The food supplement and nutrition (FSN) market is rapidly growing, driven by consumers seeking products that align with their health-conscious lifestyles and values, such as natural ingredients and sustainability. Ready-to-drink (RTD) nutritional products are well-suited to meet these demands, offering an accessible way to enter this expanding market.
Find your ideal FSN opportunity
Food supplement and nutrition products include sports nutrition, special nutrition, medical nutrition, and lifestyle nutrition, and this variety means you can appeal to a wide range of consumers. If you are already working with powders, especially nutritional powders, why not explore opportunities in the FSN category with ready-to-drink beverages? The price per litre for RTD protein drinks is higher than protein powders, so there’s potential for improving your bottom line while appealing to both new and existing consumers.
Key steps in any line expansion
While each upgrade or expansion process is unique, common steps include evaluating current capabilities to identify necessary improvements that meet specific goals. This involves assessing equipment like mixing, blending, homogenisation, pasteurisation, and heat treatment systems. Furthermore, consider key optimisations, potential for automation, and the need for training and support for new technology, recipes, and ingredients
Expanding your nutritional powder line to produce liquid nutritional products will require a new wet processing area and a filling machine, although the powder handling could be common to both lines. The key upgrades required for liquid processing include:
Mixing:
- Add a Tetra Pak® High Shear Vacuum Mixer and mixing tanks to mix the powder and liquid raw materials in a uniform and consistent manner, including proper hydration.
- The Tetra Pak Vacuum High Shear mixer provides the flexibility to handle multiple different ingredients, with different mixing requirements
UHT Processing:
- Depending on the product mix choice the heat treatment/heat load used, can be either indirect or direct depending on the desired sensory properties of the final product.
- With a modified composition compared to standard cow’s milk, viscosity, degree of ingredient denaturation, and final sensory profile are key parameters when evaluating the preferred choice of heat treatment.
- UHT Processing units are skid mounted and come complete with all the required key components for effective processing
Homogenization:
- Homogenization requirements are influenced by the nutritional product recipe, ingredient type used, and the heat treatment method.
- Direct heat treatment demands an aseptic homogenizer, while with most indirect systems a non-aseptic homogenizer will suffice.
- Where the recipe has abrasive ingredients and extended shelf stability is required, both non aseptic and aseptic homogenizer will be required.
CIP (Cleaning in place):
- Given the processing transition is from powder to liquid, core equipment needs are substantially different, and there are decision choices depending on the final product mix.
