NPEW 2025: ADM showcases functional ingredients for sleep and mental health
10 Mar 2025 | ADM
At Natural Products Expo West (NPEW) 2025 in California, US, we speak to Vaughn DuBow, ADM’s senior director of product portfolio for Health and Wellness, about the company’s latest functional ingredient solutions. We discuss how the mental health crisis in the US is driving demand for functional products and how the industry can boost adoption.
OK, we're joined by Vaughan Dubao from ADM.
How are you doing?
Doing.
What are you showcasing this year?
Yes, so we're showcasing a lot of different things today.
One of them is the new release of our postbiotic Lactobacillus gassari CP 2305, and that's been shown to enhance sleep, stress, and mood.
We're also showcasing some of our GLP-1, or anti-obesity medication support aids like our Fibrosol.
We're also showcasing our sweet flavors and color solutions.
And really at ABM we offer just about everything under the sun, all under one roof, so we're really showing how all of our different business units work together to create end to end solutions for our customers.
And how would you say that consumer demands are changing at the moment?
Consumer demand, you know, we're seeing a big shift really being moved towards the mood and stress category.
Consumer demand there is really through the roof.
We're seeing, you know, on average statistics.
About 60% of US consumers are dealing with mental health issues on an everyday basis, so the demand is really there.
So relaxation products, ways to, you know, reduce your amount of stress and feel better, that's really what's driving consumers in today's day and age.
And have you got any specific products that you're releasing at the moment you can tell me a bit more about?
Yes, so that postbiotics CP 2305 is really exciting.
It's backed by 8 human clinical trials.
It's Multiple different trials showcasing its ability to reduce stress, relieve anxiety, to really make you feel better on an everyday basis.
For me, as someone who is a poor sleeper, 70% of US Americans struggle with falling asleep or staying asleep, and 73% actually say they want to improve their sleep.
So with that in mind, you know, being able to offer a product like this which helps you relax and feel better, there's also really strong science that shows it can reduce sleep latency.
Or speed up how long it takes you to fall asleep.
So on average, about 18.5 minutes faster than placebo.
So some really great science behind the ingredient, for that category.
And then we also have a two clinical trials on women's health, specifically, helping out women through different life stages such as premenstrual symptom relief as as menopause relief.
And what do you think are the biggest challenges in bringing these functional ingredients to why?
Adoption among consumers.
That's a great question.
You know, one of the, the struggling points in in recent years has been there's a lot of great ingredients out there, but are you able to get them into a dosage formats that people actually enjoy?
A lot of people have pill fatigue.
They don't want to keep taking more capsules and tablets, so they're looking to things like gummies, the fastest growing dosage format.
But the problem is not many ingredients can go into gummies or into liquid applications or high heat applications like.
Protein bars.
So as a result, you know, finding ingredients that can go into these more consumer friendly formats has been what's holding it back.
But now with the adoption of postbiotics and more formulation flexible ingredients coming out, we're starting to see foods and beverages be more functional and starting to reach that wider consumer.
And what would you say needs to be done to better educate consumers about the ingredients that are on the market now?
So you know what I think really needs to be done is really sticking to the science, you know, we see so many products out there that make wild and fantastical claims that isn't really helping anyone because it's not the reality.
So educating the consumer, you know, really needs to come down to here's how many science, how many studies we have behind the ingredient.
Here's what the studies show directly and I think.
The more transparent we can be with consumers and say this is what the actual science says, not this is what we, we hope it will do for you, will really help that, you know, consumer education in the long run.
Brilliant.
And now, if there's one big thing that we should look out for in 2025, what is it?
Really, you know, I, I've touched on it a few times already, I know, so I don't want to be too repetitive, but That the mood and stress category is really going to be exploding this year.
A few years ago we saw the CBD explosion and so many people were talking about mood and stress then and it never really materialized.
So we think with new advancements that that category is really going to come into its own this year.
Vaughan, thank you.
Thank you.
