Nutrition & Health

Aroma ingredients

BASF is a leading supplier of high-quality and innovative aroma ingredients for the flavor and fragrance industry. We offer a wide variety of aroma ingredients, such as L-menthol, geraniol, citronellol and linalool, which are part of our citral value chain. In 2019, we broadened our portfolio with renewable-based natural ingredients by acquiring Isobionics^®. We are committed to a sustainable future by providing aroma products with a significant sustainability contribution. Our offers focus on a reduced product carbon footprint and include upcycled and renewable alternatives via BASF’s biomass balance approach. Our aroma ingredients are sold to the flavor and fragrance industry for use mainly in home and personal care products, in fine fragrances and in the food industry. Our global production network – comprising world-scale plants in Ludwigshafen, Germany; Kuantan, Malaysia; as well as one currently under construction in Zhanjiang, China – puts us in a unique position to ensure the highest level of supply security.

Nutrition ingredients

BASF is one of the leading suppliers of feed additives for livestock and companion animals. With decades of experience in the feed sector, in development, production and application, we place particular importance on delivering the highest quality for the benefit of humans and animals alike. Our focus is on supplying the feed industry with highly effective products like vitamins such as vitamin A and E, carotenoids, enzymes and organic acids. We offer our customers ingredients that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve resource efficiency as well as animal wellbeing.

Our ingredients for human nutrition comprise high-quality vitamins, such as vitamin A, E, B₂ and carotenoids as well as food and health performance ingredients, such as plant sterols or conjugated linoleic acids. They show performance excellence in a variety of applications in strategic market segments such as functional nutrition, dietary supplements, colorants for food and beverages as well as pharmaceutical applications. For specific vitamin A and E products, we offer product carbon footprints (PCFs) that are at least 20% better than the global market average.² In our food fortification initiative, our health ingredients help fortify staple foods to combat micronutrient deficiencies across the world.

Pharma solutions

In pharma solutions, we produce innovative excipients and active ingredients of outstanding quality and performance. Our portfolio comprises not only functional excipients, but also active pharmaceutical ingredients and nutritional ingredients. We offer a diverse range of ibuprofen and omega-3 grades, in addition to other actives including L-menthol, PVP-iodine, azelaic acid and dexpanthenol.

With digital solutions such as the Virtual Pharma Assistants and a global team of industry experts, BASF supports its customers in developing efficient, cost-effective and reliable formulations. Equipped with an in-depth understanding of multiple technologies and applications, we have the knowledge and resources to make biologics and drug manufacturing as well as delivery safer and more sustainable.

2 Data source BASF’s product carbon footprints: BASF’s Strategic CO₂ Transparency Tool (SCOTT), July 2023; Data sources for producers: BASF own estimations on bill of materials and energies (in-house technology and business intelligence experts); market average weighted – based on nameplate capacities without BASF; stating >20% reflects safety buffer to account for degrees of freedom in ISO methods.

The Nutrition & Health division holds one of the top three market positions in almost all strategic business areas in which it is active.

The main competitors (alphabetical order) include Ashland, Croda, DSM-Firmenich, IFF, NHU and ZMC.

Together with our customers and partners, we continuously work on translating ideas into innovations. Ongoing process innovation ensures technological and cost leadership in our major product lines.

Thousand metric tons per year

1 All capacities are included 100%, including plants belonging to joint operations and joint ventures

From 2021 onward

From 2021 onward

Excipient Kollitab™ DC 87 L maximizes flowability and tablet strength

Our BASF Pharma Solutions team has introduced Kollitab™ DC 87 L, a co-processed excipient optimized for direct compression processes. The excipient is designed to maximize flowability and tablet strength, with a formulation that has high stability and low sensitivity to overblending. Its round particle shape ensures excellent flowability from feeder hoppers and during tableting, for high process robustness and low tablet weight variability. Kollitab™ DC 87 L can produce strong tablets across a broad range of compression forces, reducing both stress and punch damage on the tablet press, for better machine durability and less tablet defects. This product ensures fast tablet disintegration to quickly deliver the intended benefits of active pharmaceutical ingredients. This is especially valuable for high-strength tablets that tend to take longer to disintegrate.