From MBA to DHA

For someone without a scientific background, having to wax lyrical about metabolic pathways and the merits of different long-chain fatty acids was a bit of a culture shock for Jeff Bernfeld when he arrived at Martek Biosciences in January. But whether you need a degree in chemistry to understand your products or not, you are still running a business, he says. "The science and the clinical research underpinning everything Martek does are incredibly important, but someone, at some point, has got to pay for your products."

And this is where Bernfeld has the edge. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a stint at management consultant McKinsey & Co under his belt. And a six-year spell at General Mills in brand management gave him an invaluable insight into what manufacturers are really looking for from functional ingredients. "Having worked on some pretty big brands, you get to know what large manufacturers want from their suppliers."

With everyone jumping on the omega-3 bandwagon, making Martek stand out in the crowd is a key challenge of his job, says Bernfeld. Martek does that by supplying a vegetarian version of omega-3 from a sustainable source that is free from contaminants found in some fish.

Martek makes DHA - a long-chain omega-3 fatty acid associated with eye, heart and particularly brain health - from microalgae which it grows in huge fermentation tanks. This is more expensive than extracting it from fish, but it does come with several advantages. Communicating these to the consumer and to the trade in order to justify Martek's price premium is a key part of Bernfeld's day job.

The basic pitch is simple. "Whether you're supplying the vegetarian market or not, lots of people just don't like the idea of putting fish oil on their labels," points out Bernfeld. The contaminants factor is also an important issue, with scare stories about mercury and other pollutants in fish stocks still proliferating (although he acknowledges that many fish oil suppliers have now removed these from their products).

However, the one issue that will ultimately give Martek the edge over its rivals that sell omega-3s from fish oil is sustainability, says Bernfeld. Fears about over-fishing have escalated over the last decade, with some researchers warning that seafood stocks could collapse by the middle of the century if fishing continues at its current rate, he says. "Sustainability is rapidly moving up the consumer agenda."

That said, the primary weapon in Martek's armoury is its track record, says Bernfeld. "More than 20M babies have grown up on our life'sDHA. It shows that people trust our brand, that it's safe, and that we have credibility in the marketplace. That's just as important as price and the clinical data."

Large-scale production of omega-3 from microalgae is limited to DHA; it does not produce EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid), the long-chain fatty acid in fish oil that is associated with cardiovascular health. But that is not a barrier to progress, Bernfeld insists. "There is growing evidence that DHA is the only omega-3 that supports brain, eye and heart health throughout all stages of life. A peer-reviewed study just published reveals that DHA alone can reduce triglycerides and blood pressure. You don't have to have EPA as well."

The challenge now is to widen the customer base beyond infant formula and dietary supplements to the broader food and beverage market, says Bernfeld. He believes consumer awareness of the differences between plant-sourced shorter-chain omega-3 fatty acids and fish- or algae-sourced longer-chain fatty acids such as EPA and DHA, is growing.

Plant derived alpha linolenic acid (ALA) currently accounts for around 70% of the US market, but is likely to drop to just 30% in five years as the superior benefits of EPA and DHA are better understood, predicts Bernfeld. "My feeling is that we are at a real tipping point now in the omega-3 market, with interest growing all the time as the body of research gets stronger. New stuff is coming out all the time." The results of a clinical study into whether DHA improves attention, memory, processing speed and error rate in healthy four-year-olds will be out shortly, he adds.

"What's particularly encouraging for us is that huge government-backed studies involving large numbers of people are using our ingredients." For example, the National Institute on Ageing recently chose Martek's life'sDHA for its study to determine whether DHA supplementation can slow the progress of cognitive and functional decline in mild-to-moderate cases of Alzheimer's, he says. "This is a multimillion dollar, 18-month study involving 400 people at 53 study sites across the US and they picked our ingredient. That means a lot."