By: Becky Wright, Nutritional Outlook
Navigating the current market using a healthy dose of hindsight, antioxidants are well positioned to write a new chapter in their next phase of growth.
9 Jul 2020 — Antioxidants represent a staple category in the dietary supplement market. But there has always been fierce debate about how much consumers really understand about the term antioxidants. Plenty of people support the term and believe in its health relevance, and yet others think antioxidants has lost a lot of its meaning over time.
Is the Term Antioxidant Still Relevant to Consumers?
On a very basic level, Ross Pelton, scientific director, Essential Formulas (Irving, TX), believes the term antioxidant still resonates well with people. “The generation of free radicals is one of the primary causes of biological aging, and an antioxidant’s ‘job’ is to neutralize excess free radicals,” he says. “For this reason, antioxidants will always be relevant.”
On the other hand, Morris Zelkha, CEO, TriNutra (Ness Ziona, Israel), believes the term antioxidant is too general and not strong enough on its own to create sales. “Consumers are looking for more focused activities, and labels should clearly indicate what the extract is and what it has been clinically researched to do,” he comments.
Marcia da Silva Pinto, PhD, technical sales and customer support manager for Evolva (Reinach, Switzerland), thinks antioxidants have more of a holistic connotation. “Consumers are more aware that the ‘antioxidant’ benefit carries a more holistic meaning because it comprises benefits in several areas such as brain health, skin health, heart health, and, lately, immune health,” she says.