At-home device for reconstituting, heating and dispensing powder-based food and drinks from a single-serve pod

Challenge

Our client wanted to get a consistent, complete and cost-effective dispense of powder-based food and drink from a simple consumable. To include dispensing to the right concentration; lump & bubble-free; effective at different temperatures

Approach

• Sagentia’s chemists worked around the principles of dissolution and dispersion. The impact on solubility of factors such as surface fat; powder age; salt ion content; residual moisture and the manufacturing process were investigated
• The team explored options to avoid clumping, discounting any options that involved dead-spots within the pod as well as the use of stirring and agitation, which helped break up clumped material

Benefit

• We delivered a low cost, non-contacting, novel dispensing appliance for effectively dispensing powder-based food and drinks to a consistently high quality
• Using a unique water injection technique, the device met the requirements for dispensing a lump-free, low foam product, using all of the available powder and without risk of blocking