Alpha Organics Product Preparation

Fresh organic foods contain many therapeutic nutrients. Protecting them during the drying process was a priority in formulating the Alpha Organics product line.

Maintaining these nutrients is accomplished by choosing drying methods that prevent even small losses of vitamins and phytonutrients. With nutrient loss, especially the powerful phytonutrients, comes significant reductions in aroma, flavor and color. Just look at our products, or better yet smell and taste them, and you'll know how much therapeutic material remains.

Since water comprises most of food's volume, carefully removing it is the key to protecting the food's nutrient content. In the food industry, there are several methods of drying foods. These include sun drying, hot-air drying, drum drying, spray drying and freeze-drying.

Sun and hot-air drying cause significant loss of valuable nutrients resulting in dramatic loss of aroma, flavor and color. An important group of phytonurtients, the carotenoids (these include not just beta carotene, but lycopene, lutein and zeaxanthine), is one example of significant nutrients lost in these processes. In addition, there is a major loss of certain vitamins, such as C from heat and B2 from light. Drum drying uses higher temperatures, resulting in even more loss.

Various freeze-drying methods produce high-quality dehydrated products with excellent retention of nutrients (and therefore aroma, taste and color). The cost of freeze-drying can be up to 10 times the cost of using high-heat drying. Unfortunately, most of the dried foods in the market are not freeze-dried – one reason they show little or no levels of common nutrients.

Overall, freeze-drying retains significant levels of antioxidants and phytonutrients over all other methods. This is especially true for polyphenols – those powerful phytonutrients that include herperetin, diadzein, naringin, tangeretin, anthocyanins and other flavonoids.

Alpha Organics uses freeze-drying in order to offer you a supplement that is naturally rich in the delicate nutrients which otherwise are damaged or destroyed by common manufacturing processes.