Australian consumer group Choice tested “several supplements” and concluded that two servings of fish each week that are rich in omega-3 fatty acids will boost brain function as much or more than supplements containing ginkgo biloba, brahmi or fish oil.

Key to the findings were that the fish oils tested didn’t contain the maximum daily amount of omega-3 fatty acids.

Certainly, it isn’t always easy for consumers to intake the maximum recommended daily intake of omega-3 fatty acids and many suggest over-consuming fish oil supplements.

Still, like many other critical stories of the supplement industry, efficacous dose is the prevailing theme of this article and something every manufacturer & marketer should be concerned with.

To read more, go to:

Reuters UK: Fish meals better for brain than supplements: survey

or

Australian Food: No substitute for the health benefits of seafood

If you are a subscriber to Nutrition Business Journal, you can now access all of the 2008 Nutrition Industry Overview online at nutritionbusinessjournal.com. No need to sort through your over flowing mailbox, search your desk and interrogate your co-workers for your copy of NBJ. Just go to nutritionbusinessjournal.com.

To see all the articles, go to the current issue page. Here you will see the entire overview issue laid out in an expanded table of contents view. From here you can link to every article if you are signed in as an NBJ subscriber.

If you do not know your NBJ subscriber username and password, call Rachel Dederich, NBJ’s Subscriber Services Coordinator, at 303.998.9263.

-Patrick

In an effort, “shrouded in secrecy,” Coca-Cola has teamed up with the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences to develop beverages using Chinese herbal cures, according to the Atlanta Journal-Contstitution.

NBJ noted an October 2007 press release in HerbalGram, the journal of the American Botanical Council.

Certainly, this could bode well for suppliers of herbal medicines in the United States and abroad.

For more on this story, go to Secret brews in China: Coke’s next big thing?

-Patrick

The nutritional raw materials & ingredient supply space isn’t a Birkenstocks and hacky-sacs crowd. At Natural Products Expo West, you simply have to walk down to SupplyExpo in Hall A to experience the difference first-hand. And while the Natural Products Expo side of the show is more popular, the real innovation happens at SupplyExpo.

The business of nutritional raw material & ingredient supply is a lesser-researched part of the nutrition industry value chain. We’ve made it our specialty to shine light on this part of the nutrition industry and try to make sense of the global supply landscape as it pertains to the U.S. market for nutrition products.

High transportation costs, a weakening dollar and a weak economy all conspired to challenge ingredient suppliers in 2007 and into 2008. Mother nature didn’t hold back either. Suppliers of herbs and botanicals were also impacted by droughts, flooding and other server weather across the world.

As with challenges, opportunities for nutritional raw material and ingredient supply companies were fairly universal, according to executives in the nutrition industry’s supply chain.

Regulatory stabilization, geographical diversification and the implementation of GMPs are all on executives minds in 2008 and covered in detail in NBJ’s latest market research report.

All of this and more is covered in NBJ’s Nutritional Raw Materials & Ingredient Supply Report…one of the few places you’ll be able to find a broad and deep analysis of the nutrition industry’s value chain.

-Patrick

NBTY, a well known acquirer of distressed brands and businesses in the U.S. supplement industry, has acquired the assets of Leiner Health Products, a bankrupt private label manufacturer of vitamins and other dietary supplements.

NBTY announced that it has paid $371 million for the assets and the assumption of certain liabilities, but the price of the deal can move $110 million north or south of $371 million, based on the amount of working capital on Leiner’s balance sheet at closing. NBTY said it hopes to close the deal no later than September 2008. North Castle Partners and Golden Gate Capital recapitalized Leiner in 2004 for $650 million. Prior to that, North Castle Partners had been the sole investor in Leiner. NBJ estimated Leiner’s 2006 supplement sales at $550 million.

Founded in 1973 and headquartered in Carson, Calif., Leiner Health Products is a leading manufacturer of store brand vitamins, minerals, and nutritional supplements (VMS), as measured by retail sales, and supplies the food, drug, mass merchant and warehouse club (FDMC) retail market. Leiner provides the FDMC retailers with over 2,000 products to help its customers create and market high-quality store brands at low prices. It is also the largest supplier of VMS to the U.S. military. Leiner markets its own brand of vitamins under YourLife. In 2007, Leiner distributed more than 21 billion doses that help offer consumers high quality, affordable choices to improve their health and wellness.

NBTY is a leading global vertically integrated manufacturer, marketer and distributor of a broad line of high-quality, value-priced nutritional supplements in the United States and throughout the world. Under a number of NBTY and third party brands, the Company offers over 22,000 products, including products marketed by the Company’s Nature’s Bounty, Vitamin World, Puritan’s Pride, Holland & Barrett, Rexall, Sundown, MET-Rx, Worldwide Sport Nutrition, American Health, GNC, DeTuinen, LeNaturiste, SISU, Solgar, Good ‘n’ Natural, Home Health and Ester-C brands.