Bringing Omega Wellness to Food/Bev Applications Thought to be Unreachable

Ahiflower® (Buglossoides Arvensis)

Canadian companies partner to infuse plant-based omegas into wide range of offerings.

WINSTON SALEM, NC, UNITED STATES, July 22, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ — Two Atlantic Canadian food technology disruptors — Infusd Nutrition and Natures Crops International — are combining their innovations into a novel food and beverage delivery platform.

While the health benefits of improving people’s omega-3 fatty acid intakes are undisputed, overcoming the consumer’s ‘yuck factor’ perceptions with omega-3 EPA/DHA outside of supplements has been a challenge. Why? Because typical fish and algal oils have inclusion limits and/or short shelf life constraints before sensory challenges set in.

Some highly logical and consumer-responsive categories for boosting omega-3 levels — for example, healthy hydration drinks, kombuchas, RTD teas and coffees, plant-based creamers, kids fruit/veggie squeeze pouches — have been largely off-limits to functional omega-3 fortification. Until now.

Infusd Nutrition (Halifax) has pioneered a fully clean label process enabling water solubility of fat-soluble and insoluble ingredients at high payloads with proven stability and functionality. Infusd Nutrition’s patent-pending, 100% natural plant-based oil solubility system also offers more than twice the bioavailability of conventional emulsions and more than 4 times that of straight omega-3 oils. Infusd’s already low cost solution dramatically improves the cost-per-serving equation in food or beverage formulations. David Giffin, chemical engineer and co-founder of Infusd Nutrition notes, “In a market that has seen rapidly rising costs for omega-3 ingredients, a carrier system that enables greater bioavailability of the active ingredient in foods and beverages means meeting daily omega-3 intake goals can be achieved at considerably lower costs.”

Not far up the road in Prince Edward Island, Natures Crops International (NCI) is the exclusive worldwide producer of Ahiflower^® oil, the richest omega-3-6-9 dietary oil with the highest-available levels of omega-3 SDA (stearidonic acid). Ahiflower oil has peer-reviewed evidence of boosting omega-3 EPA levels in the bloodstream and enriching the whole body with DHA efficiently — i.e. the main reason why people seek cardiovascular, immune, joint, skin, and cognitive wellness benefits from fish or algal oils. Yet in a turbulent omega-3 supply marketplace, Ahiflower oil’s supply and pricing has not been impacted due to NCI’s vertically-integrated ‘soil to oil’ supply chain which it controls completely.

Ahiflower oil is not only changing how nutritionists and health care practitioners are advising people to improve their omega-3 status, it also greatly expands on opportunities for category-differentiating product innovation. Why? Because Ahiflower oil and/or Ahiflower+DHA blends are inherently more oxidatively stable than fish or algal oils alone. Ahiflower oil naturally delivers more healthy omegas than standard fish or algal oils which focus only on omega-3 EPA/DHA.

Andrew Hebard, NCI’s CEO and founder observed, “We have always viewed regeneratively-grown Ahiflower oil as a way for consumers and their health advisors to think beyond fish oil. With the Infusd Nutrition platform’s next-generation solubility gains, we’re excited to see many new consumer-facing food and beverage niches filled with delicious, convenient, and highly stable plant-based omega-3-6-9 offerings addressing, for example, kids nutrition, healthy aging, and active lifestyles.”

To learn more, contact: [email protected] or [email protected].

Jacqueline Rizo
Natures Crops International
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