Inspired by this promising portrait and faithful to its avowed aim of sustainable innovation, the ROQUETTE group took up the challenge of creating an industry devoted to microalgae. The objective is simple: explore this resource, only recently re-discovered, from biodiversity to extraction of compounds of interest via process optimisation. To ensure the success of this large-scale project, ROQUETTE brings together diverse and complementary skills: production, analytics, nutrition, R&D, regulation but also marketing and sales force.

Faced with the desire of populations to preserve their health through the different stages in life and the nutritional priorities of companies, ROQUETTE hopes to offer ingredients or innovative biomass produced by the microalgae industry for the Nutrition and Health fields. These natural and sustainable compounds would be included in the composition of dietary supplements or functional foods.

As evidence of its commitment to this new way, ROQUETTE proposes the first of many ingredients: Chlorella. It is one of the most important species in the microalgal industry. This success is mainly due to its extraordinary complete composition (proteins, vitamins, pigments such as lutein, lipids etc.). Nowadays, the most common way of consuming Chlorella is as a dietary supplement. Indeed, whether in powder or tablet form, this microalga delivers all its nutritional benefits to consumers.

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The Spring 2010 issue of Nutraceuticals Now is now available.

Excerpts of featured articles are available on this website:

Danisco: Bringing health to everyday life
Lallemand: Innovations in cranberry ingredients
COPALIS: Beauty-from-within marine actives
Dermscan: Biometrological approaches for efficacy evaluation of beauty supplements and foods

Cosmetofood: eating for beauty!

In diverse forms (capsule, yoghurt, milk, soup, fruit juice, mineral etc.), any “transformed” - i.e. so-called “functional” - food, and any food supplement which has the express objective of beautifying the external appearance (anti-age, firmness, slimming, fortifying, hair, sun preparation, hair and nail beauty etc.), becomes a multi-faceted product, combining beauty, health and nutrition.

Being closely linked, cosmetics have been largely inspired by the world of nutrition, borrowing from it textures, raw materials and vocabulary.

As food is more and more considered as similar as cosmetics, making the same promise of beauty, in a favourable context where the link between nutrition and health is clearly identified, and consumers are increasingly concerned with their appearance and well-being.

This article is available in full in the Spring 2010 issue of Nutraceuticals Now

COPALIS has been inspired by the natural wealth of the sea for 50 years to develop marine bioactives for food supplements, cosmetics and animal nutrition.

Interest in the impact of ageing on the function and appearance of the skin has been increasing. While a new study has recently highlighted the association between daily diet and skin conditions, there is a growing demand for beauty-from-within actives. With 50 years experience in developing marine bioactives, COPALIS research and development team has focused its research for the last few years to design new Sea Solutions® with oral cosmetics activity.

At Vitafoods 2010, the France based company will be glad to introduce its range of marine actives for inner beauty.

While aging skin is a factor of many things-genetics, sun exposure, environmental insults, stress, and more, COPALIS offers beauty-from-within ingredients with targeted activity.

This article is available in full in the Spring 2010 issue of Nutraceuticals Now

Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) is the most common infection among women: it has been shown that nearly one in three women will have had at least one episode of UTI requiring antimicrobial therapy before they reach the age of 24. Moreover, UTI is characterised by a high reoccurrence rate: it has been estimated that nearly half of the women who have had UTI will experience another one within 12 months. The main causative agent is Escherichia coli (E. coli), normally present in the colon. Symptoms are both uncomfortable and debilitating and associated healthcare costs are high.

UTIs are traditionally treated with antibiotics, however, scientists believe that antibiotic treatments can disrupt the natural occurrence of beneficial bacteria in the body, leading to higher recurrence of UTI. Furthermore, repeated antibiotic treatments can give rise to antibiotic-resistant strains of harmful bacteria. Cranberries are widely documented for their preventive effect against UTI due to their unique anti-adhesion activity against pathogenic bacteria, which is linked to the presence of key phytochemicals: proanthocyanidins (PACs). Today, there is a growing demand for high quality cranberry extracts with high amount of proanthocyanidins to support urinary tract health. Lallemand Health Ingredients, in partnership with leading cranberry expert Decas Botanical Synergies have joined their marketing and R&D efforts to develop high quality cranberry ingredients solutions aimed at meeting this demand.

This article is available in full in the Spring 2010 issue of Nutraceuticals Now