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Superior Odor and Flavor Masking Through Advanced Microencapsulation
From probiotics, fish and dairy products to microalgae and herbs, electrostatic spray drying provides the manufacturing efficiency, product efficacy and consumer benefits necessary to compete today.
7
Sep 23
It's a fact. Nobody wants to taste fish oil.
No one in the industry is surprised that many of the ingredients that make pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals and personal care products so effective also come with unpleasant flavors and odors. Omega-3 products obtained from fish oil, traditional herbs, plant extracts, vitamins and other ingredients can taste and smell, well, terrible.
Finding a way to counteract these characteristics has always been key to widespread acceptance by consumers—and it appears that people are becoming less and less likely to tolerate products that taste bad, no matter how healthful they may be.
Previous solutions, such as sweeteners, flavorings and bitter-blocking ingredients have continued to improve over time. And more recently, film coatings have made tablets and capsules much easier to swallow, if you will pardon the joke. Still, masking only covers up fishy, bitter and metallic tastes—it can only go so far. It isn't a true solution.
That's why microencapsulation of fine particles—encasing active ingredients in a neutral shell—has been recognized as a preferred method for masking odors and flavors. What's more, microencapsulation offers the added advantages of increasing stability and shelf life as active ingredients are isolated from reacting oxygen or other ingredients. Nor will the method interfere with controlled release. Plus, there's no added sugar.
Popular Microencapsulation Approaches and Challenges
Spray drying is widely used in food and beverages, personal care products, pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals, but it isn't appropriate for all applications. The elevated temperatures required to evaporate the solvent can degrade the nutritional value of volatile or heat-sensitive actives, such as live microorganisms, proteins and plant extracts. Garlic, for example, cannot stand the heat.
For this reason, freeze drying (or lyophilization) has tended to be the other option. However, freeze drying at sub-zero temperatures can also cause damage. It is also time-consuming, with each batch requiring from 12 hours to five days. This can be a real issue for manufacturing at scale.
The Best of Both Worlds: Continuous, Low-Temperature Processing
In the last few years, electrostatic spray drying has burst onto the scene with the ability to deliver continuous processing at low temperatures—solving the greatest challenges of each of its predecessors.
To explain it simply, in electrostatic spray drying, active ingredients and a carrier are added to a highly polar solvent—often water. When an electronic charge is applied to this solution as it is being atomized, the polar molecules in the solvent repel one and are driven to the surface, forcing the active inward as a shell is formed around the core and the solvent evaporates.
This naturally occurring shell physically contains any active ingredients that might offend consumers' senses until the product has made its way to the gastrointestinal tract.
It is important to note that flavor and odor masking are not the only advantages. Testing has demonstrated that electrostatic spray drying, as performed by the Fluid Air PolarDry® series, also reduces active loss due to evaporation, can extend shelf life up to four times over and allows for maximum oil load in oil powders.
From probiotics, fish and dairy products to microalgae and herbs, electrostatic spray drying provides the manufacturing efficiency, product efficacy and consumer benefits necessary to compete today.
No one in the industry is surprised that many of the ingredients that make pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals and personal care products so effective also come with unpleasant flavors and odors. Omega-3 products obtained from fish oil, traditional herbs, plant extracts, vitamins and other ingredients can taste and smell, well, terrible.
Finding a way to counteract these characteristics has always been key to widespread acceptance by consumers—and it appears that people are becoming less and less likely to tolerate products that taste bad, no matter how healthful they may be.
Previous solutions, such as sweeteners, flavorings and bitter-blocking ingredients have continued to improve over time. And more recently, film coatings have made tablets and capsules much easier to swallow, if you will pardon the joke. Still, masking only covers up fishy, bitter and metallic tastes—it can only go so far. It isn't a true solution.
That's why microencapsulation of fine particles—encasing active ingredients in a neutral shell—has been recognized as a preferred method for masking odors and flavors. What's more, microencapsulation offers the added advantages of increasing stability and shelf life as active ingredients are isolated from reacting oxygen or other ingredients. Nor will the method interfere with controlled release. Plus, there's no added sugar.
Popular Microencapsulation Approaches and Challenges
Spray drying is widely used in food and beverages, personal care products, pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals, but it isn't appropriate for all applications. The elevated temperatures required to evaporate the solvent can degrade the nutritional value of volatile or heat-sensitive actives, such as live microorganisms, proteins and plant extracts. Garlic, for example, cannot stand the heat.
For this reason, freeze drying (or lyophilization) has tended to be the other option. However, freeze drying at sub-zero temperatures can also cause damage. It is also time-consuming, with each batch requiring from 12 hours to five days. This can be a real issue for manufacturing at scale.
The Best of Both Worlds: Continuous, Low-Temperature Processing
In the last few years, electrostatic spray drying has burst onto the scene with the ability to deliver continuous processing at low temperatures—solving the greatest challenges of each of its predecessors.
To explain it simply, in electrostatic spray drying, active ingredients and a carrier are added to a highly polar solvent—often water. When an electronic charge is applied to this solution as it is being atomized, the polar molecules in the solvent repel one and are driven to the surface, forcing the active inward as a shell is formed around the core and the solvent evaporates.
This naturally occurring shell physically contains any active ingredients that might offend consumers' senses until the product has made its way to the gastrointestinal tract.
It is important to note that flavor and odor masking are not the only advantages. Testing has demonstrated that electrostatic spray drying, as performed by the Fluid Air PolarDry® series, also reduces active loss due to evaporation, can extend shelf life up to four times over and allows for maximum oil load in oil powders.
From probiotics, fish and dairy products to microalgae and herbs, electrostatic spray drying provides the manufacturing efficiency, product efficacy and consumer benefits necessary to compete today.