What are the Challenges and Opportunities for Plant-based Supplements?
The market for vegan and plant-based products has moved from the fringe markets of local co-ops and health food stores and has been growing rapidly in recent years with everything from shoes to cosmetics and even luxury handbag makers now offering vegan-friendly alternatives. The growing demand for plant-based products is not limited to foods, as consumers shift their attention to more sustainable options plant-based supplements are also growing in demand.
Highlights:
- The plant-based supplement market is booming due to increased demand not only from vegans and vegetarians.
- Consumers are choosing plant-based supplements because they deem them healthier and safer.
- The major challenges for plant-based supplements are price, stability, and bioavailability.
- New technologies are facilitating new delivery forms that do not rely on the use of gelatin.
The booming plant-based marketplace
Suppliers of dietary supplements appear to be keen on the potential effects of rising customer demand for plant-based foods and vegan ideologies that go beyond a preference for non-animal food products. These suppliers see this as a major opportunity for growth and market diversification. What is also becoming apparent is that non-vegan consumers are more willing to switch to vegan alternatives outside of food products for sustainability.
Recent research suggests that the global plant-based supplements market is expected to grow at a 10.9% CAGR from 2020-2028. Furthermore, the number of new supplements with vegetarian claims has grown at a CAGR of 14% between 2017-2021, while those with vegan claims have grown by even more with 28% during the same period.
Nutritional Outlook reports research from one supplement producer that, “45% of supplement users state that ‘plant-based’ is an important factor in their decision to purchase dietary supplements, while ‘vegan/vegetarian/no-animal-product’ claims are important to 40% of consumers.”
What is driving the demand for plant-based supplements?
The sudden rise in vegan and vegetarian consumers seems to be the result of a mix of environmental, sustainability, health, and even religious and ethical reasons. However, vegans and vegetarians are not the only ones pushing the growth of plant-based products. Companies are aware that, even though vegans and vegetarians may provide a crucial boost for the category’s expansion, the demand for these goods extends beyond those who limit themselves to consuming only non-animal products. There are many justifications for selecting plant-based products.
One example is the production of supplements that use soft gel capsules, which have traditionally been made from the bones and skin of pigs and cows. This presents a problem for many individuals who are part of certain religious groups who cannot consume these animals and therefore cannot take those supplements which are packaged in a traditional soft gel form. Therefore, as the use of supplements becomes more widespread these considerations need to be taken into account and plant-based solutions offer a viable solution.
The global movement toward plant-based solutions is also being fueled by greater consumer awareness of the environmental and health risks associated with eating meat, with the supplement industry in particular experiencing unprecedented development in this regard. Rising trends around sustainability also favor plant-based solutions as they are considered the more environmentally friendly choice. People more today than before want the products they buy to be aligned with their ethics and values.
Another major group fueling demand are those individuals who have started to follow a flexitarian lifestyle. While vegans and vegetarians make up a relatively small percentage of global consumers, it is estimated that flexitarians make up roughly 42% of global consumers. This large flexitarian group would appear to favor plant-based products when given the choice. Vegan supplements whether true or not are often perceived as being not only healthier but also safer.
Major challenges for plant-based supplements
The biggest challenges for producing plant-based solutions for supplements are generally:
- price,
- stability,
- bioavailability.
Plant-based supplements oftentimes necessitate distinctive manufacturing processes, that often are more costly. Formulation technologies have been a major challenge for supplement producers wanting to make plant-based alternatives as sometimes they are even less effective in terms of benefits in their final form.
Gelatin is a perfect example. In the past, supplement producers have relied heavily on gelatin as it set a high standard in terms of quality, efficiency, and versatility for different delivery forms such as soft gel capsules and gummies. But since traditional gelatin is based on animal byproducts it cannot be used for plant-based supplements. This has forced supplement makers to innovate and find new solutions and delivery methods for their supplements.
The most prominent challenges in formulating plant-based soft gel capsules have been:
- cost,
- seal strength,
- encapsulation speed,
- consistency in capsule performance.
The raw material of the capsule or delivery shell is just one component that may influence the realization of a plant-based product. Producers also have to keep in mind if they wish their final product to have certain vegan/vegetarian certifications or claims. This will also play a crucial factor in what raw material can be used for both the active and inactive ingredients of the supplement and its delivery format. Moreover, many supplement producers add colors to their products or the shell to differentiate themselves from other producers and this can be challenging when making an exclusively plant-based supplement.
New opportunities and innovations for plant-based supplements
As the demand for these new plant-based products surges producers are quickly finding innovative solutions to overcome the challenges mentioned above.
When it comes to the capsule or delivery format, many producers are finding unique ways to avoid using traditional gelatin while making sure their products continue to have the highest quality. Some companies have begun to use pea starch technology, which offers a pharmaceutical-grade solution for vegetarian soft gel capsule formulations, while others are opting for plant-based soft gel capsules derived from a special grade of sustainably sourced seaweed.
To enable supplement manufacturers to offer a variety of plant-based solutions in different colors, these capsules are now offered in a full palette of colors, colored exclusively using colors obtained through plant sources.
Gummies have become a particularly important delivery format for both children and adults and some supplement manufacturers have also found solutions for this. Companies are now using pectin derived from citrus sources as the preferred choice for producing plant-based supplement gummies.
The future of plant-based supplements
While consumer demand is growing across the board for plant-based supplements, producers may still have difficulties sourcing ingredients from reliable suppliers at a large scale until markets come in line with this new trend. This could, in turn, mean that plant-based supplements remain pricier than their non-plant-based alternatives.
Furthermore, as weather patterns continue to change with global warming there remains the risk of crop disruptions for the critical ingredients in these products. Nevertheless, with such large growing demand across major groups of consumers, and new innovative technologies the future for plant-based supplements remains bright.
2. Ibid
3. Ibid
