The worldwide gentle gel market (empty capsules, B2B) is value about €1 billion globally, Arnaud Verhaeghe, advertising director of pharma oral dosage at Roquette, informed NutraIngredients.
Ninety p.c of that market is gelatin-based, and these dosage types will be difficult to fabricate efficiently, with points together with interactions with particular fill sorts, molecular crosslinking and sensitivity to warmth and moisture throughout storage which will compromise the soundness of gelatin-based capsules.
These points are compounded when working with extra superior formulations. Right here, producers should exactly stability the ratio of gelatin to plasticizers, comparable to glycerol or sorbitol, to make sure optimum shell elasticity with out growing the chance of capsule leakage or different defects
As well as, there’s the environmental consideration, with 1 kg of meat producing 30 instances extra CO2 emissions than 1 kg of pea, stated Verhaeghe.
Whereas vegan alternate options account for less than 10% presently, demand is rising by double digits, he added.
As an answer for the market, Roquette launched Lycagel Flex, which options the identical hydroxypropyl pea starch and carrageenan basis as the corporate’s unique Lycagel VS 720 Premix. Nevertheless, the brand new method permits producers to pick the proper plasticizer or mixture of plasticizers for actually distinctive softgel formulations, stated Verhaeghe.
“With the event of our Lycagel VS 720 Premix, the first purpose was to offer softgel producers with a high-quality ready-to-use different to gelatin,” added Steve Amoussou-Guenou, technical ceveloper supervisor Europe at Roquette. “Now, as vegan capsules turn out to be extra established, we acknowledge that our clients want better management to customise their formulations. Lycagel Flex is the reply, providing the identical stability and efficiency with the added flexibility to distinguish.”
Different advantages
Lycagel Flex provides softgel producers a plant-based answer that not solely replaces gelatin, but in addition provides vital course of advantages. These embrace a lowered degassing time of simply 5 minutes, versus the minimal 60 required for gelatin formulations, and the potential for straightforward gear cleansing with solely sizzling water, Roquette shared in a press launch.
In keeping with the corporate, the brand new premix delivers wonderful efficiency and stability all through a product’s shelf life, with assessments displaying that capsules produced utilizing Lycagel Flex maintained a transparent, shiny look and optimum hardness with no sticking or seal leakage following six months of storage at 40° C and 75% relative humidity (RH). With no vital improve in disintegration time or water content material after months in storage, the capsules didn’t show crosslinking, demonstrating the flexibility to keep up the identical mechanical energy and capsule integrity at day 180 as they’d immediately after the manufacturing course of.
