AIDP: Gelatin-free encapsulation is a growing trend

While other firms have developed gelatin-free methods of encapsulating fat soluble ingredients such as vitamin D to meet demand for kosher and vegetarian claims, enVantec offers unrivaled stability, claimed AIDP director of business development & marketing Kathy Lund.

“Gelatin-free starch-based products are a growing trend. Other products are available, but only enVantec offers two to three year stability.”​

A large opportunity in beverages​

Launched last fall, enVantec products feature a proprietary micro-encapsulation technology with no gelatin, no preservatives and no added antioxidants – a key attraction for beverage formulators looking to clean up labels, said Lund.

“Today, consumers have become label scrutinizers and any ingredient that sounds like a chemical or relates to artificial is usually not considered a clean ingredient.”​

Instead, actives are finely dispersed in a matrix of dextrin, sucrose and modified food starch, which allows for greater dispersion and clarity of products, and provides uniform particle size for homogenous blends, said Lund.

“To date the largest interest is in tablets, but we see a large opportunity in beverages.​

“enVantec is currently being used in some tablet forms of Vitamin D3.  In capsules and tablets, fat-soluble vitamins can have accelerated degradation from interacting with other ingredients. enVantec is ideal for these situations. ​

“The benefit for beverages is providing better clarity and stability.”​

Suitable for a wide variety of ingredients​

AIDP offers several pre-made applications for fat-soluble ingredients previously unsuitable for commercial products due to stability limitations, including enVantec Vitamin A Palmitate 250,000 IU, Vitamin A Acetate 500,000 IU CWS, and Vitamin D3 100,000 IU/g.

But she added: “The enVantec technology can be used for a wide variety of ingredients but not all have been tested.”​