KEY INTERVIEW: DSM Explores Innovative Ingredients for “Hungry-for-Health Consumers”

04 Nov 2015 --- DSM has seen solid sales in 2014, with a 12% increase and 3% volume growth. Nutrition made up a good amount of this, with a growth of 3%, driven by 5% volume growth.

While nutrition continues to be negatively impacted by lower vitamin E prices, volumes developed well in human nutrition. DSM aims to improve even further in 2015 – mainly due to foreign exchange effects.

Gareth Barker, Vice President for DSM Nutritional Products Human Nutrition and Health EMEA, explained the company’s current focus in the EMEA region: “In terms of human nutrition and health, we are investing in science and innovation in order to support customers and consumers for their future needs. Examples of these activities include: Webinars with Key Opinion Leaders in our DSM channel in Bright Talk: https://www.brighttalk.com/channel/12499/dsm.”

“But also scientific conferences; for example, this year we chaired for the first time a scientific symposium at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress, in order to raise awareness of the importance of good nutrition as part of a practical risk reduction approach to cardiovascular health concerns. Science is at the core of everything we do and it is a key focus area moving forward for the Human Nutrition and Health business.”

“Furthermore, innovation is the key ingredient in changing the way we feed and care for the world in the future. Nutrition is the cheapest form of health care. Our continued innovation in food fortification is allowing our customers to create products that are not only nutritious, but also convenient, cost-efficient and appealing to consumers in terms of taste. Exploring innovative ingredients such as oat beta-glucan in supplements, vitamins D and E with new science for specific audiences and researching continuously new ingredients to come from our innovation pipeline can offer new benefits to appeal to hungry-for-health consumers.”

Of the current market, he says; “In the nutrition business, we are seeing the trend for health and wellness as one of the most relevant developments. Consumers are looking for healthy products and supplements and our ingredients with strong claims, backed up by science, can convincingly deliver those benefits. Additionally, all emerging countries and economies are of course very interesting for us, as for most companies. However, with so many international customers who operate in multiple markets, our focus is to best support each individual customer wherever they are located and we allocate our resources based on their needs. So our approach is not so much market- oriented, but customer- oriented. This makes us less volatile to the individual country specific situations.”

“There are some major trends in key market and application opportunities at the moment, one of them being healthy aging. In today’s aging society people are choosing to take proactive steps to safeguard their health. This has created opportunities for dietary supplements to provide support for consumer wellbeing. The European Commission believes that it is possible to add an average of two healthy life years by 2020. Supplying the right mix of micronutrients supports healthy aging: there is strong science to show that micronutrients may prevent or delay the onset of several non-communicable diseases, such as the reduced risk of cardiovascular disease in patients suffering from type 2 diabetes.”

“At DSM, we want to be in the forefront of this development and enable people to live healthier longer lives. Our Vice President for Nutrition Science Advocacy, Dr. Manfred Eggersdorfer is also professor for Healthy Aging at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. We frequently engage in public dialogue about the topic. For example, Dr. Eggersdorfer will be speaking at the Nutrition and Healthy Aging event organized by Swiss Re Centre for Global Dialogue.”

“Additionally, personalized nutrition is a topic that we see emerging. This will be enabled by non- invasive diagnostic devices that allow quick and easy measuring of nutrition status. This is a very interesting area, in which we are already engaging. In various events over the last couple of years we have offered visitors cholesterol measuring tests as well as lutein measurement for the eyes. We hope there will be more to come.”

Gareth is incredibly proud of the high standard of ingredients that EMEA manufacture, saying; “It is the very high standards of production, the long history and experience that sets us apart from other manufacturers. As an example, for our vitamins business, we have the benefit of the heritage from Roche Vitamins, which we acquired in 2003. This gives us over 70 years of experience of manufacturing vitamins in a high quality environment. For DSM, quality is a way of life. Quality for Life symbolizes quality, reliability and traceability. This means that our customers are getting the best ingredients, knowing the source on which they depend. Quality for Life means sustainability. It is our commitment to our environment, consumers, our business partners, our people and the regulatory framework that governs our operations.”

“There are of course other characteristics, like our Actilease technology . Actilease is a beadlet technology developed by DSM Nutritional Products. Actilease beadlets contain tiny droplets of micronutrients inside a protective food starch or gelatin matrix. This matrix protects the nutrients during manufacturing and storage and then releases them in the stomach so they can be absorbed by the body. In addition to maximizing nutrient absorption, this innovative product form prevents tableting losses and interactions with other compounds.”

“We stay true to our strategy which is to produce the best-in-class nutritional ingredients and deliver them as a solution to meet local needs.”

By Coriander Stone

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