Natural Products Insider Article by my colleague Anna Batsakes

1. ®
NATURAL
PRODUCTS
Efficacy Beyond Nutrition
Delivering the perfect powder product by Anna Batsakes
W
ith the U.S. powd er beverag e market pas sing powders as a new opportunity to expand their delivery formats
$1 billion in sales, opportunities to introduce new and offer convenience, better value and an environmentally
and innovative products to consumers in a powder friendly solution to ready-to-drink options. Supplement
format seem endless. Powders offer a perfect delivery system marketers offer increased value by adding flavor, function and
for innovative nutraceuticals, combining hydration with function hydration components, creating delicious powdered drinks
while extending ingredient stability, prolonging shelf life and for consumers to enjoy. But crossing over to powders has
expanding shelf presence. But, successful commercialization its unique design and development considerations. Expert
of nutritional powders transcends clinical efficacy. It’s about powder manufacturers use a host of technologies to create
delivering an appealing, convenient and safe solution to products that meet functional and sensory expectations of
consumers at the right price. A successful powder product clients and their consumers.
reflects consumer need through precise nutritional composition, “A winning product needs to taste great, look great and
tailored sensory characteristics, and commercial and market sound great,” said Ephi Eyal, CEO and president of IFP Inc., a
viability. Efficacy in all these areas is required for delivery of a powder manufacturer in Faribault, MN. “A great-tasting product
winning product. involves flavor masking, texture optimization, mouthfeel
The powder beverage market has grown beyond traditional enhancement and tailored sweetener systems. Working with
sugar drinks, basic protein shakes and spor ts energy powder performance issues like solubility, ease of mixing, color
beverages. Functional beverage and food marketers see and homogeneity ensures it looks great. Developing targeted
content and structure-function claims, sufficient marketing
differentiation and a suitable price point makes it sound great.”
But all too often, a great-performing, bench-top concept
A winning product needs will fail at the plant-scale, processing or manufacturing level.
Combining functional nutrients, stabilizers, flavors, colors and
to taste great, look great sweeteners into an optimal powder blend can be a challenge
to efficacy, performance and cost. Finding an expert powder
and sound great. process manufacturer that can increase overall performance
by adding crucial functional attributes such as uniformity and
— Ephi Eyal, CEO and president of IFP Inc. stability helps ensure a product’s success. Fluid bed batch
processing includes technologies such as agglomeration,
gr anulat i o n, c oat ing an d mi c ro - en c a p sulat i o n. T hese
processing technologies can address such processing and
manufacturing challenges and ultimately contribute to the
launch of a winning product.
Agglomeration is the particle engineering essence behind
powder systems. It creates superior blend uniformity and
optimizes dispersion and dissolution of a product when mixed
with liquids. On a basic level, agglomeration creates ingredient
particle clusters that disperse uniformly in liquid by controlling
the rate various elements go into solution. “Variation in powder
ingredient uniformity may cause clumping in products causing
sensory and convenience issues for the consumer,” said Tom
Tongue, product development director at IFP. “Simple blending

2. Variation in powder ingredient
uniformity may cause clumping
in products causing sensory and
convenience issues for the consumer.
— Tom Tongue, product development director at IFP
of dry ingredients can’t match the rapid are technologies that can enhance the ef ficacy and sensor y standards of a
dispersion into solution achieved by the use powder formulation by offering uniformity, dispersibility and stability. Choosing a
of agglomeration techniques.” manufacturer that adds expert product design using these technologies can help
In the dietary supplement world, where achieve the precise nutritional composition, tailored sensory characteristics, and
process validation is required, the rigorous commercial and economical viability required for product success. q
mixing achieved through fluid bed batch
processing helps ensure precise dosing and Anna Batsakes lives in Minneapolis, and is the marketing director for Innovative Food Processors (IFP Inc.).
nutrient uniformity per batch. This uniformity
helps attain on-the-mark nutritional label
claims. With regulatory standards becoming
more stringent, uniformity, in this sense, is
crucial to development. Besides ensuring
proper dosing levels, ingredient uniformity
can also reduce formulation costs by lowering
the ingredient overages often needed to meet
strict validation requirements.
Delivering a nutritional beverage while
maintaining taste, sensory appeal and stability
poses a challenge in powdered products,
as it does with any food system. These
challenges become opportunities to enhance
overall product performance and appeal
when using fluid-bed batch technologies such
as microencapsulation. “Many ingredients
are very difficult to work with,” Tongue said.
“Specific microencapsulation technologies
coat par ticles to stabilize formulations,
protect less stable ingredients and mask
ingredients with less desirable flavors and
odors. Some encapsulation technologies
can also help maximize the shelf life of less
stable ingredients.”
Using an array of capabilities to optimize
ingredients in a powder formula is a key to
success. Fluid bed batch agglomeration,
granulation, coating and microencapsulation
IFP-NPIN08101-3SQ4C.indd 1 7/18/11 3:17:03 PM
Reproduced with permission from Natural Products Insider, August 2011. ©2011 Virgo Publishing. All Rights Reserved.
For electronic usage only. Not to be printed in any format.