According to Socati, its new ingredients portfolio features the company’s „most advanced water soluble ingredients” that don’t affect product flavor, texture, or shelf life. The capabilities include the integration of natural antioxidants and antimicrobials to extend shelf life, flavor solutions to create comprehensive ingredients for product development, and other functional ingredients such as vitamins.
Socati said it is currently formulating a custom solution for a client containing vitamin B12, specific levels of CBG (one of the more than 100+ cannabinoids found in the hemp plant) and CBD, and a distinct fruit flavor for functionality testing.
“Incorporating cannabinoids into beverages, food and topicals without altering flavor or texture of finished products has been a significant problem faced by the industry which, up to now, hasn’t had a viable, commercial solution,” said Socati CEO Josh Epstein.
“Through leveraging some of the most advanced technologies in the food and beverage industry, our new ingredient offers the precision that manufacturers require to satisfy the rapidly growing consumer demand for products containing CBD and other cannabinoids.”
Ensuring undetectable levels of THC
The water soluble product uses proprietary chromatographic processes to ensure all of the CBD and other desirable compounds found in hemp remain in the finished product, while THC levels are far below most commercial labs’ ability to detect.
These ingredients take advantage of Socati’s fully customizable product technology, which offers manufacturers the ability to purchase all-natural ingredients with specific cannabinoid profiles to meet increasing consumer demand for personalized products.
Socati chief revenue officer Mark Elfenbein previously told this publication that Socati’s patented chromatographic-based technology allows for full extraction of the THC component on a large scale from the hemp plant ensuring a product that contains non-detectable levels of THC — „far lower” than the industry standard of 0.3%, said the company.
And because of this technology, Socati is able to create custom blends that can match a manufacturer’s exact specifications for the levels of each cannabinoid, the company said. According to Socati, its ingredients and processing and production capabilities enable manufacturers to incorporate hemp-derived cannabinoids into their products without the need for emulsifiers, surfactants, additional flavoring agents, or other complicated treatments.
CBD supplier ambitions
Socati has raised $42m in private capital since late 2018, enabling it to deliver significant advancements in hemp-derived ingredients. The company is headquartered in Austin, Texas, has a research and development genetics and seed facility in Woodburn, Oregon, and a Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) certified processing and manufacturing facility in Missoula, Montana through the acquisition of Blue Marble Biomaterials.
„We will be able to substantially meet a big portion of the demand for broad spectrum hemp in 2019 and 2020,” said Elfenbein.
According to market research firm, The Brightfield Group, the CBD market is expected to reach $22bn by 2022, growing nearly 40 times the size it is today ($619m in 2018).
Stayed tuned for FoodNavigator-USA’s one-on-one video interview with Socati CEO Josh Epstein at SupplySide West in Las Vegas next week where we’ll dive deeper into the company’s CBD ingredients and the larger CBD food and beverage market.
