Growing Health Functional Food Market... Industry's Fierce Competition for 'Exclusive Ingredients'

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] Competition among health functional food (hereafter HFF) companies to acquire 'exclusive ingredients' is intensifying. This is to target the diversified consumer demands as the HFF market has rapidly grown since COVID-19.

According to the industry on the 31st, recently, companies within the HFF market have entered into competition to obtain exclusive rights by utilizing the ‘Individually Recognized Ingredient’ certification system.

Individually Recognized Ingredients refer to ingredients certified by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) for functionality and safety. Developers must have research data on the functionality, standards, and specifications of the ingredient verified through research and development, and upon obtaining certification, they are granted exclusive rights to the ingredient for six years. During this period, they are given the right to manage and regulate sales channels and advertising phrases related to the ingredient, enabling them to establish strong competitiveness in specific markets.

HFF product groups based on Individually Recognized Ingredients account for 21.2% of the total and their market share is steadily increasing every year. The HFF market size is expected to exceed 5 trillion KRW this year, and HFF product groups based on Individually Recognized Ingredients are projected to grow even further.

For example, FromBIO, a specialized HFF company, holds Individually Recognized Ingredient certifications for Boswellia extract, mastic gum, and wild mango seed extract, showing a steep growth trend. Over the past three years, it has recorded an average annual sales growth rate of 58.5% and achieved a KOSDAQ listing last month.

Additionally, it registered a patent for a cosmetic composition for hair loss prevention and hair growth promotion using its main Individually Recognized Ingredient, ‘mastic gum aqueous solution.’ It discovered that this ingredient can increase the expression of hair growth factors, and based on this achievement, plans to conduct clinical trials early next year.

Amorepacific has been applying exclusive patents to cosmetics and HFF products based on its green tea material research that has continued since the 1980s. The ‘Green Tea Probiotic Research Center’ at Amorepacific’s Technology Research Institute discovered that among Jeju organic green tea, fermented green tea leaves contain beneficial plant-derived green tea probiotic strains that aid fermentation, and obtained a patent for this.

Amorepacific applies this exclusive ingredient to its inner beauty brand CubeMe, releasing products tailored to segmented demands such as elasticity, moisture, sensitivity, whitening, anti-aging, and diet.

hy registered its patented probiotic ‘KY1032’ as a functional ingredient with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in June. KY1032 is a plant-derived strain isolated from kimchi and is the raw material of ‘KillFat,’ an Individually Recognized Ingredient. KillFat is a complex form of this strain and ‘HY7601.’ hy is also pursuing registration of ‘HY7714,’ the first domestic skin functional probiotic, along with ‘HY7601.’

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.