EU approves Spanish Eggnovo’s eggshell membrane hydrolysate as a novel food
The European Commission has authorised the Spanish company’s enzymatically produced eggshell membrane hydrolysate for use in food supplements, opening a new European market for an ingredient obtained from a by-product of the egg industry. The approval allows its use at up to 500 mg per day and gives Eggnovo five years of data protection.
A material traditionally treated as a by-product of the egg industry is gaining a new commercial life in Europe's rapidly expanding functional ingredients market.
The European Commission has authorised enzymatically produced eggshell membrane hydrolysate developed by Spanish biotechnology company Eggnovo as a novel food in the European Union, clearing the way for its use in food supplements at doses of up to 500 milligrams per day.
The decision represents an important regulatory milestone for Eggnovo and illustrates a wider trend in Europe's food and nutraceutical industries: transforming agricultural and food-processing side streams into higher-value ingredients through biotechnology.
For the Navarra-based company, the authorisation also provides a platform for accelerating expansion across the EU at a time when demand for functional nutrition, healthy ageing and circular production models is attracting increasing interest from both consumers and investors.
From eggshell waste to a functional ingredient
Eggshell membrane is the thin layer located between the shell and the egg white. For an industry processing millions of eggs, shells and their membranes have historically represented a considerable residual stream.
Eggnovo has built its business around changing that equation.
Founded in Spain in 2012, the company processes several million eggshells every day sourced from a network of producers. Instead of treating the membrane as waste, it uses proprietary extraction and processing technology to recover compounds with potential applications in the nutraceutical and functional-food industries.
The result is an example of circular bioeconomy in practice: extracting additional economic value from an existing food-industry stream rather than relying exclusively on new raw materials.
That circular origin could become an important commercial differentiator as European food and supplement companies increasingly seek ingredients combining functionality with stronger sustainability credentials.
Why the EU authorisation matters
Novel foods in the European Union are subject to a specific regulatory framework designed for foods and ingredients without a significant history of consumption in the EU before May 1997.
Obtaining authorisation therefore provides a regulatory pathway for commercialisation across the bloc.
Under the new approval, Eggnovo's eggshell membrane hydrolysate can be incorporated into food supplements at a maximum daily intake of 500 mg under the authorised conditions.
For supplement manufacturers, this creates the possibility of formulating products using an ingredient that combines several naturally occurring components of eggshell membrane in a relatively concentrated dose.
The regulatory milestone is particularly significant because a novel-food approval provides greater certainty for companies considering product development and investment in new formulations.
Much more than collagen
The terminology surrounding the ingredient has also evolved.
Initially described in terms of eggshell membrane collagen peptides, the authorised designation is broader: “eggshell membrane hydrolysate (enzymatically produced)”.
The distinction is relevant because the composition extends beyond collagen alone.
Eggshell membrane naturally contains different types of collagen, including types I, V and X, alongside compounds such as glucosamine, chondroitin and hyaluronic acid, as well as hundreds of proteins and other components.
From a commercial perspective, this composition allows Eggnovo to position the ingredient differently from conventional collagen products.
Traditional collagen supplements often rely on substantially larger serving sizes. Eggnovo's proposition is based on a much smaller quantity, with around 300 mg per day presented as a typical recommended dose for its ingredient, while the EU authorisation establishes a maximum of 500 mg per day.
The value proposition is therefore centred on concentration rather than volume.
New possibilities for liquid formulations
One of the potentially important consequences of the hydrolysed format is the possibility of expanding into product formats that were previously difficult to develop with conventional eggshell membrane ingredients.
In particular, the technology could facilitate liquid formulations, widening the potential applications available to nutraceutical manufacturers.
That could be relevant in a supplement market increasingly moving beyond traditional tablets and capsules toward shots, ready-to-drink products and other convenient formats.
Potential commercial positioning includes products targeting joint health, skin care and active ageing, although individual health claims marketed in the EU remain subject to separate regulatory requirements and should not be inferred from novel-food authorisation itself.
The distinction is important: EU approval establishes that the ingredient may be marketed under the specified conditions; it does not, by itself, constitute approval of specific therapeutic or health claims.
Five years of data protection strengthen Eggnovo’s position
The regulatory decision also provides Eggnovo with an important competitive advantage.
The company benefits from five years of protection for the proprietary scientific data underpinning the authorisation, potentially extending its privileged position until 2031 under the applicable conditions.
Such protection can be particularly valuable in the nutraceutical ingredients industry.
Developing a novel ingredient requires investment not only in processing technology but also in toxicological assessments, scientific evidence, regulatory documentation and the approval process itself.
A period of protected data can provide the original applicant with time to commercialise that investment before competitors can rely on the same proprietary evidence for equivalent authorisations.
For Eggnovo, this creates a window in which it can consolidate relationships with European supplement manufacturers and establish its ingredient in the market.
More than a decade of technology development
The approval is the result of a business strategy developed over more than a decade.
Eggnovo was founded in Navarre in 2012 and has developed proprietary extraction processes and patents around the valorisation of eggshell components.
The company says its ingredients are supported by more than 20 clinical studies, reflecting an attempt to compete in a nutraceutical market where scientific substantiation is becoming increasingly important.
Its growth has accelerated in parallel.
Between 2020 and 2025, Eggnovo recorded annual growth of more than 30%, taking turnover beyond €10 million, with a workforce of around 50 employees.
Those figures place the company beyond the earliest startup phase and increasingly within the category of specialised European ingredient businesses seeking international scale.
Private equity moves into the business
That expansion has also attracted financial investors.
In 2026, Aleos Capital acquired a majority stake in Eggnovo as part of a strategy to support the company's next stage of development.
The private equity firm's involvement adds another dimension to the EU authorisation.
Eggnovo now combines proprietary technology, regulatory approval, growing revenues and institutional capital at a moment when functional ingredients and circular-economy businesses are receiving increasing attention from investors.
The timing could allow the company to accelerate international sales, increase production capacity and develop additional applications for eggshell-derived ingredients.
Circular economy meets the nutraceutical industry
The wider significance of Eggnovo's model lies in the convergence of two markets.
On one side is the global nutraceutical industry, driven by demand for products associated with wellness, mobility, skin care and healthy ageing.
On the other is the circular economy, where manufacturers are under increasing pressure to extract more value from existing resources and reduce industrial waste.
Eggshell membrane sits directly at that intersection.
The egg industry already generates the raw material as part of its normal production processes. The technological challenge is separating, processing and standardising that material at industrial scale while achieving the quality and regulatory requirements necessary for human consumption.
If successful, what was previously a low-value residual stream can become a premium ingredient.
A Spanish ingredient gains access to the European market
For Eggnovo, the European Commission's decision represents considerably more than regulatory compliance.
It provides access to a single market of hundreds of millions of consumers and gives food-supplement companies across the EU a new authorised ingredient with an unusual combination of characteristics: animal-derived but based on an existing food-industry by-product; naturally complex rather than limited to collagen; and compatible with the growing commercial narrative around circularity and resource efficiency.
The five-year data-protection period gives the Spanish company additional time to turn that regulatory achievement into market share.
The next test will take place outside the laboratory and regulatory process.
Eggnovo must now convince European manufacturers that eggshell membrane hydrolysate can become a commercially meaningful ingredient in an already crowded market for collagen, joint-health and active-ageing supplements.
But the transformation itself is notable: millions of eggshells that once represented an industrial residue are being converted into a higher-value European nutraceutical ingredient — and Brussels has now opened the door to its wider commercialisation.
