New Zealand has long been considered a land of innovation in the area of food, nutrition and human health. As far back as 1904 a small baby food manufacturing company was formed in Bunnythorpe, New Zealand, to supply dried milk powder to the United Kingdom. That New Zealand company was Glaxo, the forerunner of the present day multinational pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, or GSK

Over a century of excellence in food production and agriculture has provided the base for New Zealand’s growing bioactives industry (ie natural products at the intersection of food, nutrition and health). Along with a number of other attributes, New Zealand is uniquely placed to provide the highest quality, innovative and sustainable bioactives to the rest of the world.
Unique animal and plant biodiversity
Compared to many other countries in the world, New Zealand has a high number of native species of flora and fauna that are found nowhere else in the world. The process of identifying flora and fauna is far from complete, providing great potential for prospecting new bioactives.
High quality raw material production, high levels of key bioactives
The latitude ensures a year-round temperate climate that promotes grass-fed livestock, arable grain production and horticulture.
Less well known is the fact that because of the seasonal hole in the ozone layer that migrates from the Antarctic pole each year and rests over the country, New Zealand produces some of the most bioactively rich and nutritionally dense produce in the world. Find out more about how higher levels of UVB does this in New Zealand plants.
Optimal growing conditions and ingredient traceability
The clean soils and waters of New Zealand also ensure the highest purity of the raw material source and that the risk of product contamination from heavy metals and pollutants is greatly reduced.
It is also world leading in raw material traceability, which has grown in importance as the reports of bioactive adulteration occur from around the world.
Government oversight of quality standards
The New Zealand Government has significant oversight and enforcement of quality standards relating to food and agricultural products, which extends to bioactives. The country maintains genetically modified organism (GMO) free status and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) disease free status, as well as a strict enforcement of antibiotic—and hormone—free status in animal products.
New Zealand animals are raised and farmed to very strict standards of animal health and welfare and the use of hormones and growth promoters is banned.