September 20, 2020

6 Min Read
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The relationship between ingredient supplier and brand is more important today than ever. Savvy consumers demand greater transparency, and technology provides the means to sleuth it out. This is especially true in the supplement department, where brands fight to win back consumer confidence eroded by bad actors and misleading headlines. “What it really comes down to is trust,” says Shaheen Majeed, president worldwide, Sabinsa. Trust between supplier and brand leads to extraordinary products that grow confidence—and loyalty—between brand and consumer. Here’s a look at two leading Sabinsa ingredients and brand partners who formulate with them that do exactly that.

LactoSpore

When Ziv Haklili, founder and managing partner of Scale Media, manufacturers of 1MD supplements, and Rob Carr, the company’s senior product development manager, set out to formulate a “multivitamin for your gut,” in 2015, they were looking for scientifically proven ingredients. “For us, for every product we do, we first seek out solid science,” says Haklili. “We were looking specifically for probiotic strains with clinical data behind them and one of the ones that stood out, both because of its stability and because of its reputation, was Sabinsa’s LactoSpore.”

Sabinsa has been manufacturing the multi-patented probiotic preparation made from Bacillus coagulans, MTCC5856 for over 20 years. The ingredient is backed by numerous rigorous human clinical studies. Bacillus coagulans MTCC 5856 are the only L(+) lactic acid-producing bacteria to form spores, or seeds. When activated in the stomach, spores germinate and proliferate in the intestine, producing the favored form of lactic acid that prevents the growth of pathogens, helping keep a balanced gut microbiome. LactoSpore helps maintain overall health, supporting the body’s natural defenses to combat stress. It promotes a healthy digestive tract and supports weight management and mood*.

 “Our product [BiomeMD] was pretty immediately a great success,” says Carr. “It’s helped hundreds of thousands of people and has been, for years, our best-selling product. I definitely think of all the strains in the product, the LactoSpore is one of the best and has been a big contributor to its success.”

The Scale Media team had such a positive and successful partnering experience with Sabinsa as an ingredient supplier for BiomeMD and other products, that they decided to use the company to both provide the ingredients for and contract manufacture their testosterone-boosting supplement.

Having one company do everything enhances transparency. At the Sabinsa facility, each batch of LactoSpore is inspected for sporulation and purity and standardized to 15 billion spores—just a few steps among many the company takes to ensure the quality of the probiotics.

The quality and transparency of the ingredients and the ease of working with the company ensures Scale Media will remain partners with Sabinsa for the long term. In fact, the Sabinsa website is on their browser’s “favorites” list.

DigeZyme

Enzymes are biological molecules that catalyze complex reactions. In many ways, Sabinsa does, too. By developing quality ingredients, investing heavily in research, and working closely with brands to formulate, source, manufacture, and market, the company helps propel the complicated process of bringing a product to market. One way it does this is through research and personnel that keep the company—and its products—ahead of the curve.

More than a dozen years before “plant-based” topped lists of trends and manufacturers began packing products with proteins derived from everything from peas to potato, Sabinsa identified the need for, and value of, plant-based digestive enzymes to help consumers digest these foods. After all, you are not what you eat—you are what you digest.

“Sensing the opportunity long ago, Sabinsa developed the unique multi-enzyme complex, DigeZyme, a combination of five different enzymes each meant to serve different purposes,” says Majeed.

Plant-based enzymes are superior to animal-based enzymes because they’re unusually stable as they journey through the digestive tract. Because they’re so efficient, they can be used at a lower dosage—a more economical option for manufacturers.

While rigorous clinical studies in human subjects substantiate DigeZyme’s capacity to support digestive health and enhance the absorption of vitamins and minerals, the ingredient’s benefits go far beyond digestion to include immune function, joint and mood support, and weight loss. Additionally, DigeZyme has been evaluated clinically for its effectiveness in decreasing delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) from high-intensity eccentric exercise. Brand partners value this kind of research investment. “Sabinsa invests substantially in research to support the health benefits for many of their ingredients and guide efficacious dosing, thereby supporting the mission of Jarrow Formulas to formulate dietary supplements based on sound scientific evidence,” says Ara Soghomonian, senior director of marketing for long-time Sabinsa partner Los Angeles, California-based Jarrow Formulas.

“Since the beginning, our mission at Jarrow Formulas has been to create science-backed formulations,” he says. “A key component of our success comes from selecting the right ingredient supplier for formulation ingredients. Research, scientific data, and a like-minded philosophy are vital attributes that we seek in our key partnerships with ingredient suppliers.”

Sabinsa’s world-class scientists are available to help brands formulate finished products in ways that deliver the maximum benefit to consumers. “When a consumer gets a well-made product that delivers the benefits they seek, brand loyalty is earned and everyone profits in the long term,” says Majeed. To make those products, Sabinsa is selective about the manufacturers it partners with. “We evaluate and look for brand partners that will not cut corners,” he says. A dubious shortcut some companies take to save money is to buy, for example, one kilo of a Sabinsa ingredient and 99 kilos of a generic, often low-quality ingredient, to still have the benefit of the Sabinsa reputation on the label. “If this is the case,” says Majeed, “we’re out. We’re passionate about delivering science-backed ingredients of the highest quality and seek partners who feel the same way—brands that are dedicated to using these ingredients in the most efficacious formulas.”

Those kinds of partners often want to see Sabinsa’s facilities first-hand—and the company welcomes them. “While we earn certifications for passing third party audits, the real achievement is walking our customers through our factory, explaining the various procedures we follow,” says Majeed.

This commitment to excellence, and transparency, up and down the supply chain has been recognized throughout the industry. Nutrition Business Journal awarded the company its Supply Chain Transparency Award. Sabinsa’s parent company, Sami Labs Ltd., received The Economic Times’ Business Leaders 2019 Award for Most Trusted Nutraceutical Company.

The transparency at the root of Sabinsa’s partnerships with brands not only fuels innovative, world-class products, it reaches beyond to empower the retailers who sell them to grow consumer loyalty. And as shopping habits shift, that bond—and trust—between retailer and consumer is more critical today than ever.

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

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