study, researchers confirmed that although the level of macular pigment, comprised of lutein and zeaxanthin from the diet, varied widely among subjects, it had a significant impact on glare disability, photostress recovery time, and contrast enhancement.

Ingredient supplier BioActives (Worcester, MA) has acquired a major equity stake in oral-care brand Perfect Smile Corp. Perfect Smile uses BioActives’ MicroActive CoQ10 ingredient in its toothpaste and other oral-care products. CoQ10 is said to help fight gum disease.

Ingredient supplier Triarco (Wayne, NJ) has launched Aqua 10, a patented water-soluble coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) powder designed for optimal dry and liquid blending. CoQ10 can be difficult to incorporate in beverages and other products because of its molecular weight and characteristic solubility-factors that can also hinder bioavailability, says the company. It says that Aqua 10 demonstrates approximately 50% better absorption when compared with typical CoQ10.

A new, small study published in the European Journal for Nutraceutical Research says that transdermal application of magnesium may raise magnesium levels in the body over a short period of time-and more effectively than taking magnesium in oral supplements.

U.S. consumers may not be as well-versed in prebiotics as they are in probiotics, but that could all change with a little more effort to publicize prebiotics’ benefits, say industry members. Nutritional Outlook recently caught up with Pashen Black, Tate & Lyle’s (Decatur, IL) marketing communications manager, for a quick chat about the potential of prebiotics.

The phrase “rich in antioxidants” got more attention from U.S. grocery shoppers than the phrase “antioxidants added,” market researcher Decision Analyst reported based on a survey taken for its Food Ingredients: What’s Hot? report. (The report incorporated the responses of 16,392 U.S. grocery shoppers.)

New studies on vitamin D and dietary intake were presented at last week’s Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology’s (FASEB) Experimental Biology conference, held in Anaheim, CA. At the conference, researchers released new estimates regarding the level of vitamin D deficiency in the United States.

Due to increasing popularity of omega-3s, innovations are churning out to meet the special needs of every consumer. In the spirit of those innovations, DuPont (Wilmington, DE) recently announced the launch of New Harvest, a yeast source of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) that the company says is the market’s first fish-free, vegetarian EPA product.

The People’s Republic of China recently approved omega-3 fish oil and fish oil powder as Novel Food Ingredients in food and beverages for consumers of all ages, according to Ocean Nutrition Canada (ONC; Dartmouth, NS), the supplier of MEG-3 brand omega-3 EPA/DHA food and dietary supplements.

PepsiCo Inc. (Plano, TX) has announced its commitment to reducing the average sodium content in its products by 25% by 2015, among other news.