Ashland is taking aim at the fast-growing global nutraceuticals market by combining its nutrition business with the ingredients processing expertise of recently acquired Pharmachem. The combined unit, which will be called Health and Wellness, will continue to report up through Ashland’s Specialty Ingredients segment.

“Our plan is to fulfill the growing needs of a thriving and ever-changing global marketplace for nutraceutical products, including dietary supplements, food and beverages,” said David Neuberger, group vice president, pharmaceutical, nutrition and agriculture. “We intend to harness the synergy created between Ashland and Pharmachem to help us fully capitalize on emerging trends in the nutraceutical marketplace and food-based supplements.”

He added: “We are combining the expertise and knowledge of two great companies and expanding our functional food platform on a global basis. It will enable us to utilize Ashland’s comprehensive food science capabilities, along with Pharmachem’s advanced ingredient process services expertise, to develop innovative new products for the nutra-food and beverage industry.”

Colin MacIntyre, Pharmachem executive vice president and general manager, said: “Ashland’s technical knowledge of food science will add a valuable new dimension to our ingredient processing capabilities, and enable the new division to respond quickly and seamlessly to the needs of brand marketers.”

Ashland has helped customers address global trends in food and beverage development – from stabilizing sugar reduced beverages to adapting foods for gluten-free diets.