Technology
Precision lipid nanoparticles
Every product we ship is the same platform pointed at a different molecule. Understanding the carrier is the fastest way to judge whether it will do anything useful for your formulation.
What a lipid nanoparticle is
A lipid nanoparticle is a carrier assembled from food-grade lipids that self-organize around a payload. The lipid interior holds an oil-soluble active. The outer surface is water compatible. The result is a particle that carries something water hates through a water-based product as though it belonged there.
Nanoencapsulation as a field covers a range of structures, including micelles, liposomes, nanocapsules and nanospheres, built from lipids, polymers, proteins or inorganic materials. We work in the lipid family because it is the best understood, the most stable in food and beverage matrices, and the easiest to keep on a clean ingredient statement.
Particle anatomy
- Core
- Lipid interior holding the active
- Shell
- Surfactant layer, water compatible
- Phase
- Your product, water based
Why the size threshold matters
Sub-100 nm is not a marketing number. Four distinct things change once the particle population crosses that threshold, and each of them maps to a problem formulators actually have.
It stays suspended
Below roughly 100 nm, thermal motion dominates gravity. The particle does not cream, settle or plate out on the container wall, so a finished beverage looks the same at the end of shelf life as it did at fill.
It stays clear
Particles well below the wavelength of visible light scatter very little of it. That is why the dispersion is clear rather than milky, which matters in any product where the consumer expects to see through the liquid.
It absorbs faster
A smaller particle presents far more surface area per unit mass and does not depend on bile and dietary fat to be broken down first. The practical result is quicker onset and less spread between servings.
It protects the active
The carrier puts a physical barrier between the active and dissolved oxygen, light and the pH of the surrounding matrix. For oxidation-sensitive actives such as omega-3 and MK-7 this is as valuable as the solubility gain.
The process
Active qualification
The incoming active is assayed and characterized. We establish the purity, the solubility profile and the degradation risks before any carrier work begins, because those three properties determine the formulation.
Lipid phase construction
Food-grade lipids and surfactants are selected and combined to match the active. This is where the system is tuned: the wrong lipid phase produces a particle that is stable on day one and separated by week six.
High-energy size reduction
The coarse emulsion is driven through repeated high-energy passes until the population falls below 100 nm. Particle size is the variable that controls clarity, suspension stability and absorption rate, so this is the step that is measured most closely.
Verification and release
Each lot is checked for particle size distribution, potency against the labeled load, appearance and dispersion behavior. Nothing ships without a certificate of analysis.
What it does not do
Where encapsulation is the wrong tool
This category attracts a lot of overstatement, so it is worth being direct about the limits.
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It does not improve an already soluble active's absorption.
Caffeine, GABA and L-theanine dissolve perfectly well on their own. We encapsulate them for taste masking and release control, and we say so on their product pages rather than implying an uptake gain that is not there.
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It does not fix a bad active.
An under-assayed or contaminated input produces an under-assayed encapsulated product. The carrier changes delivery, not the quality of what is being delivered.
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It does not remove your stability testing obligation.
Our carrier is stable across common beverage pH ranges, but your matrix has flavors, acids, preservatives and a process temperature we did not design against. Bench work on your own formulation is still required.
Send us the molecule
If you are not sure whether encapsulation helps your active, ask. We would rather tell you it will not than sell you a kilo that disappoints.