A stable vitamin A ingredient designed for large-scale food fortification has cleared commercial-scale process validation, moving it a meaningful step closer to active procurement by fortification programs worldwide. Particles for Humanity and Hexagon Nutrition announced the completed manufacturing transfer and validation of PFH-VAP — to be sold as VIT A+ — following a campaign conducted at Hexagon's India facility that replaces prior production at LIS by Lesaffre's site in France.
For food and beverage operators, ingredient buyers, and procurement teams working in fortification-adjacent categories, this is a supply-chain development worth tracking. VIT A+ was specifically engineered to maintain vitamin A stability through storage and cooking conditions common in low- and middle-income markets — conditions that routinely degrade conventional vitamin A palmitate in applications like bouillon, flour, and sugar.
Scale and Supply Access
Each commercial-scale batch produces enough VIT A+ to fortify 600 million servings of food — a figure that signals this is not a specialty or limited-run ingredient. The India-based manufacturing shift is expected to reduce production costs and improve supply-chain resilience for buyers serving emerging markets, where vitamin A deficiency burden remains elevated and large-scale fortification programs are active procurement channels. Sherri C. Oberg, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Particles for Humanity, framed the milestone as positioning PFH-VAP for its next commercialization phase, noting years of cross-disciplinary collaboration among scientists, engineers, and manufacturing partners.
Hexagon Nutrition's Managing Director Vikram Kelkar described the validation as evidence that VIT A+ can be manufactured reliably at scale, pointing to the broader fortification ecosystem — millers, bouillon producers, sugar refiners, and institutional buyers — as the intended customer base.
What This Signals for Ingredient Procurement
For procurement teams and R&D buyers evaluating micronutrient premix suppliers, the completed transfer removes a key qualification risk. Process validation at commercial scale — rather than pilot or development batches — means buyers can move toward supplier qualification conversations with an established quality baseline already in place. Hexagon Nutrition's existing export footprint across more than 70 countries also provides distribution infrastructure that buyers in Africa, South Asia, and Latin America typically require before committing to a new ingredient source.
The move also reflects a broader shift in how nutrition-science companies are approaching ingredient commercialization: aligning manufacturing with end-market geography from the outset rather than retrofitting supply chains after initial market entry. Operators and ingredient buyers following fortification mandates — particularly in markets where governments are expanding mandatory fortification programs — should include VIT A+ in their next vendor landscape review. For context on how ingredient innovation is reshaping procurement decisions across the supply chain, see our coverage of emerging ingredient supplier strategies and micronutrient trends in foodservice procurement.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
