P.L. Thomas ~ Vivid Harvest Food Powders

Morristown, N.J.P.L. Thomas launched Vivid Harvest Whole Food Powders, a line of fruit and vegetable "food replacement" products. The line features a patented new technology that gently evaporates water molecules in foods without disturbing the active enzymes, antioxidants, vitamins, minerals or other phytonutrients.

Because of the new technology, flavor, aroma, color and nutritional quality of the original materials are preserved in a manner that enhances the consumer experience.

Vivid Harvest Whole Food Powders also offer food and beverage manufacturers a number of processing advantages over raw foods and other fruit and vegetable inclusion processes, including a longer shelf-life, better "flowability" with less dusting, enhanced solubility and dispersibility, a better particle shape with greater density and a lack of solvents or other adulterating processing aids.

In this initial launch, P.L. Thomas will offer more than 25 different fruit-based products and 16 vegetable-based products drawn from the hottest trends in the consumer food and beverage market. Depending upon the consumer product application, starting materials for the Vivid Harvest process can be whole fruits and vegetables or all-natural juices and purees. From this lineup of market offerings, P.L. Thomas expects to expand into new fruits and vegetables, with the potential to create whole food powders out of non-traditional ingredients , such as salmon.

Consumers have continuously said they want healthy, wholesome, clean label foods," said Sid Hulse, new product development manager for P.L. Thomas. "Nutritionists and dietitians tell us that the best place to get that nutrition is in whole foods."

Vivid Harvest Whole Food Powders will be custom manufactured for P.L. Thomas by Columbia Phytotechnology (CPT). Starting materials for Vivid Harvest products include locally grown, non-GMO fruits and vegetables, juices, pulps and purees. CPT developed a gentle evaporative process using light for creating whole food powders.

The process, which is 73 percent to 88 percent energy efficient, does not use solvents or processing aids, and it doesn't put raw materials under vacuum or temperature extremes, which can negatively affect purity and sensory characteristics. It creates a solid granule with a uniform shape and non-porous structure that is moisture resistant and has a low surface tension.

"The great thing about the technology behind Vivid Harvest is that it delivers these nutrition and sensory benefits in an ingredient form that is easier to incorporate and process than liquid products, drum dried, spray dried or freeze dried products," said Hulse.

P.L. Thomas recently partnered with Ganedan for probiotics, as well as with Nutrafur for botanical extracts.