Our award for Ingredient of the Year Mind and Mood aims to celebrate the best ingredients dedicated to supporting cognition, memory, alertness, mood, stress, anxiety, relaxation, sleep and brain recovery. All ingredients specifically designed for and marketed with brain health applications are eligible for entry into this award, including increasingly popular nootropics and adaptogens. From ingredients aimed at improving focus of gamers and students, through to solutions for busy professionals looking for a little extra help to destress, this award celebrates ingredients designed to meet the specific demands of the mind and mood category.

Our Judges will look at how your ingredient meets specific needs and will base their scores on your evidence to demonstrate:

• A genuine consumer demand or requirement based upon a common issue or risk factor 
• Solid scientific evidence to demonstrate a unique nutritional solution to this need or problem – including peer-reviewed data to back up any performance or health claims made 
• Commercial success and engagement from your core target market(s). Give numbers and examples of sales and applications that are available in the market 
• What gives your ingredient the ‘X factor’ – something that makes it stand out from the crowd and edge out the competition (including evidence to back up claims)
  

To view the requirements for this category, click here to download

Entries for The NutraIngredients-USA Awards, Ingredient of the Year categories are required to have the ingredient in a finished product that is commercially available in the United States.

A huge thank you to all our incredible entrants for submitting their entries for the 2025 NutraIngredients-USA Awards! We’re thrilled to announce that we've hit yet another record-breaking number of submissions! Entries are now officially closed , but if you want to stay in the loop on all things awards, click the button below to stay updated!.

REGISTER YOUR INTEREST

• All entries need to abide to our Entry Terms & Conditions
• Once all entries have been received they will be reviewed by the NutraIngredients-USA Awards Judging Panel made up of independent judges from the industry.
• The 2025 finalists will be confirmed and notified in May 2025.
• The 2025 winners will be announced during an awards’ presentation in Chicago on Monday, July 14, 2025