Ingredient Idol rewards the most innovative, top-shelf dietary ingredients recently introduced into the nutrition and supplements market today. Consummated at SupplySide West in Las Vegas on Oct. 26, this year’s juried competition featured three health conditions with three finalists in each category—active nutrition, microbiome, nootropics. Live at the show, a panel of sharp, smart and informed industry judges heard elevator pitches from ingredient supplier brands, peppered them with follow-up questions, and decided the winner.

For the nootropics category, the three finalists were:

The winner was Solabia-BioActor’s Brainberry. Here are the three categories upon which the ingredient was judged. Watch the video, above, to see an exclusive interview with the winner.

Innovation

Starting from a completely new raw material, Aronia melanocarpa, and linking it to cognition, Brainberry is the first ingredient to make this connection, and there is a good reason why: Aronia berries are naturally high (3x higher than blueberry) in their anthocyanin content. Anthocyanins are generally known for improving cognitive parameters. This is how Brainberry originated, by detecting this gap in the market. Now, following proprietary consumer studies, gathering consumer feedback and proprietary clinical studies, Brainberry has become a strong ingredient for any cognitive formula. The commercial dose is only 65 mg (equivalent to 19 mg anthocyanins), so it will fit into any formulation.

Market potential

Commercially introduced in the U.S. market in late 2021, Brainberry has already been adopted by big U.S. brands, most notably C4 Energy, which is using it in their different beverage formats (Ultimate range) and their C4 x WWE special powder. This is an early indication of Brainberry’s attractiveness to the U.S. market: low dose, natural ingredient, high efficacy and diverse application potential. Solabia-BioActor has already seen great success in other markets like Europe, Taiwan and Korea. With its clean extraction method, Brainberry also fits in with the clean label trend, without additives or other compounds.

Another trend that Brainberry is able to fit into is energy beverages. As a nootropic, with its ability to disperse and vibrant purple color, Brainberry is a cost-effective, clinically studied ingredient for any energy drink brand.

Additionally, it would fit well into other formulas targeting long-term brain fitness, pre-workouts or gaming formulas. There are three more clinical studies ongoing at this moment in time, and the publications will see daylight throughout 2024 and early 2025. A patent has already been granted in the U.S. market, protecting the composition and dosage of the ingredient and serving as official recognition of its ability to boost brain fitness and performance.

Scientific merit

Studies found improvement in hand-eye coordination and focus at a low daily dose of 19 mg natural anthocyanins. One study using 90 mg Brainberry found beneficial effects on psychomotor speed—the time it takes a person to process new information, make sense of it and respond physically. Another study on amateur gamers, both female and male, found significant improvement in relevant measures for gaming performance such as hand-eye coordination, focus, reaction time and energy. Positive results were seen after one day and continued through the supplementation span of seven days. A study on 35 professional Greek basketball players, again studying effects after both one and seven days, found that Brainberry led to players experiencing enhanced cognitive performance linked to focus, reaction time and hand-eye coordination.