Backing it up with science
A health products company is aiming to produce nutritional supplements that are scientifically proven.
An international health product company, which has acquired a Hamilton-based dairy processing facility, is turning its focus to producing nutritional products.
New Image purchased Food Waikato – including an open-access spray-drying facility – in December last year, just as the business was going into liquidation.
New Image was founded by Graeme Clegg, a New Zealand sheep farmer from Masterton who started the nutritional supplement business in 1984 after researching the healing properties of colostrum.
Since acquiring Food Waikato, “a few million” has been spent on the plant, which chief executive Trevor Lock says will have all new machinery by October.
Lock says the company has big plans to expand colostrum production and make new nutritional products that are backed by science. “We’ve turned this business around completely.”
He says planned upgrades and investment in new technology at the plant will enable them to develop nutritional products using colostrum, as well as goat, sheep and deer milk.
Lock’s appointment as chief executive at Food Waikato marks a turning point in his career. He was imprisoned for six years in 2017 after an investigation by the serious fraud office led to a conviction.
Formerly known as the “father of colostrum”, Lock worked as a dairy scientist and owned two nutritional companies producing colostrum products before his conviction.
Lock says it’s his mission to find the science to support the benefits of colostrum, which he says is crucial to their business.
“There is some science, but not a lot,” said Lock.
One way they are looking to expand this is by partnering with the University of Waikato.
The company plans to invest $150,000 in a research venture with the university to achieve its goal of having more research to back the benefits of colostrum.
One of the main touted benefits of colostrum is healing and repair of the gut.
Lock says he takes four colostrum capsules a day, which improves his gut health. Eating unhealthy food creates holes in the gut, he says, and colostrum helps to close the holes. Colostrum is rich in immuneboosting immunoglobulin, otherwise known as antibodies, which are the body’s main defence against disease-causing viruses, bacteria and fungi.
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New Image colostrum products are sold in 26 countries, and are particularly popular in Southeast Asian countries Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore where they are sold using a multi-level marketing strategy.
While the colostrum products sell well overseas, Lock says they didn’t take off in the New Zealand retail market.
His company plans to increase its production of colostrum going forward, as well as develop new products using deer, sheep and goat milk.
The company has started a campaign to recruit dairy farmer suppliers, and said farmers could make $25,920 from a 600-cow herd based on a $2.25 per litre average rate.
Farmers who sign up for the five-year supply contract will receive a stainless steel collection vat and stand worth $10,000.
The payout is higher fo rim mu no globulin rich colostrum produced by cow sin the first hours after birth.
Lock says there are strict rules and regulations in place to make sure the calf gets the colostrum it needs as well, and only a portion of the total colostrum can be harvested.
While it takes extra time and effort to harvest colostrum at an already busy time of the year for farmers, he says it’s a way to add to the income stream of the farm.