Beauty and fragrance ingredient maker Sensient acquires Mazza

12-Jul-2018 - Last updated on 12-Jul-2018 at 10:51 GMT

blueberry, cranberry and green tea extracts (image courtesy of Mazza Innovation)

Founded in 2011, Mazza Innovation has made a name for itself over the years for its botanical extraction technology—a process that is solvent free and instead uses pressurized low polarity water. It’s tech that Sensient will now leverage to develop clean label ingredients for cosmetics and personal care makers.

“This acquisition is extremely significant for Sensient and our customers,” Paul Manning, chairman, president, and CEO of Sensient Technologies, says in this week’s media release announcing the deal.

Explaining further, Manning says, “the combination of our color and flavor expertise and Mazza’s revolutionary technology will allow us to conduct extraction from natural plant sources using environmentally friendly extraction methods — including water only extractions — instead of traditional chemical solvents.”

“This technology,” he asserts, “will enable us to work with leading food, cosmetics, and nutraceutical brands to create cost effective, clean label products that deliver on consumer expectations for taste, color, and functionality.”

Business as usual

The Mazza Innovation media release formally announcing the acquisition opens with a caveat: “Employment at the expanding Delta BC facility to be unaffected and expansion plans will remain in place as Mazza receives a continuing flow of new business opportunities for its leading-edge, environmentally friendly extraction technologies.” So even though the acquisition has already taken effect, it’s business as usual.

And it gets better from there; Benjamin Lightburn, CEO at Mazza, says,“We’re very pleased to join Sensient Technologies, a world leader in the production of colours, flavours and fragrances.”

Lightburn elaborates, saying that “the acquisition by Sensient provides Mazza with a large new customer base, and a wide variety of new opportunities for our environmentally friendly extraction technology. It also provides a strong financial base for our rapid growth plans while also enabling our founders to benefit from their many years spent working to develop and commercialize this world-leading technology.”

Extraction with a difference

Mazza Innovation currently produces some 40 extract ingredients, such as their award-winning blueberry, green tea, cranberry extracts, as well as flaxseed, algae, green coffee bean, artichoke, purple tea, purple corn, and elderberry.

The company’s patented extraction technique is known as The PhytoClean Method. And as the media release describes it, The PhytoClean Method is “a water-based extraction process that concentrates bioactives by pressurizing water at moderate temperatures, greatly increasing the water’s ability to solubilize bioactive compounds from botanical sources.”

“In effect, this extraction process provides as good as or better yields and purities than industrial chemical solvents,” explains Mazza. “This environmentally friendly, clean process can be applied to extract a wide range of compounds for use in nutraceuticals, cosmetics, flavourings, colourings, pharmaceuticals, functional foods and beverages.”

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Deanna Utroske, CosmeticsDesign.com Editor, covers beauty business news in the Americas region and publishes the weekly Indie Beauty Profile column, showcasing the inspiring work of entrepreneurs and innovative brands.