Ingredient of the Year: Sports Nutrition

Our award for Ingredient of the Year in the Sports Nutrition category aims to celebrate the best ingredients dedicated to enhancing performance, boosting recovery, or aiding endurance. All ingredients specifically designed for and marketed with sports nutrition applications in mind are eligible for entry into this award. From high-end nutrient combinations aimed at elite athletes to solutions for on-the-go consumers looking to get healthy, this award celebrates ingredients designed to meet the specific demands of the sports and active nutrition 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 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.

We are no longer accepting entries for the 2024 NutraIngredients-USA Awards.


  • 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 2024 finalists will be confirmed and notified in May 2024.
  • The 2024 winners will be announced during an awards’ presentation in Chicago on Monday, July 15, 2024.