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Freeze-drying, or lyophilization, in its simplest definition is a process that removes moisture by freezing a product & then utilising a vacuum to remove the moisture leaving an almost 100% dry product.

Mānuka Pharm freeze-dry technology gently remove the water & locks in all the raw Mānuka honey goodness. It protects the nutritional benefits, flavour & freshness to capture & retain all the goodness. Our freeze-dried Mānuka Honey powder is made with a careful freeze-drying process that skips the liquid stage & goes straight from ice to vapor (sublimation). Not only does it ensure that the honey powder has no flavour lost, but it also preserves the nutrients & freshness.

During the process, the raw Mānuka honey goes into the freeze-dryer & is frozen. All the water turns to ice. Then under low pressure & controlled cold temperatures the ice turns directly into water vapour which evaporates without thawing. The scientific name for this is sublimation.

The low-water-content Mānuka honey powder left behind is much lighter, yet still resembles the original food in colours & nutrients.

Studies have shown that freeze-dried foods often retain over 90% of the original fresh food's nutrition, much more than other drying techniques (air-drying, heat-drying) which usually damage micronutrients & phytonutrients — as easily seen by the large changes in the food's colors ^1-3

1. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0889157517300418

2. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10408398.2015.1045969?journalCode=bfsn20

3. https://ift.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-2621.1999.tb15943.x

Simply put our freeze-dry technology is a smart technology for fountain of youth for food.

Our decision was based on 4 key criteria: Process + Taste + Nutrition + Convenience

Process

• It operates at low temperatures, which contributes to preserving a product’s nutritional value, taste, appearance & heat-sensitive compounds
• Preserve the natural enzymes of raw fresh ingredients. Because our freeze-dry technology allows for a process that uses low temperatures to remove water, appearance, nutritional content & potency remain as close to fresh as possible
• Removing water inhibits chemical & microbiological processes, which significantly delays the product’s deterioration (thereby extending its shelf life)
• The lower temperatures in the process allow maximal nutrient & bioactive compound retention¹

1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7022747/

Taste

• Tastiest way to preserve flavour: Flavour stays true to the original ingredient
• The flavour is “locked in” by the freeze-dry process

Nutrition

• Preserves the nutrients & freshness
• The nutrients are not damaged by heat processing, thus remain intact & available
• Nutrient dense: Concentrates & locks in the nutritional value

Convenience

• Locking in all the goodness - designed to make having your daily Mānuka convenient, nutritious & easy
• Formulated as a once-daily nutrient boost, designed to support your wellbeing
• A daily spoonful provides your body with nature’s daily dose of nutrient dense goodness

A weight comparison between fresh food and freeze-dried products is what makes freeze-dried nutritionally dense.

For example, as a weight for weight comparison between a spoonful of fresh beetroot vs a spoonful of freeze-dried beetroot: you get higher in nutrition value from the freeze-dried spoonful as all the goodness is concentrated with the removal of water.

Removing water also slows the degradation of nutrients like vitamins & minerals over time. The phytonutrients & enzymes naturally occurring in the dry products are stabilised.

Freeze-drying is one of the best preservation processes to keep the quality of the food near identical to fresh food; this is due to the sublimation of water under low temperatures. These two aspects (low temperature under vacuum & lack of water) stop almost all degradation in food.
The freeze-drying process doesn't make food healthy or unhealthy as freeze-drying does not add anything to the food – freeze drying only removes the water content from the food.

No. They are completely different. While freeze-dried food does involve a freezing step, the finished product is not a frozen product. Frozen food must be kept frozen & has a shorter best by life. Freeze-dried food is shelf stable & can have a longer shelf life.

No. We do not add any chemicals or sulphites to our freeze-dried powders. Sulphite is commonly added to dehydrated fruits & vegetables as a preservative for colour & Vitamin C. This additive changes the flavour & is known to cause digestion upset in some sensitive groups.

Store in a cool, dry place. Reseal after use.
As we use real freeze-dried fruits, vegetables & honey in our products, mild clumping may occur if moisture gets into the pot. If this happens, simply give your blend a stir to loosen.

Remember to scoop your daily serving with a clean dry spoon.

SPOON – STIR – SIP – SIMPLE: START EVERYDAY WELLNESS

Always use a clean dry spoon for every fresh scoop. 1 spoonful daily made your way: in 100ml of water or in smoothies, yoghurt, breakfast bowls & more Try serving with ice on a hot day. Or try adding into your smoothie or yoghurt or sprinkle over your breakfast bowl to enhance the flavour. Just avoid mixing it with boiling water - it can destroy the vitamins.

Enjoy one serving a day. Remember, as with any supplement - consistency is key!

Mānuka Pharm Freeze-Dried Mānuka Honey + Superfood Powders provide a range of nutrients from natural superfoods through just a spoonful a day – quick, tasty and convenient. We make adding a spoonful of goodness to your day easy.

Balanced diet & healthy lifestyle

The powders aren’t designed to replace a whole & varied diet—you still need to eat those fruit & vegetables—but the powder gives a boost to your dietary intake & overall health as part of a healthy lifestyle.

Remember to scoop your daily spoonful with a clean dry spoon.
We are committed to creating quality 1 spoon a day products using the highest quality ingredients, with no artifical colours or flavours. Using freeze-dried fruit & vegetable powders, occassionally the powder may become slightly dense in the container. This is completely natural – simply stir to loosen prior to scooping your spoonful.

Because we use all natural superfoods, sometimes they need a helping hand to dissolve in your glass. We recommend giving them a good stir or shake.

Enjoy one serving a day. Remember, as with any supplement - consistency is key!

BOOSTER & RECOVER are not designed to be suitable for children under 4 years of age.

DEFEND is not designed to be suitable for children under 14 years of age.

They are all formulated with adult based daily recommendations of Vitamin & Mineral levels as per New Zealand guidelines¹.

POWER has no added vitamins or minerals and is therefore safe for over 12 months of age.

1. https://www.health.govt.nz/publication/nutrient-reference-values-australia-and-new-zealand

You are probably wondering what this MGO number is that you see so prominently displayed on the jar.

It is the “powerful something” behind the naturally occurring beneficial antibacterial qualities that can be found in Mānuka honey. Essentially, these numbers show the strength and potency of the delicious product you can add to your daily routine.

MGO stands for methylglyoxal and it is the chemical compound, naturally formed in Mānuka honey that causes many of the beneficial wellbeeing® effects.

Mānuka is highly scientifically researched. Most literature points to the potential importance of honey for medicinal purposes. The research data confirms that Mānuka honey's antibacterial activity, in comparison to non-Mānuka honey, is due to a higher phenolic and methylglyoxal (MGO) content.

The MGO rating is established through an independent scientific chemical analysis of the naturally occurring Methylglyoxal (MGO) present in the honey, which indicates the activity level of the honey as expressed on the label. Every batch of Mānuka undergoes extensive, independent testing to ensure that it is true to label.

The MGO rating of the honey is expressed as the numerical value on the front of the pot which represents how many mg per kg of MGO (Methylglyoxal) are present in that batch of honey.

For example, a rating of MGO 110+ means there is at least 110mg per kg of MGO present in that batch of honey.

Either way, you can’t go wrong with the hundreds of years of wisdom and new science that shows the way to not only enjoy Mānuka but to use it to help keep ourselves healthy.

Reference:

Grainger M, Owens A, Manley-Harris M, et al. Kinetics of conversion of dihydroxyacetone to methylglyoxal in New Zealand Mānuka honey: Part IV – Formation of HMF. Food Chemistry. 2017;232:648-655.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2017.04.066

AIMS Microbiol. 2018; 4(4): 655–664.Published online 2018 Nov 27. doi: 10.3934/microbiol.2018.4.655

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31294240/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28234328/

In the honey industry, especially in New Zealand, there has been an insurgence of honey products being labelled as “raw” and for each brand that applies this term, there is a different definition of what “raw” means to them. In essence, multiple conflicting “definitions” of “raw honey” exist, that have been made up by the producers, suiting their existing practices. Without a set definition, it has been a free-for-all to apply the descriptor “raw” to their honey products at will.

For us at Mānuka Pharm, we didn’t want to label or just apply the term “raw” without having a robust understanding and definition that we could attribute to it. This led us to finding an organisation that provided certification which applied a systems-based approach to establish a standard which we felt would make our customers feel they were getting the best quality products.

Mānuka Pharm is proud carry the “Certified R.A.W” Certification mark.

The C.L.E.A.N. & R.A.W. food certification was facilitated by Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai, an MIT trained Systems Biologist who graduated from the Department of Biological Engineering, formerly known as the Department of Food and Nutrition Science.

A Systems Based Approach
The consortium of industry leaders, with the leadership of Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai, employed a multi-criterion, systems-based approach in arriving at the critical elements underlying the Certified R.A.W. standards. Three important principles emerged from this systems-based analysis. One principle was that the product must be minimally processed, second, the ingredients in the product must be Bioavailable, and the third was that it should be Safe.

What Is Certified R.A.W.?
For products to be Certified R.A.W.:

• They must be "Real." The Real element was captured by the criteria that the product must be 100% safe and must have all non-GMO ingredients.
• They must be "Alive." The notion of Alive was denoted by the level of bioavailability of the combination of ingredients in the product, determined using a bioinformatics approach currently enabled through the CytoSolve® technology.
• They must be "Whole." The element of Whole was captured by two criteria:
• The level of organic ingredients
• The ANDI nutrient score