Collagen Powder

Recommended use: Stir 10 g (1 heaped measuring spoon) into 250 ml of liquid of your choice daily, e.g. water, coffee, or juice, and consume.

Important notes: Food supplements are not a substitute for a balanced and varied diet and lifestyle. The stated recommended daily intake must not be exceeded. Keep out of reach of small children.

Allergens: According to the raw material specification, it contains no allergens requiring declaration in accordance with Annex II of Regulation (EU) No. 1169/2011.

Storage: Store in a cool, dry place, do not freeze, and protect from direct sunlight.

Gelatin and collagen peptides are related

Both are made from the same raw material and using the same process, just taken to different degrees. When native collagen is partially broken down, gelatin is formed: it dissolves in hot water and gels as it cools.

If the breakdown is then continued enzymatically, the chains become so short that they can no longer form a network. The result no longer gels and also dissolves in cold water. Collagen peptides are, put simply, gelatin taken one step further.

Where the raw material comes from

Bovine collagen is obtained from hides and bones, i.e. from material that is already produced in the meat industry and would otherwise hardly be used. The hide is soaked for weeks in lime milk, washed, and neutralized before the collagen is extracted.

Only then does enzymatic hydrolysis follow, after which filtration, decolorization, and spray drying are carried out. In this way, a tough, strongly odorous starting material is turned into a white, odorless, and tasteless powder.

Types I, II and III

Collagen is not a single substance, but a family of around twenty-eight described types. Three of them play the main role in terms of quantity: type I in skin, bones, and tendons, type II in cartilage, and type III in blood vessels and organs, usually alongside type I.

Material from bovine hide consists mainly of type I with a proportion of type III. Type II products, by contrast, usually come from chicken sternum cartilage and are often not hydrolyzed, but used in native form, in correspondingly smaller amounts. So when a product names a type, it also says something about its origin.

Beef, fish, and the question of vegan collagen

Alongside beef, fish is the second common source, obtained from skin and scales. Marine collagen contains less hydroxyproline, which is why it breaks down at lower temperatures than that from land animals. Other factors are usually decisive when choosing: fish for people who do not eat beef, beef for people with a fish allergy.

There is no vegan collagen, though. Collagen is an animal structural protein and does not occur in the plant kingdom. Products offered under this name do not contain collagen, but rather mixtures of other nutrients. That is not a judgment, but a matter of terminology.