The Science of Clean Labels with Blue California’s Dr. Cuie Yan

Episode Overview

Episode Topic:

In this episode of NutraPreneur, we get into the cutting-edge world of encapsulation technology within the nutraceutical industry. Our focus is on Blue California, a trailblazing company known for its innovative approach to delivering clean and sustainable ingredient solutions. Dr. Cuie Yan, Vice President of Encapsulation and Application at Blue California, joins us to learn how microencapsulation is revolutionizing product effectiveness and consumer appeal in the natural products market.

Lessons You’ll Learn:                                                                                     

Listeners will gain insights into the critical role of microencapsulation in enhancing the efficacy and stability of functional ingredients like probiotics. Dr. Yan sheds light on the challenges of maintaining viability and efficacy in probiotic products and how Blue California’s microencapsulation technology provides a solution. Moreover, the episode underscores the importance of sustainability, scientific rigor, and consumer education in the development of nutraceuticals and cosmetics.

About Our Guest:

Dr. Cuie Yan is a seasoned expert with over 25 years of experience in pioneering clean and sustainable ingredient solutions. As Vice President of Encapsulation and Application at Blue California, Dr. Yan leads the charge in developing innovative delivery systems to maximize the health benefits of functional ingredients. Her expertise lies in microencapsulation technology, where she has made significant contributions to improving the effectiveness and consumer appeal of natural products.

Topics Covered:

Throughout the episode, we will learn about various facets of encapsulation technology and its impact on product development. Dr. Yan discusses how Blue California’s fine cap novel delivery systems stand out in enhancing product effectiveness and consumer appeal. Specific examples, such as the use of microencapsulation in probiotic supplements, highlight the transformative potential of this technology. Additionally, we dig into Blue California’s commitment to sustainability, health, and wellness, and how these values guide their research and development processes. Finally, we examine the future growth opportunities in the nutraceutical industry, including personalized nutrition, aging population trends, functional food and beverage innovations, and the rise of CBD products.

Our Guest:Dr. Cuie Yan – Leading the Charge in Sustainable Nutraceutical Solutions

Episode Transcript: 

Dr Cuie Yan: Personalized nutrition is become more accessible. Companies can tailor nutraceutical products to individuals based on their genetic makeup. We support individual partners to encapsulate their nutrients tailored to their specific needs.

Bethany Jolley: Welcome to Nutra Preneur The Nutra Industry podcast. I’m your host, food scientist, and nutraceuticals consultant Bethany Jolley. Each episode will be exploring what it takes to thrive in the nutraceutical industry. From conversations with successful nutraceutical entrepreneurs to venture capitalists to tech executives whose innovations are reshaping the nutraceuticals industry, we explore the innovations and trends that are shaping the next generation of nutraceutical businesses. Welcome back to Nutra Preneur, the podcast spotlighting trailblazers in the nutraceutical industry. I’m your host, Bethany, and today we have the privilege of hosting Doctor Cuie Yan, the vice President of Encapsulation and Application at Blue California. co. With over 25 years of pioneering clean and sustainable ingredient solutions, Blue California continues to lead with science driven innovations. Doctor Yan is a key figure behind Blue California’s novel micro-encapsulation technology, and so she joins us today diving into the world of encapsulation, the company’s entrepreneurial spirit, and the future of natural products. Welcome, Doctor Yan, it’s so great to have you today.

Dr Cuie Yan: Thank you so much for having me. It’s my pleasure to join this event.

Bethany Jolley: Absolutely. I think it’d be great for you to start off by telling us about your role at Blue California and how it aligns with the company’s mission for innovative health solutions.

Dr Cuie Yan: My pleasure. I’m the head of the Encapsulation and Application Division of California. My division is to support internal and external partners to protect and control deliver their functional ingredients such as nutrients, natural color, essence, probiotics, etc., etc. also including the pharmaceutical active ingredients to maximize their health benefit to human and animals.

Bethany Jolley: Yes. That’s great. It sounds like a very important role that you have there. And the markets increasing demand for cleaner labels. How does Blue California’s fine cap novel delivery systems stand out and enhancing product effectiveness and the consumer appeal?

Dr Cuie Yan: We only use food grade material or bio degradable food grade materials to an innovative green technology to create delivery systems to protect functional ingredients and improve their taste and bioavailability. Also achieve the desired color, flavor, and stability of the final products, thus enhance their effectiveness and consumer appeal.

Bethany Jolley: You’ve been very instrumental in advancing Microencapsulation technology. So, can you share with us a specific example where this technology has significantly impacted a product’s success?

Dr Cuie Yan: Of course, one notable example of encapsulation technology significantly impacts a product’s success in the field of probiotics is pretty trendy. Probiotics live microorganisms that confer health benefits when consumed in adequate amounts. However, probiotics are sensitive to environment such as pH, temperature, and moisture, which can reduce their viability and efficacy. This presents a challenge for formulating probiotics product that can maintain their viability throughout their shelf life and passage through the gastro track. The Microencapsulation technology offers a solution to this challenge by protecting probiotics within tiny capsules, or particles provide a barrier to isolate from the environment. This technology enables the controlled release of the probiotics to ensure their survival until they reach the target site, so they can exert their beneficial effects. The successful application of mark encapsulation technology in probiotic supplements has led a wide range of products on the market that offer improved stability, efficacy, and convenience for consumers. This innovation has contributed to the growth of probiotics market and has enhanced the overall quality and effectiveness of the probiotic’s products.

Bethany Jolley: Blue California is also known for its commitment to sustainability, health, wellness, and science.  How do all of these values guide your research and your development processes, especially in this encapsulation division?

Dr Cuie Yan: Our commitment to sustainability and science serve as a guiding principle in our research and development. We call it R&D, particularly within the encapsulation division. Here are how these values influence our approach. First, it’s always sustainable sourcing. We only use food grade and biodegradable raw materials. Second is a green technology. We invest the development and adoption of green technology that minimize energy consumption, waste generation, and environmental impact throughout the whole process. Third is scientific rigor. Our R&D efforts are grounded in scientific rigor and evidence-based practice. We leverage cutting edge research and technology to enhance the performance, the stability, and efficacy of our encapsulation systems.

Bethany Jolley: As you mentioned, there’s a vast range of applications. From dietary supplements to those cosmetics, how do you ensure that your innovations meet both regulatory and consumer expectations?

Dr Cuie Yan: That’s a great question. Ensure the innovation in the nutritional and cosmetic industry meet both regulatory requirements and consumer expectations is crucial for success in my opinion. Besides using food grade materials for encapsulation and applications, we do need to pay attention to the following three items. First is compliance with regulations. Through our regulatory program, we stay updated on regulatory requirements specifically to consumers and the specific region where the product will be marketed. Second, and is a scientific substantiation-based product claims on credit scientific evidence such as clinical trials and peer reviewed articles and research. The third is consumer education and feedback. As a scientist, we normally ignore that part. That’s very important too, because a consumer expectation, we constantly educate consumers about the benefit and proper use of the product through informative packaging, product insert, website content and other marketing materials, actively seeking feedback from consumers through surveys, reviews and social media interaction to understand their preferences, their needs and concerns. Use this feedback to redefine a redevelopment, product formulation and package design and marketing strategy to better meet consumers expectations and preferences.

Bethany Jolley: This episode is brought to you by Nutra payments.com. If your business needs credit card processing, that fully integrates with most major neutral software platforms, offers the lowest industry prices, and has built in features like recurring billing, $0 trials, and chargeback prevention. Then visit us at Nutra. Payments.com for a free online quote. And given all of these current trends, where do you see the biggest growth opportunities in the nutraceutical industry and how is Blue California positioned to capitalize on these trends?

Dr Cuie Yan: As the nutraceutical industry is showing significant growth driven by increasing consumer interest in health and wellness as well as advancements in technology and research, in my opinion, I saw biggest growth opportunity in the following four areas. First is personalized nutrition. With advancements in technology such as genetic testing and artificial intelligence, personalized nutrition is becoming more accessible. Companies can tailor nutraceutical product to individuals based on their genetic makeup, lifestyle, and goals. Blue California We support individual partners to encapsulate their new trends tailored to their specific needs. The second trend is aging population. As the global population continues to age, there’s a growing demand for nutraceutical targeting age related health concerns such as joint health, cognitive decline, and cardiovascular disease. Products contain ingredients such as omega three, CoQ10, and or xylene. Blue California produces. All of those products contain those functional ingredients, and we also offer contract service to many omegas three companies, partners, and also for ourselves. Recently, we launched the Eagle Active. It’s a clinical, proven brand of gasoline, so we cover all of the trendy, functional ingredients. The third trend is a functional food and beverage. Functional ingredient like we talk about probiotics omega threes and oxidants are high in demand. They also grow interest in plant-based food and beverage. For that to address specific health concerns, humanity, God and mental health, we support our partners to make encapsulate all of those functional ingredients. We also innovated and commercialized our own product that is a TiO2 replacement. This plant-based food grade. And Nigel, because you bind the TiO2 for food and beverage, in fact, a lot of cosmetic company and a pharmaceutical company purchased our TiO2 replacement to. So, the first trend I think is a pretty new is a CBD product, because the legalization of CBD in various regions has opened up opportunities for the use of CBD. So, CBD is being incorporated into supplements, cosmetic, beverage, skincare and personal care products. Even some commercialized pills. They have CBD and for women’s product too, because the health benefit of pain-relieving relaxation and stress reduction. We patented the controlled release of CBD a long time ago.

Bethany Jolley: And you’ve touched on some of these things already. But looking forward, what are some of the emerging technologies or methodologies that you believe will really shape the future of encapsulation?

Dr Cuie Yan: As we emphasize again and again, we always use food grade and biodegradable materials to protect those functional ingredients. We also only use green technology. That means short process, low temperature and low energy consumption, such as, you know, supercritical CO2 technology and 3D printing that also not only for food and beverage, for cosmetic product, even, for example, the laundry flavor and softener before we use the plastic microcapsules, they are not biodegradable. So that’s reason severely pollutes our water, soil, everything.

Bethany Jolley: And blue. California thrives on this entrepreneurial mindset. How does this culture influence your team’s approach to innovation and problem solving?

Dr Cuie Yan: This mindset is all about being innovative, adaptable, and proactive in finding solutions to the problem in MIT. This mindset really shaped our team’s approach to innovate and problem solving by fostering creativity, resilience, collaboration, and relentless focus on delivering value to our customers. It empowers us to embrace change, adapt to challenge and seize opportunities for growth and success.

Bethany Jolley: You’ve discussed a lot of exciting things that are happening at Blue California. But are there any particular exciting projects or innovations that we can expect to see from Blue California in the near future? Are there any new areas or applications that you’re exploring?

Dr Cuie Yan: Yes, I’m very excited. We’re going to launch a new product. I’m not sure if majority of people heard about it is microencapsulated essential amino acid. A human cannot produce essential amino acids. It has to be from our diet or food and supplements. However, some of the essential amino acids, they are not water soluble. That’s mean. They are not really by available. Meanwhile, they are really, really bitter, like encapsulation really mask their bitterness and improve their bioavailability. This product right now is under production trials. Another benefit of this essential amino acid, essential amino acid can be three-fold more effective than the whole protein. For example, the whey protein. That means ten grams of essential amino acids equals 30g of whey protein. In terms of promoting protein synthesis, that is a great food supplement for space exploration, for war fighting, and for disaster relief.

Bethany Jolley: Yes, it sounds like a product that could benefit a lot of different people, so I think it’ll be very successful. And if you’ve been able to cut out that bitterness, that makes it even better.

Dr Cuie Yan: he bitterness is key to bioavailability too. And it’s also convenient because you see, for example, for the war fighters, they every gram of wheat is very important, but also for the space exploration. This is three times more effective than just your whole protein.

Bethany Jolley: Very exciting. Doctor Yan, thank you once again for sharing your insights and the cutting-edge work that’s happening at Blue California. It’s clear that your efforts in encapsulation technology are enhancing products and paving the way for healthier futures. To our listeners, thank you for tuning in. Be sure to explore Blue California and its innovations more by visiting their website, which is linked in our episode description. Don’t forget to subscribe and join us next time as we continue to uncover the dynamic world of nutraceuticals. Until then, keep striving for health and innovation. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Nutra Preneur. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and better yet, leave us a review as it really helps us grow the show.