It’s a fact that Collagen is a well know functional ingredient among women. Collagen is a major structural protein of our skin; it creates 75 percent of our skin. Although due to aging processes collagen amount is decreasing and this is the main reason of wrinkle appearance. After age 25 our bodies loose around 1.5% of collagen every year. Below in a picture it is visible how does the skin change during the years. Due to the beauty cult private label collagen drinks are being under huge demand lately. There is a saying that taking good care of your skin and body means taking care of your collagen.
There are many ways to promote the synthesis of new, healthy collagen. It is important to use vitamin C, so skin would have a reserve of it. Vitamin C is a very important cofactor in collagen synthesis, which is encourages production of collagen. Vitamin C is the only ingredient with a proved claim by EFSA and related to collagen, f.e. Vitamin C contributes to normal collagen formation for the normal function of blood vessels; Vitamin C contributes to normal collagen formation for the normal function of bones and etc. (More detailed information you can find here). Another way to protect your skin from aging is to avoid UVA and UVB radiation; prevent free radical damage. And the last but not least way to promote collagen synthesis is to supplement with collagen stimulating peptides. For this reason functional drinks with collagen are getting more and more popular. Functional collagen beauty drinks with collagen, vitamin C and other well known antioxidants like grape, blueberry or raspberry juices or even catechin epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) containing green tea extract, has a lot of potential.
Beauty and youth cults are very important nowadays, but what is being forgotten that every fourth person suffers from joint problem and the number is only increasing, this is due to the aging and mechanical stress. Interesting fact that collagen is making up to some 70% of cartilage mass, supplementary usage of collagen is accelerating growth of new cartilage which leads to pain relieve and smoother movement. Collagen is a natural protein of a neutral taste and odor, well soluble in water even in high amounts and delivers clear products without any interactions with other ingredients. One more application of collagen is in sports drinks. This protein is providing necessary nutrients for the synthesis of muscle and cells. Although athletes advice to combine supplementary nutrition with physical exercises in order to improve muscle mass and muscle performance.
To sum up, collagen could be used as a multifunctional ingredient for various beverage categories: anti-aging, sports, beauty and health. This ingredient has a lot of marketing potential in ever growing beauty and beverage industry.
