DSM Nutritional Products blends personal care and food, beautifully. The specialty ingredient supplier to the personal care and nutritional products industry threw open the doors of its new nutrition innovation center in Parsippany, NJ a few weeks ago and treated editors to a wide range of functional and flavorful ingredients that have been finding their way into lotions, hairsprays, creams, snacks and power bars for years.

According to DSM, this advanced regional application laboratory serves as an inspirational environment designed to foster creativity in the development of innovative and appealing food, beverage, dietary supplement and personal care products.

“There is probably no company in the world that invests more in new innovation than we do,” explained Jim Hamilton, president, DSM Nutritional Products, North America.

A Broad Range

The company’s offerings encompass 35 product families and 150 product forms. Vitamins, of course, are a key component of DSM’s portfolio, and the company offers a wide range of fat- and water-soluble variants.

“Most of what we do is a micro component of the formula, but it is so powerful,” said Hamilton, who explained that one kilo of vitamin A can be used to improve the nutrition of 9,000 infants.

In addition to its roster of vitamins such as B, D, E and K, DSM also markets carotenoids, long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids and nutraceuticals, such as soy-free isoflavone, coenzyme Q10, EGCG and trans-resveratrol.

“We are the largest and oldest supplier in this business,” observed Hamilton. “With so much turmoil in the market regarding quality and traceability, many companies are interested in working with us.”

Tasty Beauty Solutions

DSM is more than an ingredient supplier. The company has the capability to develop finished products that its customers can take all the way to market. One concept product is Sight Bites, a nutrition bar that contains DSM's FloraGlo lutein and Optisharpzeaxanthin to support eye-health claims. According to the results of a DSM study, these ingredients help reduce the effects of glare, promote faster glare recovery, enhance contrast acuity, lessen blue haze scatter for improved visibility and filter harmful blue light.

Nutrition and beauty dovetail in formulas such as Berry Beautiful Bar, a cranberry, blueberry and almond nutrition bar that contains one of DSM’s signature Beauty Blends Skinhance, which provides essential vitamins and carotenoids to support the daily function and maintenance of the skin.

DSM’s Beauty chocolates are made with 70% high quality cacao along with three antioxidants: Teavigo EGCG (20mg), resVida resveratrol (25mg) and vitamin E (20%DV).

Concepts such as these are driving DSM. In fact, company executives expect new products will account for 20% of sales in the near future, up from 12%.

To help get there, the company has six networked applications laboratories around the world. Using its global connections has helped DSM develop products such as Fabuless, a patented lipid emulsion clinically proven to help control appetite and reduce hunger feelings, and Fruitflow, a natural, water-soluble tomato concentrate to promote healthy bloodflow.

Outer Beauty

Of course, DSM is best known in the personal care industry for its bioactive skin care ingredients and vitamins for face and body. For example, within the Pentapharm portfolio, DSM offers the SYN-peptides to reduce the appearance of wrinkles. For sun care formulators, DSM markets the Parsol range of organic UV filters. Finally, within hair care, DSM offers Tilamar products for hair styling, conditioning and shine. One of the newer products in the Tilamar range is Fix A 1000, which improves the performance of styling sprays, especially aerosols. Tilamar Fix A 1000 is said to have high humidity curl retention performance while imparting a natural feel.

With ingredients and product concepts like these, it’s no wonder why in June, the Patent Board, an independent provider of best practice research, tools and metrics for patent analysis and intellectual property investment, ranked DSM the ninth most innovative company in the chemical industry (up from its previous ranking of 38 out of 167). The Patent Board tracks and analyzes innovation, movement and the business value of patent assets on a global basis.

“Our new nutrition center is truly a ‘one-stop-shop’ for innovation,” said Rick Greubel, president, Human Nutrition & Health, DSM Nutritional Products. “It will enable customers to stay ahead in a highly competitive, constantly changing health and nutrition marketplace—whatever their target application.”