South East Asia focus: Flavettes beauty-from-within NPD, Xndo’s new launch and big brand collaboration
Korea and Japan inspiration: Malaysia’s Flavettes formulates popular beauty-from-within ingredients into effervescent tablets
Flavettes, a brand by Malaysia-headquartered Duopharma Biotech, is moving a step further into the health and beauty segment by incorporating well-known beauty ingredients such as hyaluronic acid, ceramide, and collagen peptide into effervescent tablets.
As part of its NPD endeavour, the company has been studying the Korean and Japanese markets closely, since they are leading beauty trends across APAC.
The company would also be exploring new products that addressed the needs of different skin types.
Carb blocker: Singapore retailer Xndo debuts sugar-free functional powder for weight management
Singapore health food retailer Xndo has relaunched a weight management supplement, Xcarb CarbCut, this time with a sugar-free formula.
The new formula uses a natural sweetener steviol glycoside, where the previous formula used sucralose.
Containing white kidney bean extract, the product claims to block amylase, an enzyme which converts carbohydrates into sugar, reducing carbohydrate and starch absorption from foods into the body.
‘Staggering finding’: Only 12% of Malaysian children found to be lactose tolerant – study
Almost 90 per cent of children assessed in a new Malaysian study have been found suffer from either lactose malabsorption or lactose intolerance.
Lactose malabsorption refers to the failure to digest or absorb lactose in the small intestine. A individual with lactose malabsorption could also develop symptoms of lactose intolerance, such as abdominal pain, bloating and diarrhoea.
The researchers also found that the intake of calcium was higher among children who were lactose tolerant as compared to those who were not.
Collaborating with competitors: Nestle, Coca-Cola and Unilever among major brands uniting to boost recycling in Malaysia
Major brands such as Nestle, Coca-Cola, Mondelez, F&N and Unilever are joining forces to drive the sustainability agenda in Malaysia, via a new alliance that will tackle plastic food and beverage packaging concerns.
Together, they form the Malaysian Recycling Alliance Berhad (MAREA) and aims to reach a minimum recycling rate of 25 per cent of packaging volumes by 2025.
Their plans include establishing curbside collection systems to do weekly collections from selected households, in addition to promoting Separation At Source (SAS) by consumers via consumer education initiatives and working with recyclers to stabilise collection costs via subsidisation.
Scientific validation: Singapore’s KosmodeHealth confirms upcycled noodles’ zero-GI benefits
Singaporean food tech firm KosmodeHealth has successfully demonstrated the low-GI - or rather, 'zero-GI' - benefits of its W0W Noodles with evidence from a new research study.
Results showed that the consumption of the company’s W0W Noodles had resulted in an average glycaemic response of no more than 4.5mmol/L from the baseline blood glucose level of 4mmol/L.
In contrast, the consumption of yellow noodles had caused the blood glucose level to rise to over 6mmol/L from the baseline of 4mmol/L.
