Legacy citrus bioflavonoids maker to take ingredients in new, condition specific direction

07-Feb-2018 - Last updated on 07-Feb-2018 at 17:08 GMT

Ingredients by Nature has rebranded its citrus bioflavonoids in preparation for emerging science that will support new condition specific applications, a company executive said.

Jon Brewster, owner of parent company Brewster Nutrition, said the new line, called Brewster Bioflavonoids, seeks to trade on Brewster’s long history with the ingredient, known mostly up to now for its antioxidant properties. Brewster is a partner in IBN with Chinese company Syntec, which manufactures some of the bioflavonoids that go into Brewster’s finished formulations that are marketed by IBN.

Legacy brand that became market leader

Brewster said the company formed by his grandfather in 1950 after acquiring another company pioneered made-to-order, customized citrus bioflavonoids decades ago. He said many companies in the supplement, food and beverage industries are familiar with Brewster’s products, even if consumers are not. Brewster said many of the multivitamins on the market contain Brewster formulated citrus bioflavonoids, which are sourced from immature specimens of lemon, lime, tangerine and grapefruit.

“Brewster has been around a long time, and after my grandfather, Marshall Brewster, founded the company, he was really one of the pioneers of leading a healthier life by supplementing nutrients into the diet,” Brewster told NutraIngredients-USA. After some decades as a finished product company, and then a subsequent focus on animal nutrition, the decision was made to switch to being an ingredient supplier for dietary supplements and functional foods.

“About nine years ago we decided we needed to branch out and grow and we needed to have more products. We backwards integrated with our supplier of raw citrus, Syntec, to form Ingredients by Nature,” Brewster said.

Rebranding in preparation for repositioning

Now the company is set for yet another transformation, Brewster said, which is why the original company name is going back on the products in a prominent way.

“We thought ‘Brewster’ would be much stronger as a brand name,” Brewster said.

The name change also sets the stage for new condition specific formulations that will be supported by a long term research trial that Brewster said is now underway, with final results expected soon. But the preliminary data gathered so far is highly promising, he said.

“If you look at the citrus bioflavonoids as they stand today, they are in almost every multivitamin. And we own about 90% of that market. But what we have gotten into now is taking this in a condition specific direction. We are seeing exciting results for things like eye health, sports nutrition, immune system response and healthy cognition,” Brewster said.