Advertise on podcast: Mapping The Nutraceuticals World

As consumer interest in holistic wellness continues to grow, mood, stress, and sleep are increasingly viewed as interconnected health priorities. In this podcast, Ava Ghobadpour MS, RD, business development manager, U.S./Canada, Pharmactive, discusses the evolving saffron market and the science behind the company's proprietary Affron saffron extract, which is distributed by Saanroo in the U.S.  Ghobadpour explains why clinically validated botanical ingredients are gaining traction as consumers seek gentle, everyday solutions that support emotional well-being.  Affron stands out from conventional saffron extracts due to its standardized bioactive compounds, clinically studied dosing, and portfolio of 13 human clinical trials spanning adolescents to menopausal women. The conversation also explores the importance of quality assurance in the saffron supply chain. Because saffron is among the world's most valuable botanicals, adulteration remains a significant concern.  Ghobadpour outlines Pharmactive's sourcing practices, proprietary extraction process, DNA testing, and full traceability system designed to ensure ingredient authenticity and consistency. Topics discussed: Consumer demand for integrated mood, stress, and sleep supportThe clinical research behind Affron saffron extractStandardization, dosing, and formulation versatilityHuman clinical studies across multiple populationsSaffron supply chain challenges and adulteration risksDNA testing, traceability, and quality assuranceThe role of clinically validated botanicals in product innovation

At the 45th Natural Products Expo West, Jeffrey Bland, PhD, founder of Big Bold Health and a pioneer in functional medicine, reflected on more than four decades of progress in the natural products industry and where it’s headed next. A trained nutritional biochemist, Bland has long advocated for elevating the role of nutrition science in standard medical practice. He believes the industry is entering a pivotal phase defined by clinical validation, measurable outcomes, and personalized health strategies. Over his 30-year career, Bland has contributed to hundreds of clinical studies and helped develop numerous products grounded in measurable outcomes. Key to this process, he noted, is identifying meaningful biomarkers that can demonstrate how nutritional interventions impact the body. That scientific focus will culminate in an 850-person, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial investigating the effects of Tartary buckwheat sprouts on immune aging and longevity, Bland said. Expected to conclude in mid-2026, the study aims to provide robust human data on how targeted nutrition can influence immune resilience, an area Bland believes is central to reducing chronic disease risk and supporting healthy aging. Looking ahead, Bland believes the industry must move beyond unsupported claims toward demonstrable clinical value. For Big Bold Health, that means continuing to invest in rigorous research and applying those findings to both product development and consumer education. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay current with all our content.

At Natural Products Expo West 2026, Scott Dicker, senior director of market insights at SPINS, discussed dietary supplement industry trends, highlighting strong growth in both brick-and-mortar and e-commerce, with the natural products channel posting the strongest in-store growth. At the same time, Amazon remains the fastest-growing channel overall. Unit sales in natural retail are rising even faster than dollar sales in many categories, a positive signal for long-term category health. Active and Performance Nutrition The active nutrition segment has now led supplement category growth for five consecutive years, Dicker noted, with protein products appealing to a broad range of consumers. Creatine stands out as one of the category’s most notable success stories, and Dicker expects momentum to continue. Historically associated with male gym-goers seeking muscle gains, creatine is now reaching a broader audience, including women. New delivery formats such as gummies and beverages are emerging, and additional indications like cognitive health are offering new directions for brands. As competition intensifies within the creatine market, brands are exploring new ways to differentiate. Dicker pointed to premium positioning strategies, including sourcing claims and certification labels, as well as formulation innovations. Common ingredient pairings, such as creatine with protein, collagen, colostrum, or HMB, are becoming more common, while alternative forms could re-emerge as companies look for new ways to stand out in a crowded marketplace. Beyond creatine, Dicker highlighted several important trends in performance nutrition. Hydration supplements continue to grow rapidly, even as traditional ready-to-drink sports beverages flatten. The category offers a tale of two nutrients, he noted. Low- and no-sugar formulations remain on trend, along with high-sodium recovery products, which reflects a shift in perception from a once-vilified ingredient to a functional nutrient. Energy and pre-workout products are also evolving. Brands are experimenting with different caffeine levels and stimulant strategies to target specific usage occasions throughout the day. Some products are reducing caffeine levels to create more moderate options, while others are exploring alternatives such as paraxanthine. At the same time, brands are layering additional functional ingredients, such as nootropics or protein, to differentiate formulations. Hormone Health Looking ahead, Dicker said one of the biggest emerging themes for the supplement industry will be testosterone and hormone-related health. The growing use of GLP-1 medications and other medical wellness treatments has increased consumer comfort with pharmaceutical interventions and medicalized wellness approaches. As a result, interest in hormone optimization, including testosterone therapy, is rising. This shift could create opportunities for both companion products designed to support people using hormone therapies and natural alternatives aimed at supporting healthy testosterone levels. Nutrients such as zinc, magnesium, vitamin D, and boron may see renewed attention as consumers explore different ways to manage hormone health. Overall, Dicker suggested the supplement market remains dynamic, with strong growth fueled by evolving consumer demographics, new functional benefits, and ongoing innovation in ingredients and delivery formats.

In this podcast, Mary Phillips, Sales Director at Indena USA, discusses an evolving healthy aging market that’s shifting focus from living longer to living better. She explains how consumers are embracing a more informed, proactive approach to longevity, focusing on cellular health, energy metabolism, and emotional resilience alongside physical performance.   Indena’s portfolio of clinically backed ingredients includes Quercefit (quercetin phytosome), Meriva (curcumin phytosome), Ubiqsome (CoQ10 phytosome), and Enovita (grape seed extract), which can support multiple hallmarks of aging such as inflammation, oxidative stress, and mitochondrial function.   Phillips also highlights the growing scientific understanding of “cellular crosstalk,” where nutrition influences key biological pathways tied to longevity. Her advice to formulators: lead with science, prioritize bioavailability, and communicate authentically.

The vertically integrated supplier offers a range of standardized extracts derived from plants indigenous to the Mediterranean basin. In this podcast, Violetta Insolia, Business Development Manager at Bionap, discussed scientific collaborations the company has entered with universities around the world to validate its ingredients. Most recently, the company has launched ODILIA, a powder extract obtained from Opuntia cladode juice standardized in polysaccharides and piscidic acid. Insolia discussed the Bionap’s approach to innovation and R&D, and reviewed the company’s commitment to sustainability and upcycling.

The company’s enfinity paraxanthine and PEAK ATP are stirring up the market for cognitive health enhancement.  Nootropics have continued to gain in popularity. In this episode, learn what nootropics are, why there’s so much attention on cognitive health and mental energy, and TSI Group’s branded ingredient solutions: enfinity paraxanthine and PEAK ATP.  Shawn Baier, VP of Business Development at TSI Group discusses the health benefits, clinical evidence, formulations, stim vs non-stim energy, and more.

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. ChromaDex, which is publicly traded on the Nasdaq, offers the consumer product brand Tru Niagen. This patented form of nicotinamide riboside (NR) is a precursor to NAD+. Tru Niagen sales totaled nearly $70 million last year, accounting for the majority of the company’s $83.6 million in revenue. In this interview, ChromaDex CEO Rob Fried discusses NAD+ and emerging research, the company’s evolution to become a consumer-focused nutraceutical, the future of aging, critical challenges in today’s dietary supplement market, and more. Spoiler alert: Fried is calling for more accountability and collaboration to enforce quality standards and establish greater trust with consumers. In addition to being CEO of ChromaDex since 2017 and the founder of Tru Niagen, Fried is an Academy Award and Emmy Award winning motion picture producer. Before his combined 7 years in the health industry, he held senior roles at entertainment companies Savoy Pictures (CEO), Columbia Pictures (Executive Vice President) and Fried Films (founder, CEO). He has also founded and served as CEO of internet companies Feeln (now Hallmark Movies Now), WHN (a leading e-commerce service provider), and Healthspan Research LLC.  In 2017, Fried led ChromaDex’s acquisition of Healthspan Research LLC, a consumer company offering Tru Niagen products, and raised funds with Horizon Ventures to offer Tru Niagen direct-to-consumer. He holds a BS from Cornell University and an MBA from the Columbia University Graduate School of Business.

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 Applied Nutrition (CFSAN). What does this mean for the dietary supplement industry? In the proposal, now under review at Health and Human Services (HHS), the Office of Dietary Supplement Programs (ODSP) will report to a newly created “Office of Food Chemical Safety, Dietary Supplements, and Innovation,” (OFCSDSI), which FDA said “will work to modernize and strengthen oversight of food chemical safety, advance dietary supplement safety, and enable the Human Foods Program to support and effectively regulate food ingredient innovation.” As the agency’s first Deputy Commissioner of Human Foods, Jim Jones is a 30-year veteran of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with a deep background in chemical safety. Jones and his staff met last December with several major trade associations representing the supplements industry, including Loren Israelsen, founder and president of the United Natural Products Alliance. I talked with Loren recently about FDA’s restructuring and how priorities might change under an overhauled Human Foods Program with new leadership. — Sean Moloughney, Editor, Nutraceuticals World, [email protected]

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 technology.     For this podcast we talked with founders Pelin Thorogood, executive chairwoman, and Dr. Jeff Chen, CEO, to learn more about their work and overall mission.    If you’d like to offer feedback or suggest a topic, you can email us at [email protected]

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 supplement called HyaCera. The company just launched its BioSeries extended release melatonin for sleep.    Ritual has set some big goals as it relates to traceability and environmental footprint, and has conducted life cycle analyses to measure the carbon impact of all its products. To learn more we talked with the company’s Chief Impact Officer Lindsay Dahl ....

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 is today in terms of gender equity. Results confirmed that women are underrepresented in senior leadership and executive boards.    To learn more about the results we talked with WIN President Heather Granato, a 30-year veteran of the natural products industry, currently serving as vice president, partnerships and sustainability, in the Food EMEA division of Informa Markets. To learn more about the survey results, read: Women In Nutraceuticals Leadership Survey Sets Representation Baseline —Sean Moloughney, Editor

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 complexities of medicinal mushrooms, where this market is headed, and where it needs to go, I talked with Bill Chioffi, Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer for Nammex, which supplies organic certified mushroom extracts. Bill has worked in the Natural Products Community since 1994 including with Gaia Herbs and the Ric Scalzo Institute for Botanical Research at Sonoran University of Health Sciences. If you have questions or feedback send us a note at [email protected]. Suggested Reading: A Kingdom of Their Own: Fungi Shine While Mushrooms Emerge as Market Stars Questions and Topics Covered: 1:00 — Consumer interest in mushrooms has really exploded in the last few years or so. We see them in everything from traditional supplement capsules, to all sorts of food and beverage formulations, and on restaurant menus. What’s your sense of why this market seems to have gotten so hot so quickly? 2:49 — I’d appreciate your help in understanding some terms. First, what are the defining characteristics of a mushroom? Understanding they live within the Kingdom of Fungi, what makes a mushroom a mushroom as opposed to some other type of fungus? 7:53 — Are there other parts or terms associated with mushrooms that warrant attention or clarification? I also want to talk about substrates. 11:42 — From a regulatory and labeling standpoint, should myceliated grain be distinguished from a mushroom extract from a fruiting body? Are they different products? 14:36 — NAMMEX (North American Medicinal Mushroom Extracts) has been growing mushrooms for more than 45 years. The founder Jeff Chilton has been studying them even longer than that. NAMMEX extracts are made from certified organic mushrooms, grown naturally on substrate materials native to each particular mushroom. Can you explain your cultivation and processing methods and how this compares to what else is available on the market today? 19:30 — You’ve noted a clear need for more standardization. Can you explain the quality control standards and testing protocols NAMMEX has in place? 24:47 — Who should be involved in the process for developing official methods of analysis and what should that effort look like? 26:35 — There are so many different varieties of mushrooms all with their own history of use and potential health benefits. Where do you see the most runway for innovation? 29:44 — What’s the most fascinating species you’ve encountered?

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 11th Legal, Regulatory & Compliance Forum on Dietary Supplements in NYC on June 28 and 29 with preconference workshops on June 27.. The Forum is a collaboration between the American Conference Institute and the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN). To discuss the agenda and how a changing legal and regulatory landscape is impacting industry practices, I talked with conference co-chairs Megan Olsen, senior vice president & general counsel, Council for Responsible Nutrition, and Taneesha Routier, director of regulatory affairs, XYMOGEN. If you have feedback or want to suggest a topic you can email us at [email protected] Guest Questions: 1:10 — This year is the 11th Legal, Regulatory & Compliance Forum on Dietary Supplements, which will take place June 28-29 in NYC. What were your goals and intentions as chairs for this year’s program? 3:40 — The Forum features representatives from FDA’s ODSP and FTC. What do you expect to come from their presentations and exchanges? 7:02 — Drug preclusion is an issue on everyone’s mind. How will the Forum approach this topic? 9:28 — How might FDA reorganization of the Human Foods Program impact the agency’s process for inspection of manufacturing facilities? 10:55 — Overall, how might industry and FDA better collaborate to increase inspection frequency and efficiency? 11:56 — What do you anticipate hearing from FTC about its New Health Products Compliance Guidance and its warnings to industry about ensuring proper claims substantiation? 13:56 — FTC has updated Green Guides. Delta Airlines is facing a class action lawsuit related to its carbon neutral claims. How big an area of focus are environmental claims in the dietary supplement industry for FTC and the plaintiff’s bar? 17:23 — We’ve heard publicly recently about a few cases of counterfeit products impersonating brands on Amazon. The Forum will include representatives from the Justice Department and Amazon’s Counterfeit Crimes Unit. How big an issue is product integrity in today’s marketplace?

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 remembers fellow colleagues Robin Pask and Steve Lipscomb. She also offers her perspective on omega-3 innovation, science, sustainability, and communication strategies. GOED’s biennial event, the GOED Exchange, will take place Jan. 23-25, 2024 in Athens, Greece. To send us  feedback, email us at [email protected]

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 hunt for great quality products, and to be honest I came up empty-handed,”  Vanderhaeghe said. The core of the KidStar line is iron products for that reason, and the company aimed to fill a gap in the market for single-ingredient nutrient deficiencies, such as omega-3s and vitamin D3, which are commonly lacking in the diet. The company also offers its StarMulti—Multinutrients Plus Organic Fermented Whole Foods, a complete multivitamin and mineral formula that comes in sugar-free chewable tablets. Vanderhaeghe’s experience spans over a decade of supply chain management and ingredient sourcing in the natural products industry—first with her mother’s company, Lorna Vanderhaeghe Health Solutions, which was acquired by Jamieson Laboratories in 2014 and is now known as Smart Solutions. Caitlyn's mission is to continue educating parents about kids' nutrition and iron deficiency while providing clean nutrients for kids and families. You can email us with feedback at [email protected]