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Holistic health drives cognitive supplement demand and ingredient innovations
Key takeaways
- Consumer demand for focus and brain health is driving a 4% annual growth in cognitive supplement launches from 2021 to 2026.
- The industry is moving away from single-pathway “brain booster” pills to holistic solutions that address the gut-brain axis, metabolic health, stress, and sleep.
- Companies say bioavailability and delivery formats remain key challenges in product development and point to a push to population-specific science.
Consumers’ interest in improving focus and brain health is driving cognitive supplement launches. Experts from MartinBauer Nutraceuticals, Kerry, Saanroo, and Balchem tell Nutrition Insight that the market is moving toward holistic health solutions as the industry recognizes the interconnectedness of cognition and gut, metabolic, and mental well-being.
Innova Market Insights data indicates an annual growth of 4% in cognitive supplement launches between April 2021 and March 2026. In the last year, vitamins and minerals, as well as botanical supplements, were leading categories in these launches.
Cynthia Suarez-Rizzo, senior expert on new product development at MartinBauer Nutraceuticals, tells us that cognitive performance is a “dynamic area in nutrition” because it sits at the intersection of modern lifestyle pressures, mental well-being, and preventive health.
“What matters now is not simply offering more stimulation, but delivering smarter, more targeted, and more sustainable support for how people want to think, feel, and function every day.”
Andrew Boswell, senior health category manager for Digestive and Cognitive Health at Kerry, underscores that cognitive nutrition innovation must remain pragmatic and evidence-based.
“We must avoid overhyping unproven ‘miracle’ brain boosters and instead prioritize sound science and transparent communication. By acknowledging the complex nature of cognitive health and taking a systems approach, we can deliver solutions that are both scientifically grounded and meaningful to consumers.”
“This balanced approach will ultimately build trust and ensure cognitive performance products truly make a positive difference in people’s lives.”
Holistic health
Boswell states that cognitive performance is no longer viewed in isolation. “Today we understand that supporting the brain means supporting the whole person.”
Suarez-Rizzo says cognitive performance sits at the intersection of lifestyle pressures and preventive health.“The field increasingly recognizes how multiple health areas — from gut and metabolic health to stress resilience, sleep quality, and healthy aging — intersect to shape cognitive performance. The gut-brain axis exemplifies this synergy: by improving digestive health, such asnitive function.”
Moreover, Boswell notes that metabolic wellness, stress management, and sleep are “intertwined” with brain performance, leading innovators to design holistic solutions that address these needs together, instead of one-dimensional brain booster pills
Maggie McNamara, VP of Global Marketing at Saanroo, also observes a growing recognition that cognitive health is shaped by multiple biological systems rather than a single pathway.
“Research on neuroinflammation, neurotransmitter activity, sleep quality, stress physiology, and the gut-brain axis is reshaping how brands formulate brain-health products. The industry is moving beyond short-term stimulation toward evidence-based ingredients that support long-term cognitive function and overall resilience for longevity.”
Emerging new ingredients
The experts highlight several promising new ingredients for cognitive performance. Boswell points to novel prebiotic and probiotic interventions for the gut-brain axis, modulating digestion and inflammation to benefit cognitive function.
“Even inactivated beneficial microbes (postbiotics) are being explored as stable ways to harness microbiome-related benefits for the brain,” he adds
“Another emerging area is metabolic and energy-support compounds that help the brain. For instance, some specialized plant extracts can enhance focus under acute stress with same-day benefits.”
Suarez-Rizzo from MartinBauer Nutraceuticals also highlights non-stimulant botanicals that support cognition through differentiated pathways such as blood flow, stress regulation, or calm focus rather than relying primarily on caffeine.
“Another is polyphenol-rich ingredients, attracting interest because of their multipathway relevance to cognitive resilience, inflammation balance, and gut-brain interactions.”
Boswell urges the industry to avoid unproven brain boosters and prioritize sound science.“What differentiates these newer solutions from established options is that they tend to offer greater specificity, broader functionality, and better alignment with current consumer expectations,” she says. “Consumers are now looking for products that provide mental clarity without overstimulation or combine cognition with emotional balance, stress support, or long-term brain health.”
Botanical benefits
Suarez-Rizzo points to Concental and Mentalify as two botanical solutions from MartinBauer Nutraceuticals in the cognitive space
Concental is a plant-based, non-stimulant branded ingredient based on Sideritisspecies (Greek Mountain Tea). She says it focuses on cerebral blood flow and oxygenation as key drivers of cognitive performance.
“This mechanism of action is highly relevant in terms of boosting concentration, information processing, mental flexibility, and memory, especially in demanding daily-life situations,” she explains. “That makes it relevant not only for healthy agers, but athletes, gamers, and professionals who need to perform in high-demand situations — but without a classic stimulant profile.”
Meanwhile, Mentalify addresses the growing need for natural support in children and teenagers, Suarez-Rizzo adds.
“It addresses the behavioral dimension of cognitive performance. Based on lemon verbena, it is positioned to support a more relaxed and calm mental state that can help create the conditions for better attention and cognitive performance. From a brand perspective, its age-targeted and context-specific positioning is still relatively uncommon in the cognitive nutrition category.”
She expects the category to move toward more targeted solutions for consumer groups such as healthy agers, students, children or teenagers with attention-related challenges, adults with busy lives, and women. “This shift will influence both product development and communication.”
New product development challenges
Thomas Druke, senior marketing and business development manager at Balchem, highlights that developing cognitive-supporting nutrition can be complex in terms of scientific validation and product formulation.
“Demonstrating genuine efficacy is the first hurdle. Brain health outcomes are notoriously difficult to measure, and today’s highly informed consumers are demanding clinical substantiation that goes beyond broad, generic claims. Dosing strategies, bioavailability, and ingredient forms all play a critical role in whether a product truly delivers.”
McNamara points to bioavailability as one of the nutrition industry’s greatest formulation challenges.He adds that exploring innovative applications can be a major challenge as well, going beyond the traditional capsules that still dominate the brain health market.
Furthermore, Druke says that choline, a popular ingredient for cognitive health, could add benefits to multivitamins as an essential nutrient for the brain, body, and nervous system. “However, due to choline hygroscopicity, tableted multivitamin solutions have previously been challenging for formulators.”
For this reason, Balchem developed VitaCholine Pro-Flo, which can be used in various formulations, such as liquids, powders, and tablets. “By coating choline in a protective membrane through patented particle science, it flows smoothly, compresses efficiently, and integrates seamlessly into existing multivitamin formulations — bringing a critical cognitive nutrient into the formats consumers actually want.”
“As consumers look beyond claims to outcomes, meaningful nutrient delivery will become a defining factor in cognitive health innovation,” Druke predicts.
He also points to folate as a nutrient for cognitive health, as it helps to support healthy brain tissues and to promote normal cognitive function by regulating homocysteine levels through its methyl donor function.
“At Balchem, we recently launched Optifolin+ in the US market, a bioactive choline-enriched folate ingredient that provides seven times the methyl groups found in other folate products, delivering epigenetic support for the brain and nervous system, all while contributing to broader health outcomes.”
Boosting bioavailability
In the nutrition industry, bioavailability remains one of the greatest challenges, says Saanroo’s McNamara.
“Many ingredients show promise in research but are poorly absorbed or difficult to formulate effectively. Liposomal delivery systems and self-emulsifying formulations are being used to improve the uptake of a range of cognitive ingredients — addressing a longstanding gap between what an ingredient can theoretically do and what actually reaches the brain.”
She highlights how delivery technologies help address these limitations by improving ingredient dispersion, absorption, and consistency. For example, she points to LipiSperse, developed by Saanroo’s partner Pharmako Biotechnologies.
Druke notes that brain health outcomes are notoriously difficult to measure and substantiate.“This advanced cold-water dispersion technology enables solid lipophilic active ingredients that otherwise have relatively low bioavailability and poor water solubility to be easily dispersed in cold water, thereby increasing their bioavailability in the body.”
She also highlights AquaCelle, a patent-pending, clinically validated self-microemulsifying drug delivery system designed to increase the bioavailability and solubility of lipophilic actives
Personalized cognitive nutrition
McNamara predicts that cognitive health is being shaped by a deeper understanding of how the brain interacts with the rest of the body. She notes that consumer demand for clinically supported solutions that fit into their daily lives creates opportunities for brands to deliver innovations grounded in scientific research and real-world wellness needs.
“Over the next five years, we expect continued growth in personalized cognitive nutrition, alongside expanding research on healthy aging, neuroprotection, and the gut-brain connection. Advances in biomarker-driven research will enable more targeted solutions, while improvements in delivery technologies will further enhance ingredient performance.”
“The cumulative effect of these advances is a reorientation of the entire cognitive nutrition category — away from broad marketing claims and toward mechanistic, biomarker-validated, dose-specific, and population-stratified science,” says McNamara.
“There is a pressing need for standardized cognitive assessment methods and outcome measures to enable better comparison across studies — and the brands and ingredient suppliers who invest in that rigor now will define the credibility of the category for the decade ahead. The science is no longer just informing products; it is becoming the product.”
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