This year, personalised nutrition is set to reach new heights especially in South Korea with the official launch of the Customised Health Functional Food System right at the start of this month.
Nutrition designed for supporting the “health span” is also picking up momentum, with companies such as Amway China reiterating its goal in helping consumers achieve healthy life expectancy.
The industry’s interest in blood sugar and weight management supplements is also not plateauing, but there appears to be a growing number of products that seek to achieve healthier weight and blood sugar management via the GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1) pathway.
While gut, immune health, and beauty-from-within continue to stay on top of mind, companies have also identified energy and sleep support as another key area of focus.
NutraIngredients-Asia has gathered insights from industry players active in different parts of Asia-Pacific, including Amway China, Korea Ginseng Corporation, Nature’s Farm, IMCD, and more.
Personalised nutrition: Category gains steam with government push and consumer demand
The uptake of personalised nutrition is set to accelerate this year, aided by the government’s support as seen in the case of South Korea and growing consumer awareness and demand throughout the APAC region.
South Korea has officially implemented the Customised Health Functional Food System starting from this month January 2025, following four years of piloting the program.
Based on health consultations and surveys, companies work with pharmacists or nutritionists to analyse consumer needs and provide the recommended nutrition in a personalised product pack.
The industry’s response has been “very positive” so far, Dr Frank Kim, president of health functional foods, cosmetics, and food regulatory consultancy firm SEAH Bio Solution told NutraIngredients-Asia.
According to South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS), sales of customised health functional foods were KRW$24.5bn (US$16.7m) as of last September and the number of users has hit 300k.
As of last year, there were 33 companies approved to run the business.
Notable players include Lifestyle Project (라이프스타일프로젝트), Korea Arccell (한국아크셀), and On Doc (온닥터), said Dr Kim.
There are also others such as “디엠씨 (DMC),” “알팩 (Alpec),” and “에이치피오 (HPO),” with each operating a single store.
“This mix of established brands and emerging players highlights the diversity and rapid expansion of the customised health functional food market in South Korea,” said Dr Kim.
Back in 2022, only 15 companies were approved, running a total of 86 stores altogether.
The number is set to grow with the full-scale implementation of the program this year, he said.
“Since 2020, pilot programs under regulatory sandboxes have allowed businesses to test customised health functional food services. The response has been very positive.
“The data also showed how this sector has grown over time. The first 15 companies were approved between 2020 and mid-2022, while the remaining 18 were approved later in December 2022, reflecting the increasing interest and participation in this innovative health service industry.
“This rapid growth reflects the increasing interest in personalised health solutions within the market and with full-scale implementation in 2025, the market is expected to grow even further,” he said.
Korea Ginseng Corporation, which is known for its JungkwanJang range of red ginseng functional foods and supplements, similarly believes that personalised health will be a key theme for this year.
In this case, personalisation would be based on the needs of different genders and age groups.
“Health needs are expected to become more segmented by age group and gender, reflecting a greater focus on personalised health solutions,” said R&D manager Yoon-Seon Jeong.
Elsewhere, the trend is also picking up momentum in South East Asia (SEA).
Singapore firm Nature’s Farm notices that there is a shift to personalised nutrition as consumer awareness increases.
“As consumers become more discerning, there is a shift towards personalised nutrition solutions tailored to individual needs. We see an increased demand for more formulated solutions. This presents a significant opportunity for growth in the supplement market,” said Damien Foo, chief marketing officer, Nature’s Farm.
A similar trend is also seen in Hong Kong, where local companies such as Catalo told us previously how the domestic market would generally be influenced by global health trends and innovations, citing personal health packs as an example.
The company has therefore introduced personalised nutrition service through consultations with its in-store health advisors. They will then recommend the supplements required and deliver the personalised packs to consumers.
A survey commissioned by the Hong Kong Health Food Association (HKHFA) last year also identified personalisation as categories presenting growth opportunities for the industry, alongside immune and mental health.
Health span extension: Not just longer lives but healthier lives
The idea of helping consumers expand not just their life expectancy but health span – the period of life spent in good health – is no longer just an academic jargon or policy speak, but a concept that the industry is incorporating in their product strategy.
One company doing so is Amway China.
The company told us that instead of focusing on a single category or product, its strategy was to help consumer “extend their healthy life expectancy through its overall solution matrix.”
The overall solution matrix could be broken into three parts: 1) basic nutrition, 2) vitality rejuvenation, and 3) health functions and personalised enhancement.
“A few years ago, Amway began promoting the use of solutions to address our customers' health issues. We no longer focus on a single category or product, but rather on utilising a comprehensive set of solutions,” said Chen Jia, vice president of Marketing and vice president of Innovation and Science, Amway China.
“Our health solutions are mainly divided into three categories: first, basic nutrition supplementation, targeting the entire life cycle of the entire population, by supplementing nutrients to fill the nutritional gap of customers.
“The second is vitality rejuvenation, constantly exploring new anti-aging technologies.
“The third is the improvement of health functions and personalised enhancement. These three aspects are interlinked and complementary. Ultimately, we hope to help people extend their healthy life expectancy through our overall solution matrix,” said Chen.
Speaking to NutraIngredients-Asia in our monthly video series Behind the Big Story, Amway also pointed out how it would be paying more attention to longevity, health span, and gut microbiome under its flagship nutrition brand Nutrilite.
In China, for instance, the company debuted the product Nutrilite iCell for supporting cellular health which is aimed at rejuvenating cell vitality. It is said to do so by repairing / preventing DNA damage, regulating mitochondrial function, and improving chronic inflammation.
By definition, health span refers to “the period of life spent in optimal health and enjoying a good quality of life, encompassing not just the absence of illness and injury but also overall wellbeing, including physical, mental, and emotional health.”
The idea of improving health span has long been embraced by the academia and research community.
In Singapore, the Centre for Healthy Longevity under the National University Health System has come up with several research initiatives to promote healthy longevity – another term closely linked to health span.
An example is XPRIZE, a competition that rewards US$101m for solutions that could improve muscle, cognitive, and immune function in seniors aged 65 to 80.
Elsewhere in Japan where the population is rapidly ageing, dairy and confectionary giant Meiji has embarked on a 10-year research contract with Bulgarian firm LB Bulgaricum to find out the potential benefits of yogurt for the gut and ultimately health span.
More weight and blood sugar management products to be powered by the GLP-1 pathway
More blood sugar management and body fat reduction health supplements could see the use of ingredients that work in the GLP-1 pathway.
Botanicals like garcinia cambogia and banaba leaves extract, as well as probiotics, are some of the commonly used ingredients used for blood sugar management and body fat reduction.
However, the rise of GLP-1 medications for weight loss in the US has seemed to spread to APAC and several companies, especially those from South Korea have caught up with the trend.
An example is CKD Healthcare which launched GLPitDIET – a health functional food said to “help reduce body fat” in South Korea last year.
The product is formulated with three probiotic strains. One of the strains, Bifidobacterium longum NBM7-1 is said to activate GLP-1 and AMPK pathways – which are both related to weight reduction.
JungKwanJang, a brand by Korean Ginseng Corporation, is one of the latest examples which has ventured into this area.
Its two new products, GLPro Core and GLPro Doublecut, are formulated with red ginseng as the main ingredient.
According to the company, red ginseng has been shown to increase the body’s secretion of GLP-1 and has been approved by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) for its blood sugar control functionality.
The company added that blood sugar management and body fat reduction concerns will continue to dominate the industry this year.
“We anticipate that blood sugar management and body fat reduction trends will continue to grow in 2025,” said R&D manager Yoon-Seon Jeong.
It also plans to expand its range of GLPro products for blood sugar management and related areas.
“We will be expanding our GLPro brand and product range, such as launching more health functional products for blood sugar management and related health benefits,” she added.
Gencor Pacific, functional ingredient supplier company is similarly working on a new ingredient which it said has shown “good data” for promoting the body’s own production of GLP-1.
Lifestyle, poor diet, inflammatory stress are some of the reasons affecting the body’s GLP-1 production. As such, the company is looking at how it could improve the body’s GLP-1 production by overcoming these challenges.
“What we look at are what is needed by the body to make the body’s production of GLP-1 more efficient, to prevent and overcome the obstacles which create problems for GLP-1 secretion, and we believe we have a compound on that which helps your body’s natural GLP-1,” Ramasamy Venkatesh, managing director and founder of Gencor Pacific, told us previously.
One of the companies driving the use of functional ingredients that work in the GLP-1 pathway is perhaps British life science company Phynova with its white mulberry leaf extract Reducose.
The ingredient is said to inhibit the breakdown of carbohydrates and sucrose. With the undigested carbohydrates moving down the smaller intestines, the process is going to trigger the GLP-1 and other peptide hormones such as peptide YY (PYY) and cholecystokinin (CCK), which in turn produce a sense of satiety.
Some of the notable companies that it has supplied Reducose to are Nestle China, Australia’s Eimele Wellness and US-based doTERRA.
Sleep and its intersection with beauty, cognition, menopause
Sleep and energy support supplements that are made with “natural” ingredients as well as supporting other functions such as beauty-from-within, cognition, and even menopause have been identified as an area ripe for growth this year.
Talk about insomnia, the ingredient that comes to mind first is likely to be melatonin.
However, there have been concerns around “synthetic” ingredient how consumers would prefer something natural.
“We see now a trend which is kind of the reinvention of the melatonin category and a trend towards natural,” Ryan Gorman, brand director of Network Nutrition-IMCD told us.
In this case, the company believes that its ingredient Prosomnial derived from pistachio and standardised to one per cent melatonin, could meet consumer preference for natural or plant-based options.
The preference for natural sleep and stress solutions was also highlighted by Singapore-based company Nature’s Farm.
“The rising awareness of mental health in SEA has led to a growing demand for natural solutions to combat stress and improve sleep quality,” said Damien Foo, chief marketing officer, Nature’s Farm.
Aside from natural ingredients, several companies also believe that multipurpose products that combine sleep, stress, energy support with other benefits like beauty-from-within and immunity are set to take flight this year.
“Brands are starting to leverage the knock-on effects of poor sleep – such as sleep and beauty, sleep and cognition, sleep, and stress etc, all of these secondary conditions that are related to sleep.
“When you think about all of the ripple effects that take place, such as sleep and skin health, sleep and brain health, sleep and stress and anxiety, sleep and mood, there’s actually a whole lot of areas to explore,” said Gorman.
Another example is how sleep support solutions could be designed for women undergoing menopause.
“For instance, one of the emerging trends is melatonin’s benefit for menopausal women. Now we’re not talking about sleep, we’re talking about relief of menopausal symptoms. That’s a whole other area that we have yet to address,” he said.
Other example is the link between sleep and bone and joint health.
“It could also potentially link to joint health, bone health or for people who do sports a lot (muscle recovery),” said Eprina Ng, business development manager, Nutraceuticals, APAC at IMCD Group.
The same goes for sleep and beauty-from-within. Nature’s Farm pointed out the trend towards holistic wellness for supporting beauty-from-within in Singapore and the wider SEA market.
“Consumers are increasingly aware of the importance of inner health and its impact on outer beauty. They are seeking natural solutions to enhance their skin, hair, and overall appearance.
“There’s a growing trend towards holistic wellness, where consumers are looking for products that address both internal and external factors,” said Foo.
Ingredients wise, he notices that collagen remains a standout favourite, as well as well-established ingredients like glutathione and white tomato extract.
With natural ingredients, IMCD’s Ng added that sleep support products could also be applicable for children.
“There are a lot of parents who want their kids to have a good night’s sleep, especially those who are hyperactive and when they are on a plane. Because Prosomnial melatonin is from a natural source, this could open up a willingness for parents to give Prosomnial to their kids,” said Ng.
The ‘biotics’ and multipurpose benefits
The ‘biotics’ – including probiotics, prebiotics, and postbiotics have been in the spotlight for its various benefits beyond gut health in the recent years and the trend is set to continue this year.
Kirin is one of the companies active in the postbiotics space with its ingredient LC-plasma.
Kanako Sakurai, brand manager, Health Science Division, Kirin Holdings pointed out that the company would continue to focus on immune health with the use of LC-plasma.
“We will continue to focus on the immune system, which is the foundation of good health.
“The main initiative planned include raising awareness of the need for ‘immune care’ using LC-Plasma, as well as products with ‘double health claims’ in the area of physical condition management,” she said.
Aside from immunity, she pointed out that weight management, vitality, intestinal health, and physical condition management were the other categories that she believes would drive Japan’s consumer health categories forward this year.
This is based on market size and growth rate in the beverage and food category, she said.
Nature’s Farm similarly pointed out how ‘biotics’ can help improve not just gut health, but also immunity and mental health.
“Consumers are becoming more aware about the importance of gut health and the role that it plays in your overall well-being. Probiotics and prebiotics can help improve digestive health, boost immunity, and support mental health,” said Foo.
Human milk oligosaccharides (HMO) as a prebiotic for potentially supporting immunity, metabolic health is also gaining interest among the industry.
Singapore’s biotech start-up AMILI is an example that is studying HMO’s benefits. The study is funded by ingredients company dsm-firmenich as announced late last year.
The company is also funding four other projects that similarly look at HMO and postbiotics for ageing, mental health, immunity, and metabolism.
