2nd of February 2024

Nutraceutical trends talk with Kenn Israel

Episode #1 of our podcast with a special guest Kenn Israel from Innovation Nutrition Consulting.

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We discussed upcoming indications, delivery formats, and other trends in the nutraceutical industry with Kenn Israel of Innovation Nutrition Consulting LLC, a distinguished professional with over 25 years of expertise in the nutritional supplements, botanicals, and nutraceuticals industry.

Highlights:

00:00 Introduction
01:30 Macro trends
04:33 Lab-grown ingredients
05:23 AI bioactives discovery
09:15 Trending indications
13:45 Trending ingredients
15:55 Delivery format trends

our guest: Kenn Israel.

Kenn Israel is a veteran in the nutraceutical and dietary supplement industry, with over 25 years of experience. He founded Innovation Nutrition Consulting and co-founded BeyondBrands, focusing on product development and innovation. Previously, he was VP of Marketing at Robinson Pharma Inc. and has been active in industry organizations like the Natural Products Association.

transcript.

Matevž Ambrožič:
Hello, everybody, and welcome to our podcast on nutraceutical trends. Just a bit of an introduction. What we’d like to do with this podcast is really not give you 15 minutes of fluff of something you could get out of a very general article or something that chat GPT could give you, you know, something that’s just generally out there with statements like “Consumers are increasingly proactive about their health”, and at the end of the podcast, you don’t really know what was useful for you. We really want to be concrete, specific, and talk about things that are not yet there, the white spaces of things that are yet to come. And for this purpose, I can’t think of a better guest than Mr. Kenn Israel, who’s with us today.
Mr. Kenn is the co-founder of Beyond Brands and the founder of Innovation Nutrition Consulting, and he’s on boards of several companies across the chain in the food supplement industry. And that’s what I really like about insights from him is that he’s not biased or towards one end of the chain, only in ingredients, only in finished product brands. But he’s really present with his web across the chain and he has multiple perspectives and I think can really give us a good insight without any bias and without trying to create a brand, a trend narrative that would not be objective.
So welcome, Kenn.

Kenn Israel:
Thank you.

Matevž Ambrožič:
Thank you so much for joining us. And let’s start off with, I suggest macro trends.

Kenn Israel:
Sure. Sure.

Matevž Ambrožič:
What are the big movers of our industry today and coming in the future? What should finished product brands, ingredient manufacturers, contract manufacturers look out for in the future to be ready with their business?

Kenn Israel:
Great question and something that I have the good fortune to have some time to think about.
I think the biggest macro trend, the existential stuff, would be how do we feed and medicate 9, 10, 11 billion humans on the planet? And there’s emerging technologies that our industry is going to have to grapple with. And these are tough and sticky questions. For instance, synbio or GMO, 2.0 where we’re not actually eating a GMO organism, but yeast, bacteria, fungi that are turned into machines to crank out bio actives.
A lot of supply chains are stressed. We have ecological change on the planet. It’s real, it’s profound, and it’s extrapating and destroying certain species. We also have, unfortunately, the impact of wars where we don’t want to do business with certain countries that export certain bio actives. So grappling with these is a big deal. And I think we need to take a mature and forward thinking look at GMO 2.0 as a potential source for bioactive. It’s not Syngenta and Monsanto creating demand for glyphosate. It’s this is different and I think it’s potentially better. The other big driver in supply chain would be cellular agriculture. I look at companies like Novella or Ayanda where they’re actually figuring out how to just grow the cells that we want from plants or to produce some cell culture that produces bio actives.
This is interesting. It’s compelling. You know the whole question why grow a tree that then grows a fruit that has a peel that we want. Let’s just grow the peel cells and if we can get an exact mimic or an improved mimic in some cases higher, more consistent levels of bio actives, that could be a viable source for medicine, much more sustainable, much lower footprint on the planet.
So those are two big drivers I’m excited about. And then the third one would be regenerative agriculture. If there’s one thing that consumers and people listening to this take away is that if we don’t globally adopt regenerative agriculture, we have maybe 50 or 60 harvests left to sustain humanity. We need to rebuild the soil. We need to change how we produce our food.
If we don’t, we are going to wipe out that which sustains us and that’s a scary thought, but I think it’s also very hopeful in that there’s huge strides forward in making this a reality. It’s economically viable. It produces a better quality ingredient. So excited about this.

Matevž Ambrožič:
Could you give me perhaps a couple of examples of ingredients that are already grown in that way, lab grown ingredients that you mentioned, like companies like Novella?
Do you know of any specific bio actives?

Kenn Israel:
Sure. Sure. There is a number of berries or berry phenols that are being produced in this manner. There’s been some exploration and some very high price crops like vanilla and saffron and others. But the low hanging fruit, pardon the pun, are berry actives. That seems to be the easiest cell cultures to work with thus far.
There’s also some roots that are being done with this. Rhodiola is emerging and there’s also some very interesting syn bio rhodiola experiments where they’re producing pure solids aside from fungus, which is kind of cool. Okay. And similar to that topic, which I think is also very exciting is discovery of new bio actives. Yeah. I mean, we’ve had BrightSeed on the scene for a while now, but we now see companies like Nuritas, for example, you know, actually producing bio actives that are not just for example stated in the articles in our industry, but they’re actually in finished products.
This is AI in action in our industry and we’re at the point now where we are able to map tens of thousands of cell receptor sites, proteomics, metabolomics, let alone what’s going on in the microbiome, which is fascinating and complicated. And we’re just at the tip of the iceberg. Companies like Nuritas and BrightSeed are using broad sampling techniques and really smart AI to ask tens or hundreds of thousands of questions of, okay, we have a protein in a plant or we have a cell receptor.
How do we make this match and how do we drive results? So, you know, going into this conversation, those two companies were on my mind and this very question was there. So we’re going to see an explosion of peptides that are targeted for specific cellular activity. Nuritas has already rolled out some really exciting ones for fitness and for gut health.
And I just see a whole range of really cool things resulting from this. It may be the most exciting part of it. Personally, for me, when I look at a company like BrightSeed or Brilliant Health or some of the other AI players in Silicon Labs, I’ve been a formulator for over 30 years and these machines are smarter than me.
They’re faster than me. They can ask more questions than me and answer them more accurately. So I think as a formulator, I have to sharpen my game and learn how to work with these automated tools to produce better results that I can help more people. I mean, the end result of my work should be that humanity is a little bit healthier, and that’s one person at a time sometimes.

Matevž Ambrožič:
Okay. So do you think that with the expedited discovery of new bio actives, specifically in the screening stage, that these processes fueled by AI are fast tracking, do you think we can expect higher frequency of, you know, just new ingredients, new peptides specifically?

Kenn Israel:
It seems to be being launched year by year, and we have to be as formulators on our toes or really on the lookout for these ingredients that are going to just flood the market. Yes, is the quick answer. I would also say that looking at the plant universe specifically, it mimics in a beautiful way the cosmos in that we understand about 3 to 5% of the compounds found in plants.
Let’s call that the bright matter. And then we have this dark matter universe, this 95% of what’s going on in plants that’s been uncharted, unmapped. We really don’t know what it all does. And using smart tools. And BrightSeed’s really delved into this in a gorgeous way. They’ve been able to discover different bio actives from current plants or repurposing what used to be trash or upgrading or optimizing this.
And there’s some companies in the US that are diving deep into this. People in the pomegranate space, people in the cranberry space, some other types of crops. We’re like, okay, we just want the juice or a couple of phenols. We have this whole pile of stuff, we’ll feed it to pigs or cows or chickens. Now we’re getting much smarter about it and delving in and getting other bio actives from this.
So this is exciting, it’s real, it’s actionable, it’s happening right now.

Matevž Ambrožič:
Okay, let’s move to which indications, which health segments, which need states do you think are next or which one in particular do you think is next for food supplements? Which basically need state have we not as an industry addressed yet well and we have the potential to do so, in your opinion?

Kenn Israel:
I think this is an existential and important question. I’m using that word a lot, but I think we’re at a rare time in the industry and the one that comes to mind is pain. I grew up in the United States and I watched the opiate crisis just destroy cities, small towns, segments of our society. We don’t, as a culture, deal with pain very well.
We have OTC drugs, you know, the aspirins and, you know, ibuprofen, etc. We have opiates. And there was little else that was recognized as an effective way to deal with pain. Most humans experience pain occasionally, and a big chunk have chronic pain and the tools that they were given were opiates and it spawned and drove the opiate crisis.
We in the industry have an opportunity to be really thoughtful and impactful about how we manage pain and to develop some specific solutions that are faster acting. They may not be as inexpensive as some of the drugs, but they have much lower side effects. They are natural, which is attractive to some consumers. But I think we can leverage other metabolic pathways to address pain.
So I look at pain as a big, big player. And then the other area is women and wellness. The science of figuring out how plant actives nutrients work is difficult and you want what’s called a clean model when you do research. And you know, women have a hormonal cycle that men don’t. And as such, that cycle can cause confounding issues in analytics, especially with digestive health, with pain management, joint health, other issues.
We need to ask better questions and start delving into the differences between men and women and understanding how these bio actives work more effectively. So women and wellness, pain, those are the two big areas where I think we’re going to make some big advances. They’re addressable. We have the tools now, so let’s get going.

Matevž Ambrožič:
Ok, and particularly about pain, it’s a pretty broad area still. Lots of specific solutions. Yes. Lots of different types of pain as well. And I wanted to ask you, is there any or a few of particular different types of pain where supplements can provide a good solution, have maybe some clinical data already to back it? And which would these solutions be? A couple of examples perhaps.

Kenn Israel:
It’s challenging here in the Union because EFSA moves painfully slow. That’s a pain point. Something I’m upset about. I’m angry about it in that getting into a regulatory approval, it needs to be thoughtful. It needs to be safe. It could happen a lot quicker. In the US we’ve seen a couple ingredients introduced for back pain that are game changers.
For a lot of people, there’s published evidence they’ve gone through either NDI which is new dietary ingredient or grass, generally recognized as safe certification in the US that allows them to market. So these are two that I’m really excited about or a couple of ingredients that we’re excited about for back pain. PMS is a big pain source, migraine.
There’s some great developments happening there. New published clinical science that I’m excited about. Also some patents that will probably block or, you know, keep it a walled garden. That’s challenging sometimes, but I think that will spur other thinking and other innovations in the industry. Of course, joint pain, but I think we’re leagues ahead of the old glucosamine.
We’re now able to address pain in two or three days and sometimes a matter of hours. So that’s really promising and really helpful for a lot of people. So those are some of the examples. But, you know, gosh, there’s so many different manifestations. And while we’re getting more and more concrete and specific, could you point out one particular ingredient in your view, that’s let’s call it “the next star” in a very traditional way? Well, I like to look back historically when I pick my next star, and I’d say that India has provided most of the rock star herbs. So we start going back. You know, it’s ashwagandha, it’s turmeric, it’s boswella. These have been the big rock stars. So I’m going to bet India. again.
I’m going to bet it twice. And I’m going to say right now there’s a drag race happening between ginger and shatawari. And I think shatavari may win. For those not familiar with it, it’s asparagus racemosus. It’s traditionally been viewed as a women’s herb, but there’s tons of men’s applications. It’s kind of women’s ashwagandha, for lack of a better term.
But there’s lots of different applications from PMS and menopause and bone health and sexual well-being and just lots of cool things that this plant can help with. The adrenals, brain, some brain activity. It’s really quite the cool herb and I haven’t yet found a population or major common underlying conditions that say that this plant’s not a good idea.
It’s one of those beautiful adaptogenic herbs. It’s widely applicable and very, very safe with a long history of use. So I’m betting that. And have any of the major ingredient manufacturers in the industry already jumped on that and are working on their, you know, branded sources with studies on them? This is what’s been shocking to me is no, it’s been some startups and some innovative thinkers that are pioneering.
I actually found the first branded shatawari. I mean, there’s other there’s players with it. Some of the big botanical companies have it, but they haven’t really delved into it yet. So they’re going to get caught short and somebody is going to run away with their lunch. And I love that. I think that’s kind of fun and cool.

Matevž Ambrožič:
And placing bets, yesterday we were talking about different delivery formats. You very boldly placed a bet on a delivery format as well. If you’d like to share that with us, which is the next one in your view that can bring, you know, a new explosion, let’s say, in the industry and of course, benefits for the consumers.

Kenn Israel:
All right. I’ll preface my answer that I’m commonly called a broken clock in that I’ll tell you the same time all day long, and I’ll be right twice a day. This is a longer clock. I think that jellies and gels, you know jelly form nutrients are going to be the next big play. I’ve looked at the development from traditional tablets to capsule to soft gels, fancy capsules.
Of course, the gummy explosion has been shocking and amazing. So I’m looking at jellies as the next big play. It’s a high payload active system. That’s why I didn’t pick strips or lead dissolvable strips because their payload is very, very low and it brings up questions about buccal cavity absorption, which is a drug delivery system, not a dietary supplement delivery system.
So these jellies are really cool. The fiber or thickeners in them are actually or can be and should be beautiful prebiotic ingredients and synbiotic ingredients. So they have real nice applicability there. Great for people who have a tough time swallowing. Think the kids, seniors, adults, you know jellies swallow super well. So I think this there’s some real promise there and they’ve proven themselves in Korea, in South East Asia and in China.
They’ve been around for a while. A lot of the technical work has been figured out. So I’m going to challenge your team. I’m going to challenge other teams out there to let’s really consider this and get going. I think there’s a huge opportunity.

Matevž Ambrožič:
I will have to agree with you there because we’ve seen this format a while ago when it was mainly present in Southeast Asia and East Asia, as you mentioned.
But now we’re starting to get requests on this particular format from that region, but also from others. So I would back that bet up that it’s I mean, it’s a format that has a lot of advantages.

Kenn Israel:
Yeah.

Matevž Ambrožič:
It allows you to include also, you know, a considerable amount of active ingredient.

Kenn Israel:
Yeah, you can put a couple of grams there.
The other thing I’ll go deeper on my bet, I think 2027 is the year that this takes off, because if we’re saying this now and I’m aware of, you know, your diligence on this and some other companies looking at it, the change in relationships globally where South East Asia is definitely emerging. So you have development happening now. You’re going to have a sales cycle.
So development takes a year, sales cycle takes a year. You can have some early starts by 26. By 27, you’re going to get some big movers. So watch what happens in 27.

Matevž Ambrožič:
Okay, perfect.

Kenn Israel:
Maybe we’ll come back and you’ll say “Kenn, you were dead wrong”.

Matevž Ambrožič:
Exactly. Exactly. I was going to say in might our audience to write all those things down and call us up in a couple of years.
And the next year we see how any of this developed and if it was any worth and we do this podcast again. So great. Thank you so much again for joining us and to the audience for tuning in. And we’ll see you next time.

So I look at pain as a big player. And the other area is women and wellness.

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