SoluBlend turns fatty ingredients into water soluble lipids
Designed particularly for the functional beverage market, but with other food and drink products also in mind, the new SoluBlend technology aims to make it easier for formulators to use fat-soluble ingredients like Omega-3 and sterols.
Instead of using encapsulation or nanotechnology, SoluBlend CEO Richard Staack said the technology allows companies to add these ingredients to products by converting them into water-soluble lipids.
Cost effective
Staack, who founded SoluBlend in 2009, said the new technology is much more cost effective than existing alternatives. He said: “The cost is much lower than that of the other technologies developed for beverages by as much as five times.”
Furthermore, the entrepreneur said that unlike encapsulation, the new technology has no dose limitations and is suitable for transparent as well as opaque beverages.
Staack told NutraIngredients-USA.com that nanotechnology may also be used to add healthy ingredients to clear drinks but there are disadvantages. From a technical perspective, he said nano-encapsulated ingredients tend to fall to the bottom of formulations, and on the marketing side, consumers are wary of nanotechnology.
Applications
Calling on his background in business development at major nutrition companies, Staack is targeting the new platform technology at the burgeoning functional food and drink market. Functional drinks are a key target market with interest expected to be particularly high from water companies, but potential applications extend to foods like soups and even baked goods.
Commenting on the potential of the technology, Staack said: “In conversations with several key-brand formulators, we learned how attractive this technology is, as it allows R&D to take full advantage of the growing functional food marketplace with innovative tasty and healthy foods that can finally perform at levels cited by specific research.”
SoluBlend is presenting the technology this week at Expo West, in Anaheim.
