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Essential nutrients play a vital role in food and beverage products, enhancing their nutritional value while boosting brand recognition and consumer satisfaction.
Essential nutrients are top of mind for many consumers when choosing a food or beverage product. By understanding what essential nutrients are and the specific benefits they offer, brands fine-tune their products to meet the needs of their target consumer.
Products fortified with the right essential nutrients stand out on the shelf, provide real value, and encourage brand loyalty. Glanbia Nutritionals’ nutritional solutions make it easy to fortify beverages, bars, snacks, cereals, and more with the most in-demand nutrients, supporting today’s leading wellness trends like energy, immunity, hydration, and healthy aging.
Essential nutrients are substances the body needs to function properly but cannot produce in sufficient amounts on its own, so they must be obtained through the diet. These nutrients are vital for energy production, growth, repair, and overall health. They include protein, carbohydrates, fats, water, vitamins, and minerals.
Each nutrient plays a unique role (and sometimes many roles) in the body. For example, proteins help build and repair tissues, while vitamins and minerals support various biochemical processes. Without an adequate intake of essential nutrients, the body can develop deficiencies that impair vital functions and lead to health issues.
As consumers become more focused on their health, there is a growing demand for nutrient-rich and fortified food products—both for overall health and specific concerns like immunity or energy. This trend drives innovation in the food industry, with companies focusing on creating products that taste good and provide significant health benefits.
Research shows that nutrient-rich foods are highly appealing to a significant number of consumers. For 27% of consumers globally, “high in nutritional value” is an important product characteristic to help them feel well, while 23% choose foods or beverages that contain health-boosting ingredients to eat healthily.1
Essential nutrients can be divided into two categories: macronutrients and micronutrients. Macronutrients are nutrients the body requires in large amounts (measured in grams) to provide energy and support bodily functions. Micronutrients are needed in much smaller amounts (measured in milligrams or micrograms) to facilitate various biochemical processes.
Protein, a highly sought-after nutrient by sports performance and mainstream consumers alike, is essential to building and repairing tissues, including muscles, skin, and organs. It also supports immune function and the production of enzymes and hormones.
Protein fortification has expanded beyond sports and active nutrition protein powders, ready-to-drink shakes, and bars to everyday products like savory snacks, sweet baked goods, and breakfast cereals. Healthy and active aging is a growing market that also prioritizes protein.
Carbohydrates are the body’s main source of energy. They are broken down into glucose, which fuels cellular activity and keeps the brain and muscles functioning efficiently.
Carbohydrates are found in foods like bread, rice, fruits, vegetables, and dairy products. Choosing complex carbs such as whole grains can provide sustained energy and fiber.
Fats are essential for energy storage, nutrient absorption, and hormone production. They also help protect vital organs and maintain healthy skin and cell membranes.
Consumers continue to show a strong interest in “healthy fats” such as those from avocados, olives, nuts, and seeds, while coconut-based MCTs remain popular among keto dieters.
Water is vital for every bodily function, from regulating temperature to transporting nutrients and removing waste. It makes up a large portion of the human body and is essential for hydration, digestion, and overall cellular health.
Drinking enough water daily is key to maintaining physical and mental performance. Hydration products, which typically include electrolytes and other restorative ingredients, are a rapidly growing functional beverage segment, with proactive hydration an emerging focus area.
Vitamin A supports healthy vision, immune function, and cell growth. It also helps maintain healthy skin and mucous membranes. It's found naturally in foods like carrots, sweet potatoes, spinach, and liver, while breakfast cereals, infant formulas, and milk are often fortified with vitamin A.
The B complex vitamins are a group of eight essential vitamins: B1 (thiamin), B2 (riboflavin), B3 (niacin), B5 (pantothenic acid), B6 (pyridoxine), B7 (biotin), B9 (folate), and B12 (cobalamin) with crucial roles in energy production and metabolism, among others. Energy drinks and bars are ideal for fortification with B complex vitamins, while biotin is favored for beauty-from-within products.
Vitamin C is an antioxidant that supports immune health, wound healing, and collagen production and helps the body absorb iron from plant-based foods. Citrus fruits, strawberries, bell peppers, and broccoli are rich in vitamin C. Widely recognized by consumers, vitamin C is a must-have nutrient in functional immunity and beauty beverages.
Vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium, promoting strong bones and teeth, and supports immunity and mood regulation. Despite the body’s ability to produce vitamin D during sun exposure, deficiency is common. Paired with calcium, vitamin D is a valuable addition to healthy aging products, children’s products, and plant-based dairy alternatives.
Vitamin E is an antioxidant that protects cells from damage, supports immune function, and helps maintain healthy skin and eyes. It’s found in nuts, seeds, vegetable oils, and leafy greens. Vitamin E is useful as an ingredient in beauty beverages and bars.
Vitamin K is essential for blood clotting and bone health. It’s found in green leafy vegetables like kale and spinach, as well as in broccoli and Brussels sprouts. Fortifying meal replacement shakes with vitamin K ensures they cover an essential but often-overlooked nutrient for overall wellness and bone strength—especially important for aging populations and those on restricted diets.
Calcium is necessary for building and maintaining strong bones and teeth. It also plays a role in nerve transmission, muscle contraction, and heart function. Dairy alternatives like almond, soy, and oat milks benefit from calcium fortification, along with breakfast cereals and nutritional shakes for seniors.
Iron is vital for producing hemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen throughout the body. Iron-rich foods include red meat, beans, and tofu. Fortifying cereals, plant-based meats, and women’s nutrition bars and shakes with iron helps address common deficiencies and supports optimum energy levels.
Magnesium is an electrolyte involved in muscle and nerve function, blood sugar control, and bone development. Nuts, seeds, whole grains, beans, and green leafy vegetables all provide magnesium. Magnesium is often added to hydration beverages and powders, sports drinks, and functional waters to support muscle function and recovery.
Potassium helps regulate fluid balance, nerve signals, and muscle contractions. It’s critical for heart health and is found naturally in bananas, potatoes, avocados, and beans. Like magnesium, potassium is a key electrolyte to include in sports drinks and other hydration products.
Zinc has roles in immune function, wound healing, and DNA synthesis. It also supports growth and development, with good sources including meat, shellfish, beans, seeds, and nuts. Immunity-positioned shots, ready-to-mix beverages, and nutrition bars benefit from added zinc to support immune resilience.
Iodine is essential for thyroid function and the production of thyroid hormones, which regulate metabolism. Consumers may get iodine through dairy, seafood, iodized salt, and fortified breakfast cereals. Meal replacement shakes and plant-based seafood are also good candidates for iodine fortification.
Enhancing the nutritional profile of a food or beverage product with key essential nutrients is made easy with a custom nutrient premix from Glanbia Nutritionals. Our extensive nutrient portfolio and ingredient expertise lets us develop the ideal premix for your application based on your goals, target consumer, and product attributes.
This might be a Natural Energy Gamer Snack such as protein-fortified brownie bites with B vitamins for energy, plus vitamin A for eye health. Or a Women’s Immunity Wellness Shot, formulated with vitamin C, zinc, and iron, to be taken whenever a woman is feeling run down. Fortifying in a tailored way opens up exciting innovation possibilities.
In addition, our TechVantage® functionally optimized ingredients use technologies like microencapsulation and granulation to deliver nutrients with improved dispersibility, stability, clarity, and taste compared to standard nutrients—improving production processes and the consumer experience.
If you’re seeking a specific health or wellness benefit for your product, you can also choose from our All N® Premix Formulas, which include nutrient blends for:
. . . and many more!
With health and wellness a significant consumer trend, fortifying with essential nutrients offers an opportunity to attract more consumers and differentiate your brand. In the past 12 months, 39% of consumers have taken much or a great deal of action to live healthier.2 Globally, health and wellbeing are consumers’ #1 spending priority beyond living essentials.3
Fortifying with essential nutrients that align with consumers’ top health and wellness concerns, whether energy, immunity, or hydration, is a way to add real value that health-focused consumers will notice. It also presents a variety of innovation opportunities.
Contact Glanbia Nutritionals to learn more about fortified, better-for-you ingredient solutions for incorporating essential nutrients into your next product.
Custom nutrient premixes are tailored blends of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients used in foods, beverages, and dietary supplements formulated to meet specific nutritional targets. They help manufacturers enhance the nutritional profile of their products while simplifying the production process.
Custom nutrient premixes offer many benefits, including formulation optimization, enhanced, consistent and homogeneous blends, and cost-effectiveness by streamlining operations processes and reducing ingredient waste.
Custom nutrient premixes are used in fortified products like nutrition bars, breakfast cereals, beverages, bakery products, dietary supplements and snacks to improve their nutritional value and ensure the even distribution of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients throughout the production run. They provide precise nutrient combinations in an easy-to-add powder, allowing manufacturers to tailor their products to their consumers’ needs.
Electrolytes, which include sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium, are minerals that carry an electrical charge and help regulate fluid balance, muscle contraction, and nerve function. They are essential for hydration because they maintain proper fluid distribution in the body, preventing dehydration at the cellular level—which is especially critical during physical activity.
The latest trends in protein ingredients focus on clean-label, high-protein, and functional solutions that meet consumer demand for transparency, nutrition, and health benefits. Protein ingredients that do not impact product texture or taste, whether due to protein source or ingredient optimization, play a key role in delivering the high-quality sensory experience consumers expect.
Some proteins, like whey protein, tend not to impact product shelf life, while plant-based proteins may require stabilizers. Our team can recommend solutions to extend shelf life, such as using a functional protein optimized for the application. Choosing the right protein, along with proper formulation, can minimize changes in texture and taste over time.
