Mazza Innovation announced the company’s clean ingredients were awarded the Most Innovative Ingredient, as part of the 2015 Editors’ Choice Awards at Engredea—the premier annual event for the global nutrition industry. At the show, Mazza unveiled a portfolio of clean ingredients extracted using the company’s PhytoClean™ Method.

The top functional ingredients were awarded by Todd Runestad, editor-in-chief of Functional Ingredients at Engredea in Anaheim on March 7.

“We are thrilled to receive this honorable award,” said Dr. Giuseppe (Joe) Mazza, chief scientific officer of Mazza Innovation. “At Mazza, we believe we are providing a clean alternative that meets consumer demand for transparency into how their food and supplements are manufactured. Our new ingredients provide manufacturers with an important opportunity to offer clean label products.”

Mazza produces clean bioactives using an earth-friendly process, called the PhytoClean Method. Ingredients are extracted using water, thereby reducing the risk of residual solvents. Mazza’s method pressurizes water at moderate temperatures, lowering its polarity, which increases the water’s ability to solubilize bioactive compounds. In effect, the water behaves like an organic solvent such as ethanol or methanol.

Mazza launched its new portfolio of clean ingredients at Engredea 2015. Water-soluble and standardized for the concentration of the bioactives, the product range includes PhytoClean™ Blueberry, a 100 per cent blueberry fruit extract, standardized to 4 percent or 12 percent anthocyanins; PhytoClean™ Cranberry, a 100 per cent cranberry fruit extract, standardized to 8 percent proanthocyanidins; and, PhytoClean™ Green Tea, a 100 per cent green tea extract, standardized to 30 percent total polyphenols, 14 percent total catechins, and 10 percent epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG). These innovative ingredients are 100 per cent pure plant extracts free from carriers or trace solvents.

Available as standardized extracts, or tailored to meet specific formulation requirements, PhytoClean ingredients can be incorporated into a wide range of functional foods, dietary supplements and beauty products.