GüdPod is a platform that uses a machine similar to a Keurig coffee brewing system. The ‘open platform’ concept is meant to offer consumers a convenient way to imbibe healthy concoctions that would be difficult if not impossible to deliver in other dietary supplement delivery modes such as capsules, soft gels or tablets.
Pitched first to sports nutrition community
GüdPod, based in Carefree, AZ, launched at The Arnold Fitness Expo last spring and machines and pods reportedly started to ship late last year. The machine can blend any type of supplement, from any brand, with its pods. Unlike a Nespresso or Keurig, the Güdpod machine doesn’t hold any fluid – that goes in your cup and the machine blends the pods’ contents right in.
While the company will initially offers its own brand of pods, the plan is to also partner with a number of other different brands. “The platform allows for other brands to offer their products,” Tasso Koken, CEO of Güdpod, told NutraIngredients-USA last year. “It’s an open platform.”
“The dietary supplements and sports nutrition markets are incredibly fragmented: There are a lot of products and people are very loyal to their products,” added the company’s founder and executive chairman, Gian Carlo Ochoa. “What’s exciting about this platform is that people don’t have to adjust their products. If you love Garden of Life, for example, we believe we will one day offer Garden of Life products in our pods. Likewise, if you’re already into Glanbia, we believe we’ll offer their products in our pods, too.”
Dosage capacity made system attractive
Stephen Lukawski, director of global sales director and product development for Fruit d’Or, said the attraction of the system is its ability to deliver dosages of ingredients that would require a consumer to ingest multiple capsules if delivered in that form. The prototype supplement contains 10 grams of organic cranberry juice powder, 6 grams of Sunfiber, a soluble fiber guar gum ingredient from Taiyo and has 2 billion CFUs of LactoCran, a cranberry protein powder/Bacillus coagulans combination ingredient that uses Sabinsa’s Lactospore probiotic. It also includes Pretic X, a prebiotic ingredient from AIDP. Putting that all together in another delivery mode outside of perhaps a tub powder product would be impractical, Lukawski said.
“It’s the only delivery system that can serve up this kind of dosage,” Lukawski said. “The delivery system offers functionality, so we can deliver a woman-focused product that normalizes gut health and offers urinary tract support.”
Fruit d’Or, which is based in Quebec, claims that the infrared drying process that its juice powder undergoes means that it can be offered without flow agents. And the prototype product itself is offered in an unsweetened state, getting around strong consumer preferences for one sweetener over another. Unsweetened cranberry juice is too tart for many consumers, Lukawski said.
“We decided we wanted the consumer to be in control of their sweetener,” he said.
Lukawski said the Güdpod system could be a game-changer for supplements in some areas such as sports nutrition that require big, bulky dosages. And he said he wanted to get in early on the roll-out curve for the system.
“I wouldn’t even be talking to these guys if I didn’t believe they were ready to scale to commercial size,” he said.
Booth samples
Fruit d’Or will be sampling the new product at its booth No. 1107 on the at the Natural Products Expo West trade show at the Anaheim Convention Center.