Microencapsulation Specialist to Open Virginia Facility

Microencapsulation firm Maxx Performance announced plans to open an R&D and manufacturing facility in Roanoke, VA, at the former Valley Rich Dairy Building on Aerial Way Dr. The company estimates the expansion will add up to 15 jobs and $700,000 in equipment.

“Our new Virginia-based facility will house a state-of-the-art application test center where customers can evaluate our ingredients in their products and develop formulations that can be scaled up,” says Winston Samuels, PhD, the company’s president and CEO.

“It will also allow us to work with the brightest minds at Virginia Tech to innovate more of the practical applications our customers need to succeed. By locating our facility in Roanoke, it allows us to give back to the region some of what was given to use while we were students at Virginia Tech,” he adds.

The company is a leading provider of microencapsulation technologies used by manufacturers of nutritional supplements, baked products, confectionery goods, dairy and meat products, and animal feed to mask tastes and off-odors, extend shelf life, enhance flavors and textures, and overcome application and processing challenges. Examples include masking bitter tastes such as caffeine, green tea extract, or certain vitamins and minerals that provide healthful benefits but can affect how foods taste. Microencapsulation, containing these ingredients and their tastes in microscopic capsules, enables the tastes to be managed within a completed product and, for example, reduce the need for artificial sweeteners.