Vitamin supplements may be obtained from animal or plant products or synthetically produced in a lab through the use of chemical reactions. For instance. you can derive vitamin A from fish liver oil, or synthesize it from acetone. In a similar fashion, vitamin C may be obtained from rose hips or citrus fruits or synthesize from keto acid.
It is easy to artificially synthesize vitamin supplements that are commercially available since it is easier to obtain raw materials for them compared to natural ones. It is critical to note that there are no chemical differences between vitamins that are produced synthetically and purified ones that are manufactured from animal or plant sources.
Does Each Type Of Vitamin Supplement Have A Different Manufacturing Process?
No matter what kind of vitamin you are planning on producing or whether you will be using natural raw materials or chemicals the manufacturing process for vitamins will be the same. So the process of manufacturing vitamin D3 supplements and manufacturing vitamin C supplements are the same. The delivery format – tablet or powder – and the raw material that is used are the only differences. However, the core process for manufacturing vitamins remains the same.
Average Lead Time To Manufacture Dietary Supplements
What Is Involved In the Vitamin Supplements Manufacturing Process?
There are 10 essential steps that are followed by the vitamin production process, depending on the specific vitamin that you are attempting to produce, the raw materials used will vary.
Formulation
What type of vitamins are you wanting to introduce into the marketplace? Depending on what your answer is, you can determine the right dose of raw materials included in your ingredients and provide an evidence-based supplement that is backed up with the appropriate functional and structural claims.
Preliminary Checks
The second source is to find vendors to source high-quality materials and ingredients. Other ingredients include those essential substances that play various roles, like flow agents, fillers, binders, etc., and vary based on whether the finished product you are producing is a tablet, capsule, or powder.
Reputable raw material vendors provide a Certificate of Analysis to contract manufacturers. These certificates are declarations of the material’s purity and content. A majority of multivitamin manufacturers will do their own checking of raw materials or have them sent off to an independent lab to be analyzed. If you are making a natural vitamin supplement that contains, they need to be sampled for potency and identity, along with heavy metal content and any potential bacterial contamination.
Pre-blending
Normally raw materials are received in fine powder form and might not need any preliminary process. If the ingredients come not finely granulated, then they will be put through a mill and then ground up. There are some vitamins that come in a preblended form and contain a filler ingredient such as maltodextrin or microcrystalline in order to produce granules that are more event to simply the processing steps that follow. Whenever laboratory technicians are working with new ingredients, test batches might be produced in order to determine if it is necessary to do any pre-blending.
Wet Granulation
Particle size plays a critical role in vitamin tablets in terms of how well the formula you are creating will go through a tableting machine. If the distributor sends vitamins milled to the right size for tableting, then a wet granulation step is not necessary. Otherwise, fine vitamin powder will be mixed with various cellulose particles, wetted down, and then dried inside of a dryer. After it has dried your formula might be in chunks. if this is the case, then you will need to run the powder through a mill to make sure it is the right size. To produce the desired size of granule, the powder is sent through a small hole.
Mixing and Weighing
After the vitamin ingredients have been prepared, they get weighed on a scale. The required weight of all the ingredients is listed on the formula batch records. After the ingredients are weighed, they are put inside of a mixer for around 15-30 minutes. Then samples are taken from various sides of the mixer so they can be inspected to ensure the even proportion and distribution of all the ingredients. Whenever a large batch is being made the first three to four mixer slots are periodically checked and re-checked.
Encapsulation
After the batch inside the mixer is approved, the mix gets transferred to an encapsulating machine and placed in a hopper. A test batch is initially run through an encapsulating machine to make sure the capsules are consistent and have the right weight. Then the finished vitamin mix gets compressed into tablets. There is sometimes a coating added, or it may be encapsulated within preformed gelatin depending on what the requirements of the brand owner are. The vitamin capsules get visually checked for any dimpling or splitting. If no errors are shown by the test, then the whole batch gets run through the process.
Encapsulation
After the batch inside the mixer is approved, the mix gets transferred to an encapsulating machine and placed in a hopper. A test batch is initially run through an encapsulating machine to make sure the capsules are consistent and have the right weight. Then the finished vitamin mix gets compressed into tablets. There is sometimes a coating added, or it may be encapsulated within preformed gelatin depending on what the requirements of the brand owner are. The vitamin capsules get visually checked for any dimpling or splitting. If no errors are shown by the test, then the whole batch gets run through the process.
Tableting
Rotating tables have holes fitted on their outer edges to hold dies that are in the desired tablet shape (animal, round, oval, etc). The dies are interchangeable. Therefore, as long as appropriate dies are installed, you can select the shape. The die is filled with vitamin powder coming from the filling station. Once the table has rotated, the filled die will transform into a punch press. There will be 4-10 tons of pressure placed on the vitamin powder when the two halves of the punch come together. This compresses the vitamin powder into a compact tablet form. How many tablets can be produced per minute will be determined by the table’s speed of rotation. Once the tablets are compressed, they get ejected to a vibrating belt so any loose dust can be removed.
Coating
Solid tablets are transported away from the tableting area and put inside a coating pan. This is a wide rotating pan that is pump-operated and surrounded by 1 to 6 spray guns. A coating is sprayed over the tablets by the pumps as they are revolving inside the pan.
Labeling and Packaging
Coated vitamin tablets get passed through a series of machines within the packaging area. These machines count the number of tablets or capsules that are required per bottle. The tablets or capsules fall inside of a battle which then gets passed onto succeeding machines for sealing, capping, labeling, and shrink-wrapping. Every bottle gets labeled with an expiration date, recommended usage information, and its contents. The finished bottles are placed into boxes and can then be shipped out.
Quality Control
At numerous stages throughout the manufacturing process quality checks are performed to ensure the highest quality supplements possible are produced. Before use, all vitamin capsule or tablet ingredients are checked for potency and identity.
Steps Taken Throughout the Quality Control Process
Strict testing procedures are adhered to
Thorough testing is done for contaminants and ingredient purity
Comprehensive monitoring schedules are used
Analytical chemistry-based lab analyses are conducted
Ensure that good manufacturing practices (GMPs) are followed
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How are vitamins manufactured?
A: After you decide what type of vitamins you would like to produce, the manufacturing process includes sourcing ingredients, pre-blending, wet granulation, mixing and weighing, encapsulating, inspecting, polishing, coating, tableting, labeling, and packaging. Process quality checks are performed at various stages of the manufacturing process to ensure the production of the highest quality supplements.
Q: What are vitamins made from?
A: A vitamin supplement is made out of either nutrient that come from natural sources (like minerals, animals, or vegetables) from nature-identical synthetics (these are nature-identical molecular structures that are produced in laboratories), absolute synthetics (made in labs but vary from nutrients that are naturally found), bacterial fermentation (bacteria that is genetically altering), food-based, or food culture (grown in algae or yeast).
Final Notes For Custom Vitamin Supplement Manufacturing Processes
Since vitamin manufacturing is very intricate in nature, numerous new owners prefer to partner with a reputable and experienced contract manufacturer. This will allow them to be guided through each step in the process. Custom formulation manufacturing processes will usually take 3 to 4 weeks on re-order and existing orders and 6 to 8 weeks on new orders. Lead times can be affected by such factors are raw material availability, how many bottles you would like to produce, and the kind of product you want to manufacture.