Outsourcing solutions for manufacturers of functional ingredients and food supplements
At this year’s Vitafoods, SternMaid will present its wide offer of services. These range from blending, drying and processing to a complete package that includes purchase of raw materials, co-packing, warehousing and delivery. The contract manufacturer has facilities for blending and optimizing practically any product in the food or life science industry and packaging it as requested. State-of-the-art fluid bed technology, for example, makes it possible to adjust and standardize the properties of foods, ingredients and food supplements to meet individual requirements.
From instantization, dust reduction and solubility to microencapsulation of active ingredients – fluid bed technology offers an enormous range of possibilities for optimizing lifestyle and health products such as dietetic drinks, protein preparations, dry beverage bases and specialities for athletes. Since the process can be carried out at low temperatures, the products are normally only exposed to moderate heating between 30 and 50 °C. This serves to protect heat-sensitive ingredients such as flavourings, vitamins and peptides, maintaining their nutritional and functional properties.
Besides presenting different processing methods, SternMaid will give an insight into its blending capabilities. The company has a total of eight blending lines to meet all manner of different requirements. On all the lines, liquid ingredients can be sprayed onto the powder homogeneously through special nozzles. This permits extremely fine distribution of microcomponents such as flavourings, oils or emulsifiers. For highly sensitive applications like allergen-free foods, SternMaid has a completely separate and independent section of the plant with a counter-current container blending unit designed to pharmaceutical standards.
In the co-packing sector, too, SternMaid has the latest packaging lines and the necessary know-how for filling both large industrial containers and consumer packs for the retail trade. Besides filling sacks, fibreboard boxes and FIBCs, the lines can handle cans, tubular bags and folding boxes in sizes from 50 to 5,000 grams.
Established in 1996, SternMaid has since become one of Europe’s leading contract manufacturers. In buildings covering an area of 20,000 m2 the company processes some 40,000 tonnes of powdered or liquid raw materials annually. With over 230 employees, the company offers a wide range of services.
Besides manufacturing powdered food ingredients, food supplements and active pharmaceutical ingredients and excipients on a contract basis, SternMaid blends and processes special ingredients for baby food, vitamin mixtures and OTC products. A total of eight different blending lines is available to meet all manner of different requirements.
