We provide lab-to-market services to sports nutrition producers to meet consumer demand for tasty and high-performing supplements turning the industry into a hotspot of scientific innovation.

Unpleasant taste, odour or colour

Most sports nutrition beverages are protein-based, and the protein formulas often leave a bitter aftertaste. Despite the various benefits of branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs), their use in sports formulations is not without obstacles. The unpleasant odour and extreme bitterness of BCAAs and other protein-based beverages, such as whey protein, is a constant challenge to formulators.

Isoflavones used for isotonic drinks also have an unpleasant taste and odour. L-arginine, an amino acid important for immunity and wound healing, is ideal for sports nutrition. However, it has a bitter taste and unpleasant odour in addition to its hygroscopic nature. Adaptogens, plants and mushrooms, known to increase energy and help recover from physical or mental stress, also face the taste issue. Adding sweeteners and acids to suppress bitterness often results in artificially tasting products and oversweetness. It also increases the cost of the final product.

Short shelf-life and clumping

BCAA powder has a short shelf-life and easily turns yellow. When the package is ​​opened, the shelf-life of the protein supplement is significantly reduced. The opened product can be stored for no more than two weeks.

Another challenge is the gritty, chalky texture due to the presence of insoluble ingredients or inconsistent texture caused by moisture. Powdered ingredients tend to clump, making them difficult to stir in. The more ingredients are in the beverage mix, the greater the challenge. The manufacturers try to solve the issue by using the instantising technique to deal with dispersibility, introducing xanthan gum to suspend insoluble particles or guar gum to increase viscosity and provide a better mouthfeel. But these techniques inevitably lead to an increase in the costs of the final product.

Our advanced microencapsulation technology enables you to significantly improve the efficiency of existing products. As BCAAs are difficult to produce in capsules or tablets, microencapsulation provides solutions to BCAA challenges. It helps offset the bitter aftertaste of BCAAs and other powdered protein beverages, such as pea protein and whey protein, resulting in considerable savings on expensive artificial flavours, sweeteners and acids used as masking agents. Microencapsulation of isoflavones used for fortifying isotonic drinks also makes taste, odour and colour more satisfying to customers and increases their bioavailability.

Microencapsulation also solves the problem of clumping and reduces the hygroscopic properties of some compounds, such as L-arginine, protecting them from moisture.

Some compounds, such as creatine, decrease their effectiveness when added to water and become unstable under the influence of gastric acid. Microencapsulation of these compounds results in water- and acid-stable products, increasing their potential for sports drinks.

Beverages with microencapsulated substances are also characterized by longer shelf-life due to the increased stability and take up less shelf space compared to their standard counterparts.

In addition, our microencapsulation technology enables us to introduce the sustained-release function providing a steady, gradual release of active compounds for several hours. We will help you offer innovative sports nutrition products to meet the increasing consumer demand for high-performance results.

Share with us your challenges and ideas. Our microencapsulation technology will help you create innovative sports nutrition products to satisfy the growing consumer demand for high-performance results.