The company, whose best-selling ingredient is the weight loss citrus extract, Sinetrol, said the new plant would allow it to ramp up its production capacity as well as providing the flexibility to allow it to produce a growing number of botanicals.
The company's other ingredients included a mango extract for joint health and a goji extract that is being marketed as a health tonic.
The company said the new facility would assist it in its quest to gain the ISO 22000:2005 standard that was developed in 2005 by the International Standards Organisation (ISO), that recognised Good Manufacturing Processes (GMPs).
The ISO 22000:2005 outlines food safety practices that among other things, “communicate food safety issues to their suppliers, customers and relevant interested parties in the food chain”.
The new facility would also allow for greater research and development activity into polyphenols and other compounds derived from orange, lemon and vegetables, with new equipment purchased as well as new production machinery.
The company will completely vacate its old premises on the outskirts of the southern French city of Beziers to another nearby site by January, 2010.
“We are building on our base in Europe and focusing on Asian and US markets,” operations manager, Eric Mota told NutraIngredients.com. “The US has become our biggest market and we need the flexibility and excess capacity to meet increasingly large orders.”
He said the company had not registered a downturn since the recession began, and noted it had made progress in the functional foods and beverages area.
Article 13.5
The company was in the process of compiling a Sinetrol-based article 13.5 weight management dossier for submission to the European Union nutrition and health regulation.
It proposed two draft wordings, the less technical of which read: “Sinetrol contributes to control body weight and fat mass in healthy overweight adults.”
The submitted ingredient consists of orange, red orange and grapefruit extracts and guarana seeds and suggested dosage is 1.4g of Sinetrol per day.