STEER Lifesciences Launches Next-Gen Functional Food Ingredients

STEER World, a global leader in materials transformation technology, today announced through its Lifesciences arm, STEERLife, a novel platform for advanced ingredient solutions. As a Contract Development and Manufacturing Organisation (CDMO), STEERLife's solutions are tailored for the evolving needs of the Indian Functional Food Industry, a market projected to reach approximately USD 25.38 billion by 2030 (with a 10% CAGR from 2024 to 2030), driven by increasing consumer health consciousness and demand for functional products. 

With a focus on enhancing ingredient functionality, STEER World’s Lifesciences arm is helping brands overcome long-standing R&D challenges like poor solubility, poor dispersibility, ingredient bitterness and stability. STEER World’s technologies tackle these issues head-on to unlock new possibilities for product performance and shelf life.

In a market that’s increasingly fast-paced and consumer-driven, ingredients are the backbone of new product development. “Functionalizing ingredients is no longer optional; it is essential. Through our proprietary technologies, we’re enabling ingredient transformation at levels as desired by the end user to improve product performance, stability, and sensory outcomes,” said Dr. Pavitra Kumar, Head - Food Business Division at STEER World's Lifesciences arm.

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Technology-Powered Ingredient Innovation

STEER World's Lifesciences arm, STEERLife, leverages proprietary Hot Melt Extrusion (HME) and Continuous Granulation technologies to offer food and nutraceutical brands a novel, solvent-free platform to enhance and re-engineer ingredient functionality for improved formulation success.

Currently, the innovation-driven CDMO is working with several industry-leading companies on:

•  Flavour Encapsulation & Stabilization – For controlled release, extended shelf life and wider applications in the food, nutraceutical and pharma industries.
• Taste Masking of Bitter Actives – Including challenging ingredients like caffeine and bacopa for better palatability and expanded use cases.
• Granulation of Spice Actives – For densification, flow improvement, solubility enhancement and better dispersion in end applications such as capsule compliance.

These ingredient solutions are directly addressing critical formulation roadblocks - improving product shelf life, taste, mouthfeel, bioavailability, and processing characteristics.

A Trusted Innovation Partner for the Industry

Backed by over 30 years of engineering leadership, STEER World, through its Lifesciences arm, brings an unmatched combination of deep R&D expertise, material science know-how and scalable manufacturing infrastructure. As the Indian functional food and nutraceutical market continues its rapid expansion, projected to reach significant milestones in the coming years, STEER World's Lifesciences arm is uniquely positioned to empower food and nutraceutical companies to capitalise on this growth. With the capability to offer both Contract Research & Development as well as Technology Transfer, STEER World's Lifesciences arm is enabling its partners to bring truly differentiated products to market - faster and more efficiently.

“Our advanced solutions are helping R&D teams move beyond the limitations of traditional ingredient formats - enabling cleaner labels, better consumer experiences and long-term product success,” added Indu Bhushan, CEO & Director, STEER World's Lifesciences arm.