ChromaDex sales climb 28 percent in 2009

The ingredients standards researcher reported a net loss of $0.9m for the 2009 financial year ended January 2, 2010, which it said was primarily due to business expansion costs. In December, ChromaDex secured a $1m investment from Hong Kong firm Jinke Group, allowing it to continue its expansion plans. And moving into fiscal 2010, ChromaDex received a major boost at the beginning of last month, when it won a five-year contract to supply federal agencies with scientific services.

CEO and co-founder of ChromaDex Frank Jaksch said: "2009 was a strong year for ChromaDex as we continued to grow our core business. Going into 2010, we feel that our product and service offerings will be in greater demand as the economy recovers and food, beverage, personal care and nutrition companies increase their focus on natural products and green chemistry."​

One of those natural products is stevia, for which ChromaDex developed award-winning standards in 2008. The company said it expects demand for these standards to increase over the year ahead, along with other food and dietary supplement ingredients. The development of new products sweetened with natural stevia extracts is expected to continue to pick up pace over the year ahead.

ChromaDex says there is also rapidly growing awareness at both the consumer and government level of the need for analytical reference standards to ensure ingredient quality standards are met and in order to avoid adulteration.

The impact of GMPs​

The company added that it was currently uncertain about what effect the upcoming Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revision of GMPs (good manufacturing practices) for the supplement industry could have on its future results. It has previously said that the revision could increase demand for its services – but this depends on how the regulations are interpreted and enforced.

“These uncertainties may have a material adverse effect on the results of operations for ChromaDex as lack of enforcement or an interpretation of the regulations that lessens the burden of compliance for the dietary supplement marketplace may cause a reduced demand for ChromaDex's products and services,” ​the company said.

Stevia standards​

ChromaDex entered into an agreement with Cargill to ensure quality and consistency of stevia extracts in November 2008, ahead of Cargill being one of two companies to be issued with an FDA letter of non-objection that its stevia-derived Reb A sweetener was generally recognized as safe (GRAS).

ChromaDex offers a range of stevia-related sweet compounds as analytical reference standards or research materials which food and beverage companies can use to validate Reb A for use in consumer products. The analytical tools are used by Cargill in its production process to ensure quality benchmarks are met.