Natural low-microbe garlic hits market
products containing a deodorised garlic which has not been
irradiated to kill microbes.
NutraProducts has introduced a range of nutraceutical garlic powder and granule products containing a deodorised garlic which has naturally low APCs (Aerobic Plate Count). The product therefore does not undergo irradiation to reduce contamination from bacteria, yeast, and other pathogens.
"Irradiation will artificially lower APCs, but it will also degrade the alliinase enzyme activity, which converts the alliin to allicin," said Bill Deaton, CEO and head of R&D for NutraProducts.
"Also, irradiation can result in toasted, "specky" looking garlic tablets and capsules. NutraSelect is an important breakthrough because it is super clean, with a creamy white colour, no specks, no defects, and guaranteed microbes at less than 10,000 per gram without irradiation," he added.
NutraSelect contains a proprietary variety of garlic supplied by Harmoni International that is hand-selected, hand-trimmed, hand-peeled, washed and then processed using a process NutraProducts calls MCD - micro control, colour control, defect control.
Deaton explained that the process used for NutraSelect is "the only way to get APCs consistently below 10,000 per gram. If you have guaranteed APCs below 10,000 per gram in an agricultural product, the material has almost certainly been irradiated or chemically treated."
He continued: "We know this because, prior to discovering the NutraSelect process, we tried for years to get an APC level below 10,000 per gram and more than 10 per cent of the time we failed.It's the 'if you don't ask, they won't tell' axiom … if the customer doesn't ask if the material has been irradiated or not, the raw material supplier won't volunteer that information to the customer."
NutraProducts has developed a "no RAD" logo based on the familiar Ghostbusters NO sign for customers to place on their labels. The sign can be used for any ingredient when the supplier certifies that the material has not been irradiated.
NutraSelect can be used for tabletting and encapsulation. Deaton claims that consumers will notice the difference between the ivory-coloured capsules and creamy white clear-coated tablets and their irradiated counterparts.
Deaton also developed a garlic standardisation method to identify its key markers (alliin, allicin, alliinase) more than ten years ago.
