Qingdao, China-based VIK, which produces krill oil supplements based off product supplied by Oslo, Norway-based Aker BioMarine, has partnered with a Norwegian feed ingredients laboratory to verify the purity of its product.
ORIVO, an omega-3 origin verification tech company, will test each batch of VIK krill oil produced, and will implement additional measures, including a mystery shopping program, to ensure the quality and authenticity of VIK products sold in China.
“We will actively market the ORIVO certification to drive value for our brand, including placing the ORIVO logo on product labels together with QR code to access the authenticity certificate for the product consumers just have bought,” VIK Product Manager Yannice Xu said in a press release.
Through the ORIVO certification, VIK krill oil consumers “finally can get true transparency and the world´s first origin guarantee for omega-3 supplements,” according to ORIVO Chief Technology Officer Erik Fuglseth.
“We have developed advanced technology and sophisticated algorithms to create so-called chemical fingerprints of omega-3 oils and built a huge and proprietary reference database consisting of fingerprints of the most common omega-3 sources from around the globe today, including krill oil,” he said. “We can therefore match the fingerprints in our reference database with any sample from any brand, species, or origin to give evidence-based proof of authenticity and ultimate transparency to end users.”
ORIVO’s certification includes a mystery shopping program, which verifies the krill oil used in VIK products is authentic, and seeks to discover irregularities and uncover possible copycat products being sold in the marketplace.
“This is of tremendous value to our end users, who can now be certain they are getting the highest quality krill oil available every time they buy a box of VIK,” Xu said.
ORIVO’s partnership with VIK follows on its previously announced news that it will partner with Aker BioMarine to create a new krill oil brand, NY-03, aimed at the Chinese market.
“We are proud to partner with VIK,” ORIVO Vice President of Global Sales Ole Kristian Sakkestad said. “Far and away, the most common issue around supplement products is the concern that a product may not be what it claims. Transparency is becoming a very big part of consumer choice and decision-making.”
Photo courtesy of ORIVO
