Liquid Nitrogen Dosing Application Focus Preservation Vitamin & Mineral Supplements Packaging Supplements are designed to supplement the diet with nutrients and other substances that exert a physiological effect on the human body. In most parts of the world supplements are, along with dietetic foods and fortified foods, considered to be food products and are subject to food law rather than pharmaceutical law. It is good manufacturing practice that a product should meet qualitative and quantitative specifications for all ingredients throughout the product’s shelf-life. Products are generally labeled with a date through which the product’s potency is assured by the supplement manufacturer. A product’s stability is used to determine its shelf-life. For supplements, assurance of product stability is primarily related to the quality of the product and consumer confidence. The Challenge There are a number of environmental, chemical and physical factors which can affect the stability, and thus the shelf-life, of supplements and their ingredients. The most important factors are: • Temperature • Moisture • Oxygen • Light • pH of the product, particularly liquid products • Oxidizing and reducing agents • Presence of metallic ions (e.g. iron and copper) • Presence of other ingredients • Other components of food, such as sulphur dioxide • Combinations of the above The Solution Chart offers liquid nitrogen dosing systems to aid in oxygen reduction. To demonstrate this capability, several popular size and style containers were evaluated to determine the effectiveness of the technology. LN2 is supplied to the doser by a vacuum insulated hose and flows into the dosing head. A sensor detects the speed of the line (encoder compatible for higher speeds); a second sensor detects the presence of a container. When a container is detected, the dosing head opens and dispenses an exact amount of pure LN2. The LN2 gasifies and is either trapped in the container to add rigidity or escapes with oxygen to

Test Summary Several popular sizes and styles of vitamin supplements were tested. The supplement type included softgels, tablets, caplets, and gummies. The containers were either PET or HPDE with foil or plastic inductive seals. O2 levels were measured with a “6500 Headspace Oxygen Analyzer” by Illinois Instruments. For this test, O2 readings were taken to establish a baseline or ‘predose’ condition on each container. The O2 level in the room was also noted. After these readings were taken, each container was dosed with liquid nitrogen using a Chart 0.090” nozzle for 100 milliseconds (ms). Results...