Ingredients by Nature announces new partnership ahead of launch of new alfalfa ingredient

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Ingredients by Nature (IBN; Montclair, CA) has announced its partnership with the Canadian firm Virentia, in preparation for the launch of a new chloroplast concentrate made from alfalfa, called ChloroBlast. Designed for the functional food and beverage industry, the ingredient is expected to launch in mid-2022. Virentia, for its part, has spent over five years developing a patented industrial fractionation process that isolates, extracts, and concentrates intact chloroplants from alfalfa leaves without the use of any chemicals or harsh mechanical treatments. This helps the chloroplants to maintain their integrity, and purifies them, removing phenolics and volatiles that could cause unpleasant odors and flavors, leaving a concentrate that is easily suspended in liquids. This allows Virentia to prepare pure chloroplast suspensions with high levels of reproducible and unique omega-3:protein ratio.

“Ingredients by Nature has a long history of supplying alfalfa ingredients, and we were very excited five years ago to learn about Virentia’s innovation in an ingredient category that hasn’t seen much change over the last decade,” said Rob Brewster, president of IBN. “ChloroBlast is one-of-a-kind, delivering a blast of vegetable protein along with a blast of nutritious chlorophyll, and we look forward to working with Virentia to improve functional food and beverage options on the market via this new ingredient.”

ChloroBlast contains 52% protein and 6% omega-3 content, and delivers 30.4 mg of chlorophyll per gram of Cloroplast. It’s also contains beta carotene, vitamins A, B, D, E, C, and K, as well as a variety of essential minerals. “ChloroBlast belongs in its own class of alfalfa concentrate, it stands above the rest and is comparable to high-value microalgae concentrates because of its high protein, antioxidant, pigment, phospholipid and micro-ingredient content,” said Louis Vezina, PhD, Virentia’s co-founder, vice-president and chief science officer, in a press release. “We were impressed with IBN’s knowledge of alfalfa and alfalfa-derived products. We believe that partnering with them will help us achieve our vision and push ChloroBlast in front of the right product formulators that want to offer consumers premium products that promote health and well-being.”

You can learn more about ChloroBlast at this year's SupplySide West at booth #4027.