Abbott Labs files patent for ‘better tasting’ nutritional powders

The company said nutritional powders – from infant formulas to ready-to-drink beverages – were typically made by combining a liquid and dry mixture. After these ‘slurries’ were combined to form one liquid mix, they were heat-treated, spray dried and packaged.

But the company said this heat treatment of all the ingredients in this traditional method caused “unwanted chemical reactions​”.​ These unwanted by-products impacted taste and rendered certain mineral ingredients non-bioavailable, it wrote.

Instead its invention proposed to change this process to avoid certain ingredient combinations in the blended liquid mixture. These omitted ingredients would then be added back in by dry blending them with the base powder which has been heat treated.

The patent listed examples of infant nutritional powder as well as vanilla, plum and chocolate – flavoured adult nutritional powders where this method could be used. Tea, grape, citrus fruit and coffee extracts were also referenced as possible ingredients as were a host of vitamins and minerals.

For adults such powders could either be used to provide balanced nutritional supplements or muscle growth for healthy adults or be especially formulated for diabetics.

Source: WIPOPublication No. WO/2015/073843​​
Published: 21 May, 2015 Filed: 14 November, 2014
“​Better tasting nutritional powders”​
Authors: Abbott Laboratories – P. Johns, J. Lasekan, G. Patel, W.G. Zeitler and S. Pereira