|
|
|
DSM Nutritional Products offers the most complete palette of vitamin C crystal sizes and product forms worldwide. This extensive range of high-quality vitamin C products
includes coated forms, sodium ascorbate, calcium ascorbate, ascorbyl palmitate and ascorbic acid phosphate (STAY-C® 35 and STAY-C® 50, two especially stable forms
for use in Animal Nutrition and Health and in Personal Care products).
DSM Nutritional Products’ vitamin C forms serve the highly varied needs of the human and animal nutrition and health sectors; they are also used for pharmaceutical
applications.
Customer requirements
Customer requirements differ considerably from one industrial segment to another. At one end of the spectrum, ascorbic acid is used for its antioxidant properties. This use – along with certain other technical and industrial applications – does not call for mandatory and specific purity grades. At the other end of the spectrum, vitamin C is used as a supplement in products such as effervescent tablets and soft drinks. Purity grades for these applications are stipulated by our customers, who are manufacturers of registered pharmaceutical products. Full documentary evidence of compliance is required, covering for example purity levels and certificates of analysis, and our customers have a legal right to be informed about any changes to our manufacturing process.
Customer value
DSM Nutritional Products adds value with its customer-specific technical applications and uses a value-based pricing approach. In this approach, price levels for individual product forms and applications are determined by the value that they add to our clients’ products and applications.
An example is provided by the technology of coating, which is sometimes used to protect products from the effects of oxidation. Coatings are more expensive to produce, despite the relatively low price of ascorbic acid itself. Coated products and chemical derivatives (esters) are only therefore manufactured to serve very specific uses in animal nutrition, human nutrition (e.g. tablet manufacture) and personal care.
Production area in Dalry, Scotland
The Human Nutrition and Health and Personal Care sectors
Food applications
Vitamin C is used in many human nutrition applications. DSM Nutritional Products produces several grades of ascorbic acid; these can meet any particle size requirement determined by the equipment available in Dalry. Vitamin C forms range in size from an ultra-fine powder suitable for dry blending with other fine powder materials to a granular material that has excellent flow characteristics.
For certain special dry food applications, where hygroscopicity is a concern and it is important to prevent the product clumping together, the coated formulations Ascorbic Acid FC (fat-coated) and Ascorbic Acid EC (ethylcellulose-coated) can be used.
Special high-performance product forms are available for producing tablets in the dietary supplement field. The standard product forms, which have outstanding tableting properties and excellent powder flowability, are Ascorbic Acid 95% Granulation and Ascorbic Acid 90% Granulation. Ascorbic Acid 95% Granulation is also sugar-free, since hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose is used as a granulation aid. An additional product form with excellent tableting performance is Sodium Ascorbate 99% TG. This form uses pectin, which is very commonly used in many food products as a granulation ingredient.
Ascorbic acid crystal is generally sufficient for use with beverages, fruits and vegetables; ascorbic acid fine powder may also be used for certain baking applications. Sodium ascorbate is the derivative of choice used in meat processing ; it is dissolved in a brine containing nitrite or nitrate salts. Ascorbyl Palmitate is used as an antioxidant to prevent rancidity in fats and oils. It is deployed either as a pure substance or in synergistic blends (the RONOXAN® product range).
Pharmaceutical applications
Pharmaceutical applications are subject to special regulatory requirements, and this extends to the vitamin C forms. In Europe, a Certificate of Suitability (CEP) is required from the European Directory for the Quality of Medicines (EDQM). In the USA, a similar system operates, with drug master files having to be submitted to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for approval.
Following submission of a detailed dossier describing our vitamin C manufacturing method, product impurity profile and quality systems, a CEP was granted by the EDQM for ascorbic acid manufactured at our Dalry site. The CEP can be used by our pharmaceutical customers when making their own applications to the regulatory authorities. It demonstrates that vitamin C purchased from DSM Dalry is compliant with the monograph of European Pharmacopoeia.
Labeling
European food manufacturers will not use any products in whose creation genetic engineering has been used at any stage (the various phases of manufacture are traced “back to the farm”). In strict legal terms, only products made “from” genetically modified crops require GM labeling. This is not the case when a product is made “with” a genetically modified organism or microorganism.
Personal Care applications
DSM Nutritional Products markets a concentrated form of the phosphorylated vitamin C STAY-C® 50 that demonstrates excellent stability.
The Animal Nutrition and Health sector
The animal nutrition sector has different quality requirements from the food, pharmaceutical and personal care sectors. For animal nutrition, Ascorbic Acid Crystalline can generally be used in the production of feed. If additional stability is required, ROVIMIXTM. C-EC can be used; this is coated with ethylcellulose. For some applications, however – especially fish-feed extrusion – a much higher level of stability is required. This can be achieved using ROVIMIX® STAY-C® 35 which is a phosphorylated vitamin C. DSM Nutritional Products was the first company to market this stable vitamin C on a large scale.
