Our map of the sector
Welcome to ThinkingLinking’s map: the first multi-dimensional map of the natural ingredients sector!
A complex picture
When we stand back from the natural ingredients sector, we can see the enormous ‘cross over’ between the different dimensions. Individual ingredients can come from many origins, they can be produced by more than one process and are used in multiple verticals. The point is that it is not just that the industry at large touches so many origins, processes and verticals, but each individual ingredient also does.
In a snapshot – the natural ingredients sector
The origins, processes and markets for each ingredient type
source: ThinkingLinking
Natural Ingredients Database
Origins
About half the ingredient types can be produced using only one of the four principle origins: plant, animal, microorganism or soil. If we were to go down to the sub-origin level, ‘origin flexibility’ – the number of possible origins for an ingredient – becomes even greater. For example, we can easily see how the vegan trend can be accommodated in many ingredient categories by changing the biomass.
Unique or multiple sources
The one or more origins of each ingredient type
source: ThinkingLinking
Natural Ingredients Database
Production process
We see that the three principal production processes of the natural ingredients sector can be used across all four principle origins, plant, animal, microorganism and soil. For example, we see that plant origins are used in all processes, not just extraction; and extraction itself is deployed across all four categories of biomass. We also see that ingredient types often repeat in different origin categories.
Minimal correlation between process and origin
Almost every origin is relevant to every process
source: ThinkingLinking
Natural Ingredients Database
Combination processes
There are in fact six processes at work in the natural ingredients sector, the three basic ones, extraction, fermentation and biochemical reaction, plus the pairing of each of them. Ingredient types are plotted to show which of these six can be used to produce the particular ingredient. Of course, though an ingredient type has many options, individual companies tend to use only one. The overall picture is that there is a lot of choice in production method for most ingredients. Only three ingredient types have a single production method option. Many have at least three options and, at the extreme, probiotics has four. These options of course result in an ingredient having different product qualities and economics at different production levels.
Processes and their combinations
The complex relationship between ingredients and their process options
source: ThinkingLinking
Natural Ingredients Database
Vertical markets
It’s well-known that individual ingredients have wide use across different vertical markets but the scale of this phenomenon can now be appreciated. Indeed, 85% of ingredient types have between four and five vertical market uses.
Multi-market picture
The vast range of sectors ingredients serve
source: ThinkingLinking
Natural Ingredients Database
Health benefits
We found that 83% of products in our opportunities database have a health benefit claim. In this sense, the health benefits dimension of course cannot be considered a universal one for the sector, unlike ingredient, origin, process and vertical market. Nevertheless, it’s majority relevance makes it critical to the sector.
We can see that some natural ingredient groupings have a very wide impact across the health spectrum and also some therapeutic areas likewise can be addressed by multiple natural ingredients groupings.
Ingredient Power
The therapeutic areas claimed by each ingredient
source: ThinkingLinking
Natural Ingredients Database
The data also shows that many sub-origins have wide healthcare uses and similarly many of the therapeutic and wellness categories can be addressed by multiple sub-origins.
This scale of ingredient and sub-origin choice for health and vice versa goes some way to explain the complexity of the sector and decisions facing the pharma and nutraceutical sectors, and indeed their consumers, when considering the choices they have from the natural ingredients sector.
Origin Power
The therapeutic areas claimed from each sub-origin
source: ThinkingLinking
Natural Ingredients Database