A Utah-based health and wellness company is entering the children's functional nutrition segment with a whole-food powder drink mix it says was built from the ground up for developing bodies — not scaled down from an adult formula.
Ampelis launched CORE7 for Kids in early November 2026, targeting children ages 5 and older. The daily powder features more than 50 nutritional and functional ingredients, including whole-food-sourced vitamins and minerals, probiotics, prebiotic fiber, digestive enzymes, and botanicals. The product is sold direct-to-consumer via subscription and comes with free group coaching and nutrition education — a structure that positions it closer to a family wellness program than a standalone supplement.
The Market Backdrop
The timing is deliberate. CDC data covering 2021–2023 found that 61.9% of calories consumed by U.S. children and adolescents came from ultra-processed foods, and the federal government's 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines continue to emphasize nutrient-dense, minimally processed eating. For foodservice and beverage industry operators watching the better-for-you segment, that backdrop is reshaping consumer demand from school cafeterias to family-dining menus.
Ampelis drew its formulation philosophy from work in outpatient psychiatry, residential addiction recovery, and mental-performance coaching — settings where the company observed how nutrition and lifestyle habits influence physical and mental well-being. After failing to find an existing product that met its standards for ingredient sourcing, formulation breadth, and dosing, it built its own.
Formula and Flavor Strategy
Rather than applying a uniform reduction to its adult CORE7 product, Ampelis evaluated each ingredient individually for age-appropriateness. Some remain at comparable levels to the adult formula; others were adjusted based on developmental considerations, according to Tanna Fox, International Sports Certified Nutritionist and CORE7 Advisory Board member. "Growing bodies have distinct nutritional needs," Fox said. "Our approach was to carefully evaluate each ingredient rather than simply reduce everything by the same percentage."
On the flavor side, the company took an operator-familiar approach: test with the actual end user. Kids were brought into the development process, and their feedback shaped a fruit-forward blend of organic strawberry, organic raspberry, and organic coconut. That consumer-testing methodology mirrors what many food and restaurant brands use when developing children's menu items and limited-time offerings — taste compliance determines whether the nutritional investment ever pays off.
Lon Henderson, CEO of Ampelis, framed the launch within the broader national conversation around preventive health. "Nutrition has been underappreciated in healthcare for too long," Henderson said. "Our goal is to make high-quality, foundational nutrition easier for families to incorporate into daily life."
Beyond the Product
Ampelis is explicit that CORE7 for Kids is intended to complement — not replace — diet quality, sleep, and physical activity. Subscribers gain access to group coaching sessions and a community network, an approach that reflects the growing industry understanding that behavior change requires ongoing support structures, not just better products. For food and beverage professionals tracking the family wellness category, the subscription-plus-coaching model is worth noting as a retention and differentiation strategy increasingly adopted by premium nutrition brands.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
