Tradeoffs Created by Research-Based Supplement Design Approaches

A number of organizations have focused their interest in developing nutrition products on evidence-based supplement design techniques, considering their high credibility. The introduction of such an approach, however, leads to a number of tradeoffs that need to be considered.

For example, translating results obtained through research for the purpose of applying them to actual formulations may prove to be quite challenging. It should be noted that there may be discrepancies between the requirements set forth by research conditions and commercial development needs. Ingredient sourcing considerations and other aspects related to product development may affect the application of research findings.

It is the duty of the company providing evidence-based design services to consider all the possible issues and decide whether there is a possibility to incorporate findings into product design and development. Such a step will help to avoid a situation where the company will have problems with producing or selling the formulation.

Dosage issues may be included in this category. In some cases, it may be necessary to analyze the results obtained during research and decide whether they are applicable to product design. This process will take into consideration both product positioning and development concerns.

There may also be a need to consider how several ingredients will work together as part of the formulation. For instance, there may be available studies discussing the effects produced by particular nutrients. However, little evidence regarding the combination of certain ingredients is usually provided. In this case, one will have to make appropriate calculations.

Another concern is related to the timing of the development process. There may be occasions when a product developer wishes to respond to customer demands by introducing the product fast. As an evidence-based approach is used, some challenges will arise as to how to meet the deadline and obtain proper research support.

Literature assessment may affect resource management as well. Depending on a product developer's vision of the development process, literature assessment and the analysis of supporting material may either become an integral part of the process or be regarded as optional.

This problem appears because there are instances when an interest in a particular ingredient increases faster than the size of available literature. As a result, product developers will be facing challenges related to assessing the importance of research findings.

Scientific literature does not provide simple answers to complicated questions. As a consequence, product development may become quite a sophisticated process requiring the assessment of different studies' applicability.

It means that there are chances that people from the same organization will come up with opposite views of how particular pieces of evidence can be applied to product design.