6 Nov 2009 --- The Ahrensburg company Mühlenchemie GmbH & Co. KG, a member of the Stern-Wywiol Gruppe, compounds highly sensitive ingredients such as vitamin complexes on a new container blending line designed to pharmaceutical standards. In this way the company meets the most stringent requirements in respect of safety, traceability and purity in the manufacture of sensitive ingredients for the production of baked goods.

Since nutrient supplements are on the borderline between food and medicines, the products must be extremely pure. To meet this requirement, the Stern-Wywiol Gruppe has invested four million euros in a new, separate area of the plant where essential micronutrients can be blended and filled by a very gentle process ensuring maximum purity, adherence to formulations and safety.

Divided into three hygiene zones, the new plant meets very strict purity requirements in respect of its structural and technical features. The equipment guarantees optimum flow properties, extremely fine dispersion and good storage stability. The hygiene level of the process is therefore equal to that of the pharmaceutical industry. Each batch can be traced back separately, and the process can be validated from beginning to end. Moreover, the plant excludes the risk of cross-contamination. On the new, high-tech line Mühlenchemie blends mainly vitamin premixes, trace elements, amino acid complexes and enzymes.

Over the past few years these products have become more and more important for Mühlenchemie, one of the leading manufacturers of flour improvers, since the company is campaigning for an adequate supply of micronutrients to the populations of the developing and emerging nations. To help achieve this goal the team in Ahrensburg develops complex solutions for fortifying flour with special substances. Thanks to the new plant it is possible to blend and fill the premixes under optimum conditions so that they can be used in products around the globe.

Every year some 600,000 women worldwide die in childbirth, and as many as 500,000 young children go blind as a result of a vitamin A deficiency. Supplementing their staple food with vitamin A, iron, zinc and the B vitamins, including folate, can help to lower the incidence of disease and the mortality rate. This is particularly important in Africa and Asia, since an undersupply of vitamins and minerals is common in these regions due to malnutrition.

The blending plant is used by other firms from the Stern-Wywiol Gruppe including Hydrosol, SternVitamin, SternEnzym, Sternchemie and SternLife as well as Mühlenchemie. “The exchange and transfer of know-how between our various ingredients specialists is one of the reasons for our high level of innovation. It also explains how the individual firms always achieve that crucial lead over competitors in their particular segments”, says Volkmar Wywiol, the Group’s founder and Chairman.