This month’s Trailblazer, Kenn Israel, brings over three decades of expertise in the wellness industry, spanning food supplements, product development, and regulatory affairs. As a Co-Founding Partner at BeyondBrands and Founder of Innovation Nutrition Consulting, Kenn has driven innovation and sustainability for mission-driven companies across various sectors, including dietary supplements and cosmetics. His deep experience in contract manufacturing and operations, combined with advisory roles on several industry boards, has made him a key figure in shaping the future of wellness. In this edition, Kenn shares his insights on how AI is poised to revolutionize the industry, from ingredient discovery to personalized wellness solutions.
In your opinion, what emerging technology or trend will have the most significant impact on our industry in the next three to five years?
AI will change everything
It is starting now, and it will accelerate over time until almost every aspect of our industry (and many others) are impacted.
Ingredient discovery and creation are already being significantly impacted. Peptides are a singular example of how machine learning and massive computational power is simply outperforming and improving upon unaided human ingenuity. Mapping cellular and enzymatic binding domains, linking these domains to downstream biologic effects, and either isolating or synthesizing peptides that interface with these domains was not commercially viable until AI entered the space. Of course, these computational models and simulations need to be validated with real world analysis and testing.
Syn-Bio or precision fermentation and cellular agriculture are domains that AI has already empowered allowing us to convert simple platform cells such as yeast, fungi, and bacteria, or desirable cells isolated from plants, into biological engines capable of consistent manufacture, at scale, of desired molecules and/or complex ingredient materials. These technologies have the potential to significantly derisk, smooth, and scale supply chains. Democratizing rare and expensive compounds, reducing wasteful extraction from biomass, eliminating seasonality and environmental risk exposure, reducing geopolitical risk, and eliminating intermediate processing, solvents, and excipients are all being accelerated by AI.
Ingredient discovery from plant biomass is transforming through AI empowered analysis of the unexplored and uncharted “dark matter” of the universe of plant-based compounds. Digitizing models of cell receptors, enzyme systems, metabolomics, etc. creates new “targets” for active ingredients. We now have the capability to discover new applications for previously unused biochemical “parts” of plants. Science has mapped a small portion (3-4%) of the available compounds from plant biomass and now we can learn about the potential implications and opportunities presented by the other 96%
Product development that anticipates and leverages ingredient synergies, manipulates multiple biochemical pathways, and improves safety (reducing ingredient interactions and excessive doses), will likely be aided by smart formulation engines.
Personalization based on biological data from DNA, sweat, breath, blood, urine, stool, leveraging biometric data from wearables, anticipation of lifestyle risks and stressors by looking at social networks and agendas will be informed by AI. This precision guidance, tailored to the specific individual with real time adjustment and customization, will revolutionize how consumers (and practitioners) select their supplements.
Marketing & communications, business intelligence, and many aspects of operations will also continue to be transformed by AI. On one hand, this presents an incredible opportunity to build efficiency and rationalize some repetitive and mundane tasks. On the other hand, people will be displaced, some roles will disappear, and organizations transformed. Like previous technological revolutions— from the steam engine to computing and the internet— it is difficult to anticipate the full social and economic implications.
If the past is any guide to the present and future, there will be huge opportunities and unexpected shifts in the way we work, (hopefully) the current apocalyptic predictions will not manifest.
What are the most common misconceptions people have about our industry, and how would you debunk them?
The “Quality Problem” is limited to just some fringe players…
Since you, gentle reader, are likely a participant in the ingredients and supplements space, I am going to challenge some common misconceptions about our industry’s commitment to quality, from an insider’s perspective.
There are multiple types of quality problems in our industry, including but not limited to:
- Adulteration of ingredients
- Failure of finished products to meet label claims
- Fabricated expiry dates
- “Borrowed” science to support claims.
If the quality problem was a “fringe issue” then the results of recent inquiries into product quality, be they finished product testing or incidents of ingredient adulteration and contamination, would feature far less failures than what almost every inquiry reveals!
I have seen the enemy, and it is us!
Ingredient adulteration is a function of outright malfeasance, or willful neglect of good manufacturing practices. This is still a major failure point for our industry.
Failure to meet label claims can often result from inexperience or, sadly and more commonly, by unvarnished greed. Inexperience can be remedied through training & education supported with product testing and reformulation, but greed is typically unstoppable unless checked by enforcement or cultural shift.
Regarding stability data… I won’t delve into the exact meaning of “best by” or “expiry” here but based on my experience working with numerous brand marketers and visiting many contract manufacturing facilities, it would appear that efforts to accurately assess product stability, whether through accelerated or real-time methods are insufficient. My inquiries with most brands on this topic reveal that market pressure and retailer policy, not measurement and testing, are driving the decisions behind the dates on the bottles. The lack of substantiation on best by dates will likely be the topic of a future wave of enforcement, embarrassment, and class action litigation.
Regarding product claims, I do not have empirical evidence on the degree of occurrence, but I see many products using inexpensive commodity grade ingredients, often at low dose, but still featuring on pack claims. The claims are often based on studies conducted with ingredients derived from different extraction technologies at higher doses. Product claims substantiation should be based on science on the actual ingredient used, in an appropriate delivery system, at the studied dose or better still, clinical research on the actual article of commerce!
I absolutely understand that this is an uncomfortable truth for our industry and public discussion could lead to public embarrassment for many companies. We need to all do better!
Truth and Transparency (and block chain) will set us free…