Gnosis by Lesaffre touts its new MenaQ7 Matrix enhanced-stability vitamin K2 ingredient: 2022 SupplySide West Report

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Gnosis by Lesaffre (Marcq-en-Baroeul, France) shared more details on its new MenaQ7 Matrix vitamin K2 ingredient during November’s SupplySide West trade show. The new version of the company’s flagship MenaQ7 vitamin K2 MK-7 ingredient features a protective technology called Matrix, which improves the ingredient's stability without using coatings, additives, or additional ingredients.

Kate Quackenbush, director of communications for Gnosis by Lesaffre, said that adding the Matrix technology to MenaQ7 is a result of Gnosis by Lesaffre’s recent acquisition of NattoPharma, MenaQ7’s developer. Originally, she explained, Gnosis by Lesaffre developed Matrix to protect Gnosis's own VitaMK7 vitamin K2 ingredient. After acquiring NattoPharma, Gnosis by Lesaffre did extensive testing to see whether Matrix protects MenaQ7 just as it does VitaMK7—and it does. (Even after acquiring NattoPharma, Gnosis continues to offer both vitamin K2 ingredients—VitaMK7 and now MenaQ7—so that customers can select the K2 that's best for their market, she said.)

Quackenbush called Matrix a clean-label technology because it doesn’t use additives. Matrix is useful for protecting vitamin K2 in ingredient blends, she added. “When you decide to do a complex formulation with vitamin K2, there are certain complex calciums and minerals that will threaten the stability of the menaquinone molecule, so the concern is making sure that stability is ensured. So the idea here is that no matter how complex your formulation is, this protective technology means you don’t need to add a ton of additional ingredients to your label. It really is just the carrier itself, and it provides excellent stability.”

She added: “Ensuring that a menaquinone molecule is stable has always been a challenge…It’s the fragility of the long-chain menaquinones as you start to get longer on that chain. You start to worry about degradation.”

Companies have typically used ingredient overages to accommodate for any loss in vitamin K2 MK-7 stability, she said, but now the Matrix technology can ensure that MenaQ7 “stays stable all the way through the formulation process and then through shelf life.”