A pilot employee wellness program using EpiCor from Embria Health Sciences of Ankeny, IA, was so successful that employees now have an online ordering system in place to buy the product. Approximately 100 City of Ankeny employees and family members used the product for six months during the 2011 cold and flu season. Overall, employees visited a doctor 28% less frequently for cold, flu, and upper respiratory illnesses than in the previous year.

Payson, UT-based Sabinsa Corporation announced that its U.S. manufacturing facility received registration through NSF International’s Good Manufacturing Practices program.

FMC Corporation, of Philadelphia, PA, acquired fish oil giant Epax for $345 million.

InSea2 from innoVactiv of Rimouski, QC, Canada received Organic Certification from ECOCERT Canada.

Morristown, NJ-based P.L. Thomas & Co., Inc. is now marketing immune health ingredient Wellmune WGP from Biothera of Eagan, MN. Biothera also made an agreement with Sunstar Suisse SA, which plans to launch products using Wellmune WGP and other Biothera immune-support ingredients in functional foods and beverages, as well as oral and skin care products.

The U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) of Rockville, MD, is proposing new quality standards in its Food Chemicals Codex (FCC) 9th Edition for spirulina and pomegranate juice. Manufacturers and others can review and comment on these proposals at www.usp.org/fcc/fccForum.html until September 30, 2013.

Main Street Ingredients of La Crosse, WI, is being rebranded as Agropur Ingredients and will be the center of operations for promoting the firm’s newly aligned ingredient portfolio.

WILD Flavors GmbH, headquartered in Zug, Switzerland, acquired Amazon Flavors, a Brazil-based firm specializing in flavors, extracts, emulsions and compounds.

Gencor of Anaheim, CA, is now marketing Intelicaps, a technology that embeds probiotics in a matrix of microspheres and protects them with layer-by-layer coating. The microcapsules resist low pH levels and deliver probiotics to the intestines.

Frutarom Health of Switzerland will market AB-Fortis, developed for AB-Biotics of Spain. This encapsulated iron solution is intended to fortify foods without the traditional drawbacks of iron.

Published in WholeFoods Magazine, September 2013