Desert Harvest Introducing ImpacX Vitamins.io Smart Bottle To US In Sustainability Change

Desert Harvest Inc. is using impacX.io Ltd.'s Vitamins.io smart bottle for its dietary supplements, currently taking pre-orders for the technology which links with a smartphone application to track usage.

ImpacX, the operating name of the Water.io Ltd. sustainable packaging company with 10 patents which conducted an initial public offering of shares in September 2021, is providing its technology to Desert Harvest.

DESERT HARVEST supplements in a vitamins.io SMART BOTTLE are AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER ONLINE. Source: Desert Harvest

When partnering with companies to use Vitamins.io, the Israel firm provides a full turnkey platform, including bottles branded with the partner's product or company name, software and internet cloud service, says Yoav Hoshen, impacX co-founder and senior vice president of sales and business development

The smart bottle's app also allows users to set reminders, communicated through lights on the bottle, for taking vitamins, minerals and supplements or medications.

Hoshen says consumers should expect personalization with packaged goods.

“When we use services today, digital services, we take it for granted that they come personalized for us,” he said. “But for consumer packaged goods, such as vitamins, we somehow don't expect that experience to be personal.”

Smart devices that increase convenience for consumers are increasing in popularity. In 2021, Blue Lizard Sunscreen introduced sunscreens packaged with its own smart bottle with technology that can alert users when harmful UV rays are present and remind them to reapply. (Also see "Blue Lizard Zinc-Only Sunscreen Sprays With Earth-Friendly Propellent; More Product Launch News" - HBW Insight, 4 May, 2021.)

ImpacX growth coordinator Natalie Cabell said she reached out to Desert Harvest because it offers a niche product, aloe vera supplements. “Almost all of the 10 companies that we'll be working with, have sort of a niche of their own,” she said.

ImpacX has entered partnerships with nine other companies in Mexico, Canada and European countries and recently began its second search for businesses to use its technology.

DESERT HARVEST CEO HEATHER FLORIO: SUSTAINABILITY IS A CORE VALUE OF THE COMPANY. Source: Desert Harvest

Once Desert Harvest, a direct-to-consumer aloe vera supplement seller based in Maine, closes its pre-order period and Vitamins.io is in stock, it will available for purchase for $40. Its products are almost exclusively available online through its website and on Amazon and other e-commerce platforms. 

The company is attempting to have its concentrated aloe vera extract formulation approved as a drug in the US. Interest from health care professionals for the products influenced Desert Harvest to begin clinical trials testing its treatment efficacy for interstitial cystitis, a chronic bladder condition. (Also see "Customer, Doctor Requests Sprout Desert Harvest's Study Of Aloe Vera To Treat Interstitial Cystitis" - HBW Insight, 9 Feb, 2022.)

Smart Bottle Combines Sustainability, Convenience

When Vitamins.io senses its time to replenish and customers place order through the app, Desert Harvest will send refills in biodegradable, plant-based bags.

Sustainability is a “core mission” of Desert Harvest, says CEO Heather Florio. When thinking about the partnership with impacX, the company wanted more than a reusable bottle.

“That’s why we adapted this coffee bag that was completely 100% plant-based and compostable into a supplement bag” for refills, she said.

That’s also why Desert Harvest will recycle the smart bottles, which are rechargeable with a lifetime of five years.

Desert Harvest will provide consumers with a pre-paid postage label to return their bottles for recycling; details of how the bottles will be recycled or reused are “still in process,” Hoshen said.

500 Vitamins.io Bottles Offset 1 Ton Of Plastic 

Tel Aviv-based impacX also has a partnership with CleanHub GmBH, a German firm that helps businesses reduce their carbon footprints by reducing plastic waste. CleanHub collects and repurposes plastic before it reaches oceans.

IMPACX CO-FOUNDER YOAV HOSHEN: PERSONALIZATION IS OFTEN MISSING FROM SUPPLEMENT MARKET. Source: impacX

For the first 500 pre-orders of the smart bottle, Desert Harvest will collect one ton of plastic before it reaches oceans.

“It’s not one ton per user, but for every user that subscribes more and more plastic is actually removed before it reaches the ocean," Cabell said.

Other sustainability initiatives include making the company’s five farm vehicles completely electric by 2025, switching to recycled materials for packaging and shipping products, and reducing single use plastics in its skincare products.

Florio says the company’s switch to more sustainable products and packaging “isn’t costing really much more.” Instead, it’s more about “readapting and changing” Desert Harvest’s business model to have an emphasis on sustainability.

“Climate change is becoming more and more apparent, it's become more and more of an active conversation,” Florio said.

“Ultimately, it’s a conversation of how can we make our impacts even bigger, and how can we make this change and hopefully set a standard for the supplement industry?”