How we blend our ingredients…

    In my previous blog entry I mentioned that I would show you how we blend our ingredients to ensure that we get an even mix.  The best way to do this is to show you a video of the blender in action.  It is quite an interesting piece of equipment.  We use two of them.

    The reason why we selected this type of equipment is because ‘normal’ blenders use ‘paddles’ to mix the powders which can result in stratification, which means that heavier particles will settle to the bottom of the blender and thus cause unevenness in the mix which would account for some products are reported as either having too much of one ingredient or not enough of another.

    This type of blender does not have any baffles and relies on gravity to mix the powders.  It removes any risk of stratification.

    Because we use so many different ingredients we have a complex blending protocol.  This involves a system of blending certain groups of ingredients, then adding others at certain stages.  In some respects it is a little like baking a cake in which the order you put the ingredients in makes a difference to the end results.  This is why in the days when baking a cake was somewhat of an art, some people could bake a good cake whereas others using the same ingredients got poor results.

    Our blending protocol has been carefully established and is followed meticulously to ensure that all our ‘cakes’ are good and meet the standards.

    The short video below shows the blender in action.

    7 Responses

    very interresting !

    fady June 26 2011

    I must admit that is impressive stuff.

    wes July 18 2011

    Very smart. I am curious as to how long the blender runs in the mixing cycle and how many blenders xtend-life has in total?

    Randy Patrick June 25 2011

    I often wondered about the mixing process. The more I read your newsletters the more confident I become with your products. Always very informative articles.

    Phyll June 24 2011

    Incredible equipment. As a chemical engineer I am impressed! I’ve always wondered how you got all the ingredients together.

    Keith July 18 2011

    That’s pretty cool and so clean.

    Mike June 23 2011

    Hi Randy,

    We have two of these blenders. The one that you see in the video and a smaller capacity one. The blending process varies depending upon the product being produced. The most complex is for the Total Balance products. We also have another V blender which we had made originally but we never use it now.

    It takes us about four hours to blend each batch of Total Balance. This is because we divide the ingredients into various groups based not only on type (amino acids, herbals etc) but also density. It is very much like baking a cake…we put so many ingredients in…mix them…stop the machine, add the next lot of ingredients and mix and so on.

    With each product we prepare a blending protocol based on taking samples at various stages and sending them to the lab for testing the blend for uniformity.

    Warren Matthews June 27 2011

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