Laval, QC, Canada—Neptune Technologies and Bioressources announced the opening of their reconstructed krill oil plant in Sherbrooke, QC, which can produce 150 metric tons of krill oil annually.

Not only is this plant equipped for a doubling of capacity moving forward, but it represents several other advancements in the field as well. “It’s the same process as before, but we did things differently in order to improve security—even though security has always been a priority for us,” states Andre Godin, interim president and CEO of Neptune, Acasti and NeuroBio. “We invested a few million dollars to improve our security measures. We worked with the government throughout the entire process…We complied with all their requests and we appreciated their input.”

The improvements include new safety measures and technology to increase efficiency in manufacturing. These strides promise to minimize some of the issues inherent to krill oil production such as flowability and appearance issues. “We worked on the improvement of the extraction process during the reconstruction…it improves the viscosity of the product because krill oil can be a challenge for encapsulation,” Godin explains. “When you rebuild something almost from scratch, you always try to innovate and increase the efficiency of operation.”

This announcement comes in conjunction with the addition of three new condition-specific  formulations to Neptune’s omega-3 line, supporting heart healthy (NKO Beat with CoQ10, B-vitamins and NKO), bone/joint health (NKO Flex with vitamin D, strontium, zinc and NKO) and brain health (NKO Focus with vitamin A, B1, lutein and NKO).”We combined ingredients that are clinically proven, that we can actually claim a benefit with those products,” states Godin. “We are addressing a need in the consumer market.”

Published in WholeFoods Magazine, August 2014, updated 6/27/14