Encapsulation technologies for beverage ingredients | Food

Encapsulation technologies for beverage ingredients

Background
What we're looking for
What we can offer you
Who we are

Background

There has been an increased demand for novel (e.g., functional) beverage ingredients, in part due to an increase in consumers’ health awareness. However, many novel ingredients have challenges (e.g., stability, solubility, taste) in a low pH beverage during its production or over the course of its shelf-life. Typical functional ingredients vary from botanicals to natural colors, etc.

What we're looking for

PepsiCo is looking for novel encapsulation technologies for various functional and other) ingredients in a beverage system. Ideally the technology can work across various beverage systems and ingredients, although multiple technologies for different systems/ingredients are also acceptable. We are looking for technologies with strong commercial feasibility. So key factors are scale-up, cost, regulation, and whether it can be a platform for many diverse ingredients.

Solutions of interest include:

We are interested in encapsulation technologies for a variety of ingredients:
Hydrophobic or oil-soluble ingredients
Hydrophilic or water-soluble ingredients

Ingredients of interest can include things like (but are not limited to) the following:

Botanicals
Natural colorants like anthocyanins
Vitamins

Our must-have requirements are:

Safe to consumers with safety data to understand toxicology effects
The encapsulant should be stable in acidified beverages with a neutral pH trigger
The encapsulant should be stable both in concentrated and diluted systems
The encapsulant should be stable in low pH (2.7-3.2) beverages at ambient temperature for 6-9 months (stable to light, heat, no sedimentation or phase separation)
The encapsulant should be stable after thermal processes (approximately 200-205F for 33 seconds)

Our nice-to-have's are:

The encapsulant material has FDA GRAS (generally recognized as safe) status
The encapsulant is stable for 12 months or more
The encapsulant has a consumer-friendly label (no harsh names)
Novel encapsulation should be able to accommodate a load of target ingredient such that the ingredient/encapsulant ratio is at least 50%
The technology should be able to deliver substrate ranging from 150-600ppm in the finished beverage

What's out of scope: