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High growth in the creatine category shows more consumers are seeking the benefits of creatine—with functional creatine beverages a key opportunity for brands. Here’s what to know about formulating with creatine for beverage applications.
The $88.7 million US creatine category experienced a phenomenal 53% year-over-year sales growth1 and a 36% increase in buyers.2 While a variety of brands did well over the past year, we’re looking closely at the innovators—like LIFEAID Beverage Co.
LIFEAID’s successful launch of FITAID RX, a ready-to-drink (RTD) creatine-plus beverage, is changing the landscape. Where powders have long dominated the category, FITAID RX offers a more convenient format and combines creatine with other functional ingredients such as BCAAs, electrolytes, and B vitamins that appeal to fitness enthusiasts.
Creatine, which occurs naturally in the body, is an organic molecule made from the amino acids arginine, glycine, and methionine. It plays a vital role in anaerobic exercise by replenishing ATP (the body’s primary energy source) to keep a steady energy supply for working muscles.
Creatine can also be consumed, most commonly in the form of creatine monohydrate, an ingredient popular among sports performance consumers who seek ways to increase their exercise capacity to make greater muscle and strength gains.
With consumers’ interest in health, wellness, and convenience driving growth in functional beverages, brands continue to explore potential high-impact ingredients that can provide additional benefits and make their beverages stand out in a competitive market.
Creatine can fill this role. A functional beverage with creatine can be positioned for workout support, energy, endurance, strength, muscle building, and hydration. (Beyond performance, creatine is associated with bone and joint health by 28% of US consumers and with weight management by 24%.)3
Since 86% of US creatine product sales are currently from ready-to-mix (RTM) powders,4 tapping into the RTD format (as LIFEAID did) greatly expands the possibilities. Adding creatine as a functional ingredient to pre-workout energy drinks, sports drinks, or protein shakes adds value for those beverage consumers and current creatine users.
Approximately one in five people globally use creatine,5 with penetration expected to grow as more consumers become aware of its benefits. In the US, the presence of creatine as an ingredient significantly influences food and beverage purchasing decisions for one in five adults, with 45% willing to pay a premium for products that contain creatine.6
Considering the leading categories in the $50 billion US functional beverage market are energy drinks ($16.0 billion), sports drinks ($12.2 billion), and RTD protein shakes ($6.4 billion),7 it makes sense to examine the potential of expanding the availability of creatine through these top-selling beverage types.
Despite creatine’s popularity, products in the market have traditionally been limited to dry formats such as RTM powders and pills due to the instability of creatine in water. When creatine monohydrate is mixed with water, it breaks down into creatinine (a compound without benefits to the body) within a few days.
Creatine monohydrate also lacks the ability to withstand high heat processing and has poor dispersibility—a problem even for RTM beverage powders. Formulating with creatine for beverage applications requires an innovative solution to achieve both stability and dispersibility.
CreaBev® is a cutting-edge, encapsulated creatine monohydrate that addresses each of these issues. CreaBev® is known for its superior dispersibility and stability in water compared to traditional creatine monohydrate and does not crystallize when exposed to ultra-high temperature (UHT) processing.
It can be used in acidic RTD beverages and RTM beverages, where its improved dispersion is a key benefit for consumers. Its encapsulation also makes it ideal for use in gummies and gels. Research also shows similar sensory results between CreaBev® and standard creatine monohydrate.
Creatine offers promising directions for product innovation. Aligning with consumer interests, which include convenient format and multiple functional benefits, will significantly influence a new product’s success in the beverage market.
Contact Glanbias Nutritionals to learn more about our CreaBev® creatine for beverage and supplement applications and the research behind it.
