SupplySide West podcast: Getting employees to buy into corporate vision

Executives at health and nutrition brand often create noble mission statements and visions, but those goals don’t always get appropriated translated and adopted throughout the company’s workforce. However, brands can take simple steps to help ensure employees buy in and exhibit company values, according to Karen Howard, CEO and executive director, Organic & Natural Health Association. In this podcast, Howard and Sandy Almendarez, editor in chief, INSIDER, discuss:

• Questions managers can ask in interviews to ensure they hire the candidates who understand and represent company values

• The small steps company executives can take to show employees they are necessary to the company’s mission

• Real-world examples of health and nutrition brands that treat their workforce right, and how they gain dividends.

Maintaining and improving cognitive health is something that affects almost every consumer and only becomes more difficult as they age. There are, however, vitamins, minerals and nutrients that can make that job easier. Parris Kidd, Ph.D., explains what these ingredients are, how they work, and why he believes the future is bright when it comes to brain health.

In this episode, INSIDER editor-in-chief Sandy Almendarez and Kidd, chief science officer and director of quality for BrainMD Health, discuss:

• The necessity of phosphatidylserine (PS) and glycerophosphocholine (GPC) for human health and now they benefit focus and memory

• How the concentration of omega-3s in the brain allow for brain development from conception through old age

• Why B vitamins are the most underrated dietary supplement, according to Kidd.

Probiotics have been one of the consistent growth categories across the natural products space, with product introductions in the supplement, food, beverage and even personal care categories. However, even as researchers are exploring the health benefits of specific strains, inconsistencies in regulatory approaches could hamper product introductions or line extensions—particularly into new geographies. In the lead-in to SupplySide West, Heather Granato, vice president of content, spoke with George Paraskevakos, executive director, International Probiotics Association (internationalprobiotics.org), about the market opportunities and challenges, as well as what SupplySide West attendees can learn at this year’s Probiotics Workshop and in the IPA Probiotics Resource Center.

Key points of this podcast include:

What types of health benefits are being substantiated by clinical research, and the ways those studies can be used to in effective consumer communication.

The regulatory conundrum that marketers face when trying to extend product lines into new geos, and the work being done by IPA and other firms to even the playing field.

Steps being taken by IPA to educate the market, both through its own educational efforts and outreach at SupplySide West.

Biotechnology has been applied in fields from medicine to agriculture for many years. But there remain a number of questions about the long-term usage of such technologies, particularly as it relates to consumer acceptability. In the lead-in to SupplySide West, Heather Granato, vice president of content, spoke with Leena Pradhan-Nabzdyk, CEO of Canomiks ( (insilico.com), about the applications of biotechnology into the ingredient supply chain, including identifying benchmarks related to activity or adulteration, and delivering consistent quality ingredients to the consumer market, as well as questions buyers can ask when sourcing ingredients to ensure they will be acceptable to consumers.

Key points of this podcast include:

• How is biotechnology offering solutions around ingredient supply chain challenges?

• Understanding the basis of “-omics” and how genetic investigations can identify multi-nutrient compounds with positive health impacts.

• The ways that ingredient suppliers and manufacturers can use targeted technologies to deliver quality products to consumers.

Gen X may be the sandwich generation in more ways than one. Not only is this generation of 65 million people bookended by 75 million Boomers and 79 million Millennials, but they’re also the ones taking care of both aging parents and high demand children. In the lead-in to SupplySide West, Heather Granato, vice president of content, spoke with Aljolynn Sperber, managing director at Marketing Maven PR (marketingmaven.com), about the opportunities for marketers to reach this health conscious demographic, but also effective communication techniques to overcome their natural skepticism and address their desire for transparency.

In this SupplySide West edition of the Healthy INSIDER Podcast, Rachel Adams, managing editor, and Tamara Bernadot, co-founder and chief nutrition officer at Persona, discuss the role of technology in creating personalized nutrition solutions, and in driving innovation in the category.

GMPs (good manufacturing practices) require an own label distributor/brand holder to test their products with scientifically valid methods, but it’s up to brands to decide if it’s best to test in house or by using a third-party lab. A lot of factors that go into that decision, including time, resources, expertise and equipment.

Aaron Secrist, vice president of quality and regulatory affairs, NOW Foods discusses the resources that a brand needs to set up an inhouse lab and when it makes sense for a brand to use a contract lab rather than keep the testing in house. Secrist and Sandy Almendarez, editor in-chief, INSIDER, cover:

• The pros and cons of both in-house and outside third-party contract lab testing

• What GMPs specially outline for supplement testing

• What to look for when entering a partnership with a third-party contract lab

Informa’s Heather Granato talks with Alex Zhavoronkov, Ph.D., of Insilico Medicine, about the evolution of artificial intelligence, and how AI technology is being applied to investigate new ingredients that could beneficially impact the aging process, opening up new avenues for product development.

Stress and anxiety can lead to many health problems including insomnia, hypertension, adrenal fatigue and more, but for millennia, humans have been using calming botanicals to help relax and boost mood. In this podcast, Vince Kreipke, scientific advisor, Onnit Labs, discuses a few botanicals and how they help address stress and anxiety with Sandy Almendarez, editor in chief, INSIDER. They cover:

• The most common stress-related conditions that can be addressed with botanicals

• Popular delivery forms for consumers who take to take botanicals for stress reduction

• The role lemon balm, valerian root and CBD play in improving mood.

Developing a great-tasting functional beverage comes with challenges, but it’s far from impossible if you follow a few key guidelines.