Vitamin K2 use and awareness growing among consumers, study finds

A survey of 3,500 dietary supplement users confirmed a high level of trust and interest in vitamin K2, especially those looking for specific health benefits.

63% reported being “active about my health and taking steps to reduce health risks,” while 76% said, “I use/have used vitamins, minerals, herbs, or other nutritional supplements to manage my health.”

62% reported using vitamin K2 supplements, which ranks among the top 10 most used ingredients.

Age groups 18 to 54 showed an increase in vitamin K2 use compared to those over 55.

No supplement increased use in every country; However, vitamin K2 was one of the closest to achieving universal growth. K2 also saw a sharp increase in usage from 2020-2022.

The “perceived effectiveness” of K2 was greater in the total number of supplement users surveyed compared to “regular users”.

This suggests to the researchers that future growth is likely, as people who do not currently use vitamin K2 regularly take it highly.

For users of nutritional supplements with branded ingredients, “Quality”, “Safety”, “Trust”, “Efficacy” and “Clinical Validation” were ranked as the top five reasons for use.

Bone health and heart health are ranked as the top reasons for using vitamin K2, especially for regular users.

Xavier Berger, global market manager with Gnosis by Lesaffre said it was good to see ‘quality’, ‘efficacy’ (ie proof it works) and ‘safety’ recognized in branded ingredients.

“MenaQ7 is a remarkable vitamin K2 in this regard, as it is the only K2 like MK-7 with clinical validation confirming bone and cardiovascular benefits,” he added.

Interestingly, 37% of regular consumers say they always look for branded ingredients and are willing to pay a premium, and an additional 22% look for them but aren’t willing to pay a premium. Although nearly 60% of vitamin K2 users look for brand-name ingredients, products using these premium ingredients represent a competitive advantage.

Berger noted, “Very interestingly, 67% of consumers said they look for a specific brand of vitamin K2 when purchasing their supplements, and our two brands—MenaQ7 K2 as MK-7 and vitaMK7—are in the top three most searched for brands. “

General inclusion criteria included supplement users and qualifying questions that adjusted for participants who declared themselves “non-users” when questioned.

“ITC Insights – 2022 Supplement Consumer Survey” was conducted by Dynata from March 1 to 26, 2022 and was written and analyzed by the Center for Industry Transparency.

The distribution of supplement users includes 1,000 from the US, 1,000 from China, 500 from the UK, 500 from Germany, and 500 from Italy. Participants identifying as female represented 52% of respondents and males represented 48% of respondents. Ages range from 18 to 65+ years.

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