Christchurch-based Tertiary Extracts Otautahi (TEO) claims Ovitage, a branded ingredient it makes from sheepskin - a waste product - is the world's "most complete collagen".
TEO sells Ovitage to companies making finished products in the supplement and functional food area. TEO also has its consumer product,the Everee Women range of collagen supplements that contain Ovitage.
The company says this addresses health needs of women and different stages of their life and has had a strong consumer response, with a community building around the technology and the much-needed discussion around women's health.
TEO founder and chief science officer, Dr Rob Kelly, says people need more protein as they age and Ovitage helps boost protein intake in convenient and easily digestible format.
"But much more than that, it provides high quality nutrition because it is higher in particular amino acids than conventional collagen," he told Rural News.
"These amino acids support healthy metabolism in different areas, such as high cystine for hair and skin health, high tyrosine and glutamic acid for brain health and performance. We need more protein but we need the right sort of protein, which is what Ovitage provides."
TEO has spent a decade exporting value added New Zealand biologicals to the US nutritional and functional foods market.
Kelly says that during this time, they witnessed the massive growth in demand for collagen and were surprised and disappointed to see that New Zealand was not participating significantly in the collagen opportunity, despite being among the best in the world at raising grass fed, ethically animals that could provide the raw material.
"We then found that sheepskin was an abundant waste material produced by the New Zealand red meat sector and saw an opportunity to conduct some solid research and science to extract novel and valuable proteins from this and prove out their benefits, in the poorly served women's health market.
"This development enabled us to address some of the global demand for differentiated collagen while also addressing unmet need in women's health."
Manufacturing commenced in mid-2024 and the first consumer product on world menopause day in October 2024. The first branded ingredients to the US market were exported in November 2024.
Kelly would not go into monetary details of value extracted from sheepskin.
He adds that specifics are confidential, but as a waste material sheepskin has very low, or even negative value due to potentially incurring a disposal cost.
"We extract and purify the valuable proteins from this material and so create value from this waste.
"We are starting to see export returns by selling this into nutritional markets overseas, maximising the value that our primary sector can return for country and ensuring we make the most of every part of the animal."
