Vitamins don’t always have to be in capsule and tablet form to provide a health benefit. That’s especially true for Wayne, PA-based VitaminSpice, a company that found an innovative way to boost the nutritional quotient of everyday seasonings like cinnamon, black pepper, red pepper and garlic powder with beneficial vitamins and minerals.

For about $6, each 1.5-oz. bottle blends premium herbs and spices with essential vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. The products can be sprinkled onto any food or beverage, and can be used at the end of the cooking process up to 200°F. In addition to the aforementioned four traditional spices, the brand also includes “Multivitamin,” “Kids,” “Joint” and “Cardio” formula blends that feature condition-specific nutrients. All of the products are all-natural, 100% vegetarian and completely free of additives, preservatives, coloring, sugar, artificial sweeteners, calories and gluten.

“The line offers a convenient and flavor-driven way to boost the nutritional value of meals,” said Ed Bukstel, VitaminSpice’s president and CEO.

Mr. Bukstel said he was inspired to create the products while cooking with his daughters. He had just returned home from the gym and had unloaded his dietary supplements from his bag when he noticed his products were mingled with the seasonings his daughters were using to cook a healthy dish. Though they chided him for cluttering up their workspace, Mr. Bukstel said it was at that moment he wondered if it would be possible to blend everyday spices and seasonings with vitamins and minerals.

“I researched the market, and the closest thing out there is iodized salt,” he said. “So we moved on to R&D—how to mask the taste of the vitamins and give them other properties, like the ability to withstand heat, say, if they were used in baked goods.”

Mr. Bukstel said he found a company that was able to microencapsulate the vitamins and minerals using proprietary techniques, delivering seasonings that both taste like they should, without the off tastes that vitamins can impart, and are also cookable. Though he recommended adding the products to baked goods and foods cooked at high temperatures after they are removed from high heat to avoid denaturing the vitamins and minerals. “There are techniques out there to microencapsulate to very high temperatures but they use unnatural things and we want to keep it all-natural,” he said.

He declined to provide the name of the encapsulating company.

The four current seasonings in the line up—cinnamon, black pepper, red pepper and garlic powder—were chosen because they are among the most popular, but Mr. Bukstel said additional spices and seasonings are in the pipeline. “We have an Italian blend that will be launching shortly, desert blends, nutmeg, turmeric, cumin and cayenne pepper blend,” he said, adding that they are also working with “celebrity chefs” who are lending their expertise in the creation of new VitaminSpice blends.

In terms of the vitamins and minerals content of the VitaminSpice formulations, the Supplement Facts label for the company’s cinnamon product—a baking and breakfast toast staple—revealed that a quarter teaspoon provides 49 mg vitamin C (82% DV), 10.9 mg niacin (54% DV), 5.4 mg pantothenic acid (54% DV), 1.1 mg pyridoxine (54% DV), .9 mg riboflavin (54% DV), .8 mg thiamin (54% DV), 217.6 mcg folic acid (54% DV) and 1.3 mcg vitamin B12 (22% DV).

Dosage of the seasonings will of course vary according to each user’s taste preferences. “The key ingredient per quarter teaspoon gets most people close to their regular daily intake,” commented Mr. Bukstel, “the aggregate effect is that you’ll receive most of your RDI but the bottom line is if someone doesn’t like pepper, they aren’t going to use a lot of it.”

Though the company started out with a simple water-soluble B complex + C blend, other formulations are available, including a Cardio formula that contains extra antioxidants, a Joint formula that contains glucosamine and MSM, as well as an Immune formulation and an Energy formulation. “We have an Energy Pepper, a Cardio Pepper…it’s panning out that some natural food stores are taking on more than one,” he said.

The two-year old company’s distribution is flourishing, not just in grocery and natural food venues, but also in retirement homes and school districts. In fact, at a recent regional U.S. Food Service event for more than 20 school districts, more than 70% of the participating school representatives expressed interest in VitaminSpice. “As a father, I take some small satisfaction in knowing VitaminSpice could play a role in improving the nutritional value of meals not only in schools, but also in family restaurants and homes across the country,” he said.

Mr. Bukstel asserted that Americans are looking for simple solutions to improving health, and pointed to data indicating an 8% sales increase for nutritional supplements (IRI) and an 11.7% increase in sales of dried herbs and spices (Schwartz market research) over the last year. “VitaminSpice’s new spice blend line is the first of its kind to bring these two natural market segments together [and sits] at the nexus of the $6.1 billion dollar nutritional supplements and the $2.9 billion dollar spice industries,” he said.

If you think that combining vitamins and spices might be just a passing fad, think again. The idea won over former Wal-Mart president and CEO, Willliam Fields, who was recently added to VitaminSpice’s Board of Directors. “Bill was the one generally credited with taking Wal-Mart from the tens of millions to hundreds of billions,” said Mr. Bukstel. “[He] was Sam Walton’s right-hand-man and we are thrilled to have him on board.”