SupplySide West: Sabinsa’s Pet Ingredients Leverage Firm’s Expertise, Research

Sabinsa (East Windsor, NJ) has big plans for the pet nutrition space. The company says it will invest the same level of traceability, research, and expertise that it leverages for its human-nutrition ingredients for its new VetVitals animal-nutrition line.

While Sabinsa offers more than 100 ingredients for humans, marketing director Shaheen Majeed says the company will offer approximately 20 carefully curated ingredients for animal nutrition that meet the guidelines of both AAFCO (The Association of Animal Feed Control Officials) and FDA’s CFR for Animal Nutrition. “We’re going to be consolidated and concise in terms of the ingredients that we bring to VetVitals, because we’ll be focusing on those ingredients’ research,” he says.

While Sabinsa invests heavily in human-nutrition research, Majeed says VetVitals research will specifically target animal health. “We’re very serious and intense about taking the level of excellence we give to clinicals on the human-nutrition side to the animal-nutrition side. The big difference is that we’re not going to do an animal study to convert over to the human side. We’re going to do an animal study for animals, and we want to be very precise on the science we provide,” he told Nutritional Outlook.

Branching out into animal nutrition is a logical next step for the company, Majeed says. The line includes flavors, spices (including Sabinsa’s flagship C3 Complex and C3 Reduct curcumin), seasonings, enzymes, and probiotics. Majeed says the company’s expertise in traceability, harvesting, and cultivation will benefit VetVitals. He says that these are not necessarily top-of-mind conversations in the animal-nutrition world. “I think there has been a real lack of it,” he says. “There are suppliers on the animal side, but to have the dedicated care, know the research and manufacturing facilities, know where those plants are harvested and cultivated-those are really unheard stories in the pet food area. No one tells the story all the way back to the farmer.”

Jennifer Grebow
Editor-in-Chief
Nutritional Outlook magazine
jennifer.grebow@ubm.com

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