Formulation science and technology

Formulated products are everywhere

As consumers we find formulated products everywhere in our daily lives. The great majority of pharmaceutics, cleaning, food, coatings and agrochemical products are actually examples of products whose function is the result from a great deal of formulation work.     

A formulated product consists of at least two ingredients (but often as many as 20 or 30 – just look at the ingredient list on the bottle of your shampoo) which are chosen, processed and combined in a specific way to result in a product with tailor-made properties such as texture, consistency, function and stability. The whole is always more than the sum of its parts in a well-formulated product.  

From art to science

Over the last decades the formulation work has evolved from being considered an art to become a well-stablished area of science and technology. The industries are now aware that a good understanding of the chemical principles that govern the interactions between the different ingredients through the lifetime of the product leads to products with better consumer acceptance and higher value for the end-user.  It is in this way that, for example,  the work currently being carried out in the context of NextBioForm, a four year project around formulation of biological drug products, aims at contributing to better health and health care.          

RISE works with development of all types of formulations (liquid, solid and semi-solid) through:

• product design, choice of ingredients and preparation processes
• characterisation of formulations properties (both microstructure and functionality)
• troubleshooting for better functionality and stability
• tech-transfer upon production process upscaling

Function, substitution and perception

RISE delivers research and innovation projects within a range of topics such as formulation for sustained and controlled release of actives, substitution of problematic substances, formulation for tailor-made consumer perception, strategies for protection of sensitive active substances and incorporation of new bio-based materials in formulated products.    

At RISE, we work extensively with formulation development and production for the pharmaceutical industries. But we also work towards a wide range of industrial sectors including the foods, cosmetics, personal care, paints, inks and coatings sectors as well as with the chemical industries sector in general.