Valensa International has made Zanthin Natural Astaxanthin commercially available in a powdered, water-soluble and flavourless form. The Florida-based company explains that this creates opportunities to incorporate the powerful antioxidant into multiple natural food and beverage applications.
“This is a breakthrough for the industry. We’re bringing a water-dispersible and functional, enriched astaxanthin in a powder format that does not have the typical flavour profile, while achieving important commercial shelf life targets of up to 24 months,” said Umasudan CP, Valensa CEO with 20 years experience in the natural products industry.
Umasudan also mentioned that he has seen a lack of innovation in new delivery formats for natural-sourced ingredients from botanicals to microalgae.
In addition, Umasudan said the new Zanthin powder preserves its nutritional profile while increasing overall bioavailability, so the body absorbs a higher percentage of astaxanthin.
“Through the microencapsulation process, we’re able to make a water-insoluble, non-polar carotenoid be absorbed easily so astaxanthin’s power can have effect throughout the body,” Uma said.
Creating a powder
Zanthin Natural Astaxanthin is a key active component in many of Valensa’s formulations that mediate joint discomfort, help maintain good eye health, maintain healthy lipid profiles for cardiovascular health, and can cross the blood-brain barrier to support healthy ageing.
Astaxanthin has been studied extensively and has demonstrated benefits which derive from strong antioxidant activity enhanced by its ability to span the cell’s lipid bilayer and neutralise excess reactive oxygen species (ROS), thus reducing the amount of inflammation caused by ROS.
To obtain the powdered form of Zanthin Natural Astaxanthin, Valensa extracts astaxanthin using its patented Deep Extract Supercritical CO2 technology and protects the concentrated lipid, an oleoresin, with the O2B stabilisation process. Then, powered by Esolv, the proprietary technology for oil microencapsulation from Virun Nutra-Biosciences, the Zanthin oleoresin is transformed into powder, with 10-22 nm-sized micelles that can be easily dispersed in food and beverages for better bioavailability.
Following a successful debut at VitaFoods 2019 last month, Stephen Hill, Valensa VP of Product Development and Regulatory, said timing couldn’t be more perfect to introduce this innovation.
“We had just completed the pilot trials and were testing the waters for this concept with our customers,” said Hill, who has led many new products to the market during his 18 years at Valensa International. “Within days, we had to accelerate scale-up to deliver to the market demand. Valensa’s customers are excited to have this new format of Zanthin available.”