New Zealand collaborators reveal innovative gut health product
- : Zestt Wellness
- : 23/01/2023
A Dunedin company, Zestt Wellness, have launched a new gut health product to help counter the damage caused to our digestive system from processed foods and additives. One of the co-founders of Zestt, Dr Anna Campbell, says that damage to our gut health can be associated with the onset of chronic disease.
Campbell, along with fellow founder, Darcy Schack, were driven to create a science-based gut health product that used New Zealand grown ingredients and innovation.
These ingredients include yacon, which according to Campbell is “a superfood due to its amazing prebiotic properties. Yacon provides a form of sugar that our body can’t digest but our gut bacteria can, this helps the growth of good bacteria and inhibits the growth of bad. Clinical trials have shown that yacon can also reduce appetite and help with weight management”. The Zestt team have partnered with Kerikeri organic yacon producer, Marcus van Boxel, and are excited about the availability and quality of yacon in New Zealand.
Knowing the benefits of yacon and finding a local producer were only part of the equation. Through a collaboration with Blenheim based company, Taylor Pass Honey and a Nelson based food scientist, Grant MacDonald, the team have found a way to turn the yacon syrup into a dried product – something that others have not been able to do. A clever bit of local innovation has meant that they have been able to create the new ‘Thrive’ lozenge that has the correct pH and consistency and that also includes other New Zealand ingredients that are good for gut health, such as gold kiwifruit and probiotics from another Dunedin based company, BLIS Technologies.
Creating a quality product from quality ingredients has its challenges. According to Schack “the trick is to combine these ingredients, without losing bioactivity, so a lot of attention to detail and testing needs to happen along the way to insure none of the goodness is lost”.
The inspiration for Zestt Wellness’ products arises from Schack’s personal health battles with Sarcoidosis, a little-known autoimmune disease, which affected his lung, heart and brain functions. Zestt Wellness was established in 2019 and they released their first product EXhale, a lung health and immunity formulation, that year.
Campbell is excited about the new product “launching a product that is based on quality ingredients, quality collaborations, innovation and a bit of Kiwi magic is something that we are proud of; best of all, we know this will make a difference to the health and well-being of some New Zealanders.”
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About Zestt Wellness
in 2022, Zestt launched their product range in the USA and were named finalists in the Asia Pacific Nutra Ingredients Start Up Company award and winners of the New Zealand China Business Club Innovator award. As a company, they tap into the rich New Zealand science and innovation ecosystem and partner with premium growers throughout the country to develop products with strong science behind them.To contact Zestt Wellness:
Anna Campbell 027 4861418; anna@zesttwellness.com
Darcy Schack 027 599 2255; darcy@zesttwellness.com
- : Dr Anna Campbell
- : CoFounder
- : anna@zesttwellness.com
- : 0274861418
- : https://www.zesttwellness.com
- https://www.facebook.com/Zesttwellness | https://www.linkedin.com/company/zesttwellness/
App to help consumers before they get to the Supermarket
- : Sumfood Limited
- :
As the cost of living crisis bites, a New Zealand company, Sumfood, has launched an app designed to help New Zealander’s save money at the supermarket. The free app lets consumers know which supermarket has the cheapest price, per person, for groceries.
Launched on 1 December, it is hoped that it will provide consumers with a little comfort at the checkout as the holiday season approaches.
Dr Helen Darling of Sumfood believes that the kiwi’s want to help kiwi’s find the best place to shop and, at the same time, drive supermarkets towards fairer and more transparent pricing. To do this, she said, will require innovative people to start using the app, as the amount of data builds, supermarkets will no longer be able to hide behind price differences.
“Anecdotally, we know that where you live has an impact on what you pay at the supermarket – it’s time for some transparency”. Price information is crowd-sourced from motivated consumers.
The app was designed in response to increasing concerns of food price inconsistencies reported through the company’s food reporting tool.
For the last two years the company has collected reports on food issues, with these ranging from concerns about food preparation or hygiene through to contaminants or foreign objects. The company provides a service to consumers that gives them advice on what to do and who to contact.
The new app, FoodSpies.com, uses crowd-sourced data to calculate the average price for a supermarket shop. Shoppers can log on and find the average price, per person, for supermarkets in their region. Data are sourced from shoppers who provide the cost of their shop and the pricing is continuously recalculated so that the most up-to-date information is available.
Darling said that it’s an exciting time to be launching another tool to help consumers, adding that the idea came from her young, motivated team who are committed to making food systems safer and fairer.
- : Helen Darling
- : CEO
- : helen.darling@sumfood.com
- : 021479958
- : https://www.foodspies.com/