Rousselot’s “on the road to win” campaign unveils collagen’s versatility in sports nutrition

24 Oct 2023 --- Rousselot has shared scientific updates and potential sports nutrition applications for its collagen peptides ingredient, Peptan, during the launch of its On the Road to Win campaign. Known for its role in beauty-from-within and joint health products, experts detailed the potential benefits of collagen in recovery from sports injuries, mobility, sleep and gut health based on clinical trials. 

Florencia Moreno, global business development manager at Rousselot Health & Nutrition, provided an overview of scientific studies on the company’s Peptan collagen peptides at the campaign launch, which Nutrition Insight attended. 

“Traditionally, when we think about collagen supplementation, we think about beauty-from-within, skin, hair and nails. We also think about mobility, joints and bone health, which are the usual suspects.” 

However, Moreno details that clinical trials have shown that Peptan also benefits muscle recovery, sleep, gut and improved mobility. During a webinar tomorrow, Moreno will dive into “the new science and key messages of Peptan around sports nutrition, most of which are based on pioneering studies.” 

She examines how sleep plays a part in recovery for athletes or people with active lifestyles. The effects of mixing whey protein and Peptan on performance and recovery, including Peptan’s impact on intestinal comfort in athletes is also explored.

Collagen confusion 
Nick Morgan, managing director of Nutrition Integrated, highlights several benefits of collagen in the sports nutrition sector, explaining that the ingredient has excellent versatility, wins on flavor and is cost-efficient for consumers, which makes it feel accessible to them. 

“Collagen has an important role in sports active nutrition. It’s available in multiple formats, especially in powder, commercially the most preferred format. It’s functional but also engaging and experiential.” 

Rousselot launched its collagen campaign at Papendal, the Dutch Olympic training center. “The breadth of application is exciting, but the consensus is absent, in terms of dose, type and benefits, and it’s quite confusing to navigate,” underscores Morgan, adding that stronger consensus can ensure credible application of the ingredient, facilitating growth and long-term stability. 

He notes that the collagen market is currently a “free for all” in terms of how products and their benefits are marketed, what doses and applications brands recommend and in what type of products it is used. 

Morgan adds that there is an opportunity for collagen in sports nutrition, looking at health benefits such as injury — including joint and bone health — daily protection, recovery or active aging, skin and gut health benefits. 

Recovery in sports nutrition
In an expert panel on collagen research, Catarina Silva, science integration manager at Rousselot, explains there is most scientific support for collagen in joint health, from bones and joints to cartilage and tendons. 

“We have some tests that show that if you take collagen before you have serious damage to the knee, it protects your cartilage,” she details. “But, if you take it after the injury, it still helps, though not as good as if you started earlier because it protects against damage.”

Hans Zwerver, professor of sports and exercise medicine at the University of Groningen, explains that many athletes obtain injuries and often continue to play their sports. For issues such as tendon problems, “there is no healing.” Instead, treatment consists of making the athletes as comfortable as possible. 

There is no cure for some of these injuries, such as patellar tendinopathy — also known as jumper’s knee — caused by small tears in the patellar tendon. “The cornerstone of a treatment is long-term pain management,” says Zwerver. 

In an ongoing study with volleyball players suffering from this condition, Zwerver and his team is comparing a strengthening program with collagen supplementation and a placebo to determine the most effective. 

In addition to preventing injury, Tom Clifford, senior lecturer in physiology and nutrition at Loughborough University, UK, notes that collagen can be used in recovery from exercise. 

In a panel discussion on collagen research, experts highlighted the need for more research on doses and applications.In a study on Rousselot’s Peptan collagen peptide, Clifford determined how much the ingredient could help athletes recover from “exercise-induced muscle damage.” He explains that the study provoked an inflammatory response to “stimulate soreness reflective of anyone who has ever done a tough exercise at the gym.” 

This study indicated that by using Peptan collagen peptides, people experienced less muscle soreness and had a faster muscle recovery. 

“We found some positive results in each of these studies, but it is quite a broad base,” explains Clifford. “If you look at whey protein or milk proteins generally, they’ve been studied for 40 to 50 years in sports nutrition, which is not the same as collagen. The evidence base is still being generated.”

How to reach a consensus 
While scientific studies indicate various health benefits for collagen, the experts underscore that much still needs to be investigated to clarify collagen confusion. 

Rousselot’s Silva specifies that more research is needed to determine the mechanism of action for collagen. Collagen provides building blocks, while peptides become an “instruction manual” on how to use those blocks, which differs across tissues. At other times, collagen transfers information around the body, sending a message from cell to cell and then cascading into the joints. 

While clinical trials help to build an understanding of the mechanism and effects of collagen, Silva shares that Rousselot is also developing new ways to engage a wide range of consumers of collagen to evaluate their use of the ingredient.

“We want to do more real-life studies in the future; although clinical trials are excellent to measure efficacy, they have limitations. They normally have the same age and gender because you want to standardize as much as possible, but the world out there is much bigger, and we also like to hear from them.” 

The expert panel also discussed different perspectives on dosages and when to consume collagen. Zwerver notes that consensus has yet to be reached here, as limited studies are available, making it “difficult to give an evidence-based answer to this question.” 

Rousselot’s global application team prepared bars, brownies, gummy supplements and drinks with Peptan. Zwerver explains that in his study on patellar tendinopathy, the research team gave 5 mg of collagen 30 to 60 minutes before strength training, based on studies conducted in the US on this issue. 

“You don’t quite know the optimal dose,” agrees Clifford, explaining that research finds benefits for different dosages. Some studies have shown that 5 g can benefit certain aspects, while others used 30 g. It can also be beneficial to consume 10 g in the morning before exercise and 10 g in the evening to sleep better. 

Sports nutrition market 
Highlighting trends in the sports and active nutrition market, Morgan of Nutrition Integrated expects proactive nutrition, natural products, sustainability, creating a memorable experience and diversification to underpin all next-generation brands in the field. 

“Ultimately, people are being more proactive. There are more people interested in the purposes of health and exercise,” he highlights. 

“Probably one of the biggest trends within our industry is creating an experience around what people consume,” Morgan continues. “The reality is that products need to create a memorable experience, in taste, texture and mouthfeel, but it can also be hardware or technology — anything that forms an engagement and creates the environment in which someone consumes a product.” 

To showcase the applications of Peptan collagen peptides, Rousselot’s global application team prepared several sports nutrition products containing the ingredient, such as bars, brownies, gummy supplements and drinks. 

Regarding the sports nutrition category, Morgan expects gut and brain health to continue growing in importance, as well as biological-based nutrition, convenient products and the role of the virtual world, such as AI. 

By Jolanda van Hal