Stratum Nutrition is dedicated to providing unique ingredients with proactive product development and launch support that assists their finished product brand partners in finding success.

Their dedication to safety, traceability and sustainability has not only influenced the company’s success, but it drives their daily manufacturing, operational and future growth decisions.

What came first: The chicken or the egg?

In the case of Stratum Nutrition, a plan to reduce supply chain waste and provide health benefits to both humans and pets was hatched with a simple egg.

Stratum Nutrition evolved from a family-owned poultry farm in southwest Missouri into a leading nutraceutical company based on a simple intention. Its founder wanted to limit the waste created in the poultry industry by reducing a portion of the 600,000 tons of eggshells being sent to landfills each year from farming operations and egg-breaking facilities that used the yolks and whites in food products.

Breaking a few eggs

What emerged from that vision—and nearly two decades of research—was the company’s flagship product. NEM® brand eggshell membrane is a joint health ingredient that contains naturally occurring glycosaminoglycans, such as chondroitin and hyaluronic acid, as well as three varieties of collagen. The functional ingredient is sourced from the thin bilayer protective membrane between the hard, outer shell and the egg albumen (white of the egg), which contains many of the same nutrients found in joint tissue.

NEM currently boasts six published clinical trials showing it works fast, with subjects experiencing beneficial results in as little as four days with only 500 milligrams per day.*

Stratum Nutrition diverts about 1,000 tons—or two million pounds—of wasted eggshells from landfills each year thanks to the production of NEM and a newer product called ESC® brand eggshell calcium, a naturally occurring, readily absorbable source for calcium that is exceptionally low in heavy metals, which is unusual for non-synthetic calcium sources. ESC is also available as an organic ingredient. In addition, both NEM and ESC are available for human and pet health applications.

Saving the sardines

Ahiflower® oil is another new, sustainably sourced functional ingredient that has been added to Stratum Nutrition’s portfolio through its partnership with UK-based Nature’s Crops International. Ahiflower is a seed oil from Buglossoides arvensis, a plant native to northern Europe and Asia that is an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids, as well as other omega fatty acids such as gamma-linolenic acid. Ahiflower is sustainably grown by specially qualified farmers in England and Scotland, with each farmer overseeing anywhere from five to 500 acres. It is also a beneficial plant for pollinators such as bees and butterflies and is considered a low-input crop with multiple growing seasons.

Ahiflower is fully traceable from every bottle of softgels back to the field from which it was grown; each field is visited and photographed every year by Nature’s Crops. One acre produces as much omega-rich oil as 40,000 sardines, enough to supplement an average human’s diet for 100 years. It takes up to two years for a small, oily fish to reach harvestable size but only six months for Ahiflower to reach harvest maturity.

Conscientious companies, like Stratum Nutrition, are not only concerned about the health and well-being of human populations, but also about the impact their actions have on the environment. Ahiflower provides a sustainable source for omega fatty acids without contributing to a decrease in marine life.

Quality you can trust

Stratum Nutrition strives to supply only ingredients of exceptional quality and safety. For instance, its ingredient portfolio includes Curcumin 95 from Curcuma longa (turmeric), which has become one of the most popular botanicals on the natural products market thanks to its anti-inflammatory properties, among other attributes. Unfortunately, it has become a target of economic adulteration, with some unscrupulous suppliers substituting a cheaply produced synthetic product that has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a new dietary ingredient. Stratum performs Carbon-14 testing to ensure that its Curcumin 95 is derived from natural Curcuma longa.

In addition, all of Stratum Nutrition’s manufactured products are self-affirmed GRAS and produced in FDA-inspected, NSF-certified GMP facilities.

Learn more about Stratum Nutrition at stratumnutrition.com and follow them on LinkedIn. 

Feeding the Good Food Future unites companies that are committed to a healthier tomorrow. Join the movement here.