What are the hallmarks of a successful nutraceutical in today’s crowded and competitive marketplace? While dietary supplements aren’t magic bullets that can negate the ill effects of an unhealthy lifestyle, there are three key ingredients, so to speak, that can make or break a product’s standing. 

In his “Business Insights” column Greg Stephens discusses the development and convergence of the healthcare practitioner channel and the medical foods market. He notes that when evaluating dietary supplements, healthcare practitioners are looking for, quite simply: safety, quality and efficacy. Not a complicated formula, right? After all, isn’t this what all consumers are looking for in the end? Whether I’m buying a protein shake, an energy shot or a high-fiber cereal, as a consumer in good health, I’d like some level of confidence that these products will hold up their end of the bargain.

It’s simply not enough to have one of these three elements without the other two. As one physician put it, according to Mr. Stephens, “safety is an ante; it is a requirement just to get in the game.” For the most part, I think responsible industry has to be encouraged that reports of adverse events have been relatively low overall, especially compared to the pharmaceutical industry.

As for quality, sure there is business to be done in commodities, and consumers—especially in tough economic times—often have to balance cost against varying levels of perceived quality. But consumers should never have to trade quality for safety.

This brings us to efficacy. According to many contract research organizations, the amount and quality of research substantiating health claims in the nutraceuticals industry continues to increase and improve. According to Robert Patton, vice president of business development, Clinical Research, SPRIM America, “Clinical research protects the company from unnecessary liability and provides marketing fire power to aggressively penetrate the market, increase sales and provide key insights to the product to fuel new intelligent innovation.”

With the evolution of the nutraceuticals industry, it seems safety and quality are increasingly the ante—the minimum requirement—for responsible companies to do business. That third component, whereby businesses develop a dossier of information to validate product claims and prove efficacy, is where you can separate yourself from the rest of the pack. Ideally, in the future, more companies will invest in research in order to support their brands, consequently advancing innovation and pushing the pack forward.