Layn Natural Ingredients is one of the world’s largest direct manufacturers of natural botanical extract ingredients and continues to produce innovative solutions to serve the biggest brands in food, beverage, flavor, nutraceutical, personal care, animals and pets for over 25 years.
Truly vertically integrated, Layn offers nearly three decades of experience in providing a fully secure, manufacturer-direct, transparent and scalable supply chain. From seeds and agronomy, to extraction and formulation.
Interview with Collette Kakuk, VP of Global Marketing at Layn Natural Ingredients.
Easy Engineering: What are the main areas of activity of the company?
Collette Kakuk: Layn is committed to quality, innovation and sustainability. Its world-class R&D operation includes state-of-the-art botanical extraction, and its global innovation centers around the world conduct research, ensure quality, and provide formulation and application guidance.
E.E: What’s the news about new products?
C.K: Layn is driving innovation in enhanced bioavailability across the product range. Most notably, the company introduced bio+Quercitrin. Quercetin is one of nature’s most studied flavonoids for its health support benefits. However, achieving therapeutic levels is nearly impossible through food alone. Additionally, quercetin is known to have poor availability within the body. bio+Quercitrin is Layn’s branded form of Quercitrin. When quercetin is combined with glycosyl, it forms Quercetin glycoside, providing highly improved viability. Layn is also introducing bio+Resveratrol is designed to improve the bioavailability and more rapidly deliver the benefits of Resveratrol, and we continue to expand our range of other highly-bioavailable natural extracts.
E.E: What are the ranges of products?
C.K: Layn has a rich portfolio of botanical extracts from the highest quality sources. These extracts are designed to serve specific needs in Human Health, Animal & Pet Nutrition and applications in nutraceuticals, food, beverage, personal care, animal feed, pet food treats and supplements.
E.E: At what stage is the market where you are currently active?
C.K: The industries and markets Layn serves are well established. There is a significant demand for natural, clean-label botanical extracts for use in nutraceuticals, pet and animal nutrition, as well as for functional ingredients in food & beverage – for health support, flavor modulation and also for natural preservation and shelf-life extension.
E.E: What can you tell us about market trends?
C.K: Consumers today demand a lot from brands. They are aligning with brands whose values they align with. They demand transparency throughout the supply chain to know exactly what ingredients are included, where they are sourced from, what practices are used in a product’s production, and want products that are sustainable and clean-label. Layn is able to meet these demands through decades of mastering a secure and sustainable supply of the highest quality botanical ingredients and our proprietary and state-of-the art extraction methods enable the production of extremely pure and efficacious extracts.
E.E: What are the most innovative products marketed?
C.K: Layn is driving innovation in a number of areas:
Solubility and Bioavailability. We continue to drive improvements to effectively deliver botanicals and specific compounds within the human body. We continue to expand our range of highly-bioavailable innovations including: bio+Quercitrin and bio+Resveratrol.
SophorOx is another branded solution that is scientifically supported to inhibit pro-inflammatory compounds and reactive molecules that cause oxidative stress. Derived from Sophora japonica, SophorOx contains potent compounds that help support joint health and healthy inflammation response.
TruGro is our branded range of solutions for animal nutrition and pet care. The line includes numerous innovations, particularly in polyphenol-rich feed additives to support animal health in a number of ways. TruGro AOX+ is the latest innovation. It is a dual-function ingredient designed to support metabolic health in pets while also serving as a natural preservative to help extend the shelf life of pet food and treat products.
Layn also recently deepened its Plantae by Layn portfolio of clean label, science-backed, natural botanical extract ingredients for the food, beverage, and flavor industries, including: 1) Plantae PRESERVATION, consisting of antioxidant extracts to extend shelf life, preserve taste and color and provide anti-microbial support; 2) Plantae SENSE, consisting of innovative natural maskers and enhancers to improve taste profile for sugar and sodium reduction, and 3) Plantae HEALTH, consisting of scientifically-backed functional botanical ingredients for health & wellness.
Another innovative solution we recently introduced, is our digital Ingredient Library.
Visitors are impressed with the ability to search our range of ingredients and to filter and categorize in a number of ways to easily hone in on specific ingredients appropriate for their applications.
E.E: What estimations do you have for 2023?
C.K: Layn is committed to ongoing innovation. We continue to see tremendous interest in natural, sustainable ingredients for specific health support needs. In 2023, for example, we are seeing increased demand for natural support for mood, stress and sleep and we continue to expand our portfolio of botanicals and compounds to address these needs.
We also continue to drive innovation in the areas of bioavailability to make botanical ingredients more readily available within the body. We are also expanding our portfolio of standardized extracts of specific compounds.
