Harnessing homegrown ingredients

NEW ZEALAND’S natural products industry has been experiencing significant growth in recent years. Currently worth NZ$1 billion annually, the sector will continue on an upward trend, buoyed by robust exports in established markets and expanding presence in new areas.

Alison Quesnel, executive director of Natural Products New Zealand

The industry is further spurred by a strong commitment to maintaining New Zealand’s leading animal health status worldwide and meeting strict international regulations governing food processing and exports. Moreover, the country’s environment and rich natural resources complement a historical focus on agriculture and food production. Combined, these factors help create a lucrative and robust natural health and nutraceuticals sector.

The industry finds a staunch ally in Natural Products New Zealand (NPNZ), a national industry organisation that represents the natural products, functional foods, complementary medicines, cosmeceuticals and nutraceuticals sectors. It was founded in 2002 by industry leaders with support from the New Zealand Government’s business and export development agency, New Zealand Trade & Enterprise.

The organisation is the voice for the New Zealand industry and represents more than 80% of companies within the industry in terms of turnover, brands, and FTEs. It works with these member companies in enhancing their profiles and acts as the point of contact for information and advice on issues pertaining to all areas of the natural products sector. It likewise represents members at all levels, including communications with government, media, industry commentators and related professional bodies.

Several of the natural products and ingredients the NPNZ helps promote are colostrum, totarol, hemp seed oil, enzogenol and Manuka honey in addition to the already popular kiwi fruit. New Zealand leverages a long track record of identifying and exploiting the medicinal and nutritional uses of natural products. This is backed by many years of intensive research and development and studies. Amongst the results of such hard work are the harnessing of the antibacterial properties of Manuka honey and the identification of a non-calorific natural sweetener.

Manuka honey is known for its excellent antibacterial properties

With this booming natural products industry as backdrop, how can food companies outside New Zealand make the most of ingredients available in their geographic areas? Alison Quesnel, executive director of NPNZ answers this question in her talk “New Zealand Ingredients - NZ Unique and NZ Grown” at Vitafoods Asia 2014, held from 3–4 September in AsiaWorld-Expo, Hong Kong.

Ms Quesnel has served on the Board of NPNZ since 2009. An expert in natural products, she has an extensive background working for large corporations, SMEs and not-for-profit companies across a range of business sectors. These include health supplements, food manufacturing and business service organisations.

As a preview to her talk at Vitafoods Asia, FoodPacific Manufacturing Journal asks Ms Quesnel about New Zealand’s local and indigenous ingredients.

New Zealand has the advantage of good weather, amongst other things, to produce high-quality food products and ingredients. What is the country known for when talking about ingredients for export?

New Zealand has an international reputation for developing high quality natural food, agricultural and marine products. A combination of geographic isolation, abundant natural resources, small population and a ‘can do’ attitude has resulted in an innovative approach to product design. The country is renowned for its high purity ingredients, and a capable and ethical approach to doing business. 

A wide range of natural ingredients is exported from New Zealand, including: green-lipped mussel extract, deer velvet and pine bark extract.

New Zealand’s legislative framework and member bodies such as Natural Products NZ ensure that industry maintains high product quality, safety and efficacy standards.

Are these truly unique to NZ, and what would be the benefits of using them?

At Vitafoods Asia, I will present more than 10 NZ ingredients, many of which are unique to the country. Others, while not unique to New Zealand, are made special by our climate, as well as the high quality production and processing facilities and methods.

Ingredients unique to New Zealand include Manuka honey, which has been the subject of significant innovation. In addition to the honey itself, advanced technological development has created a wound dressing that is sold and used in hospitals as a registered medical device worldwide.

Horopito extract is also unique to this country. This native plant is grown, refined and used in Kolorex (another registered medicine sold worldwide), a natural product proven to heal yeast infections.

Local company, SeaDragon is Australasia’s largest refiner and blender of high-quality, internationally certified concentrated fish oils and fractions (i.e. distilled derivatives), including Omega-3 oils. The company obtains its raw materials from sustainably managed fishing zones, and uses by-product that previously would have been commercially unusable.

Are there special processing steps involved in developing these products?

All companies that I will be featuring at Vitafoods Asia have developed special processes for their ingredients. In addition to SeaDragon (mentioned above),

      Supreme Biotechnologies derive Astaxanthin from Algae grown in a fully enclosed photo bioreactor system; this ensures purity, free from environmental contaminants.

       Enzo Nutraceuticals use a 100% natural Pure Water Extraction to extract Enzogenol from Pinus radiata bark

  Purified water only

  No solvents

  No chemicals

  No contaminants

Bio Oils grows the flax seed crop directly with the farmer, which allows them to monitor the quality and progress of the crop – ‘from soil to oil’. This traceability guarantees the quality of the seed planted in the ground, and therefore the finest quality Flax seed products. 

 What are the applications of some of these products you mentioned?

Among the many products I will be featuring are:

Grape seed extract that provides antioxidants and polyphenolic compounds

Astaxanthin (derived from algae) – an antioxidant

Berry extracts - also used as antioxidants amongst other uses

Kiwi fruit extracts for digestive and probiotic uses

Fish oils: cardiovascular, brain, joint health and more

Hemp seed oils for skin, hair and nail health

Flax seed oil: anti-inflammatory

Green-lipped mussel extract:  anti-inflammatory

Enzogenol (a pine bark extract) for brain function

Manuka honey used for its antibacterial properties

Deer velvet for joint health, sports performance and more

Horopito - an anti-fungal

How many NZ companies manufacture such food ingredients?

Well over 50 New Zealand companies either produce these ingredients or manufacture products that use these ingredients.

For those interested in producing their own indigenous ingredients, what would be your advice?

-Focus on the end result that you want.  

-If one of your country’s native plants has been traditionally used for centuries for a particular ailment, then it is likely that it does work. It is important to prove that scientifically and to establish safe and effective dosage levels, so trials will need to be conducted.

-Having a great product is one thing, but developing and marketing it is another! Many great natural ingredient products have failed because of insufficient business planning and investment. Significant investment will be needed to educate people about the product’s benefits and how to use it.

-The most important success factor is in developing export markets. This can take a while especially with a new ingredient, but can be achieved with the right investment and planning.